There’s a bit of a midcentury modern trend in television this year—there’s the Truman Capote–focused second season of Feud; the Paris-set Christian Dior series The New Look; Ripley, about “a grifter scraping by in early 1960s New York”; and Palm Royale, the Apple TV+ series starring Kristin Wiig, set in high-society Palm Beach in 1969.
Whereas the other series have a grittier take on the postwar era, Palm Royale finds its comedic roots in its star. Wiig plays Maxine Simmons, an underdog trying to make it in the exclusive world of late-’60s Palm Beach, Florida. Her hair is high and her dreams are big as she does her best to blend in with a cohort of people who are less than accepting of outsiders. Per a logline, as Maxine attempts to cross that impermeable line between the haves and the have-nots, Palm Royale asks the same question that still baffles us today: How much of yourself are you willing to sacrifice to get what someone else has?
Loosely based on the novel Mr. and Mrs. American Pie, by Juliet McDaniel, the series has a star-studded cast that includes Academy Award winner Laura Dern, Allison Janney, Ricky Martin, Josh Lucas, Leslie Bibb, Amber Chardae Robinson, Mindy Cohn, Julia Duffy, and Kaia Gerber. (The legendary Carol Burnett also makes a guest appearance.)
Kaia Gerber in Palm Royale
The first trailer for the series shows Wiig fighting for her chance to belong at “the Palm Royale, the most exclusive club in the world.” This means doing things like scaling the back of the club’s wall to get in, engaging in blackmail, and bearing the indignity of being told she’s awkward and unlikeable. She soon finds out, as anyone who’s watched a TV show about the secret lives of the upper echelons knows, that Palm Beach is actually “just a shell game,” where everybody has a secret they’re desperately hiding. Watch below:
Palm Royale will debut with its first three episodes on Apple TV+ on March 20, followed by new episodes every Wednesday through May 8.
