Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed review: Stressful black comedic thriller is chaos, but managed chaos

Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is stressful.

Not white knuckle, ill feeling in your stomach anxious, but queasy enough that sometimes you just have to stand up, take a deep breath and shake it out.

So many things go wrong in this thriller/comedy/drama streaming series, it’s surprising that its protagonist, Paula Sanders (Tatiana Maslany), ever manages to make it home and to bed.

She’s not a super spy being chased by an international cabal, she’s not a high level chief executive trying to fend off a hostile takeover, she’s not even a wedding planner trying to pull off a 500-head reception.

Paula is like someone you know, a normie. She’s a fact checker for a publication. She’s a single mum still fighting for custody against her ex-husband (Jake Johnson) who wants to move their daughter to a different state. She’s lonely and doesn’t have that many friends.

So Paula has been seeking companionship with a cam-boy, an online sex worker who she pays by the hour. Trevor (Brandon Flynn) listens to Paula like no one else in her life, and she confides in him all her stuff. Big mistake.

During one session, Paula watches as a masked figure breaks into Trevor’s home, assaults him and then seemingly abducts him. She’s recorded the encounter and reports it to the cops but Detective Sofia Gonzalez (Dolly de Leon, from Triangle of Sadness) has seen it before, and tells Paula to look out for a scam call, asking for at least $10,000 or Trevor is going to be further hurt.

The call comes, but then everything goes tits up.

Before long, Paula has stumbled across a murder scene, barely makes her escape, is suspected of said killing, and becomes embroiled in a plot so dangerous, she’s only half-aware how deep it goes.

The tension of Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is just how easily someone “normal” could be caught in a bonkers web. It’s how the show takes what should be banal – an office job, a backyard birthday party, kids football games – with high stakes peril.

The fast-paced and close-up editing in some scenes is a masterclass in creating suspense.

Part of the danger is circumstances throw her some curveballs, but the other part is she is a bit of a high-strung person who can’t leave things alone. That’s not a bad thing, and in many ways, you won’t disagree with her choice to pursue things from which you would steer clear.

It’s a combination of stuff happening to her and stuff she’s made happen, but it’s underpinned by this sense that life is a bit unfair.

Her ex-husband is not an outright dirtbag but you can see the little things about him that has made it harder for Paula, and her colleagues (Charlie Hall and Kiarra Hamagami Goldberg) are both hindrances and helpers.

It’s chaos, but it’s managed chaos. Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, created by David J. Rosen, never loses the many threads it’s weaving. That confidence and competence is rare in a story with so many parts.

We haven’t mentioned yet Murray Bartlett who plays the closest to an outright antagonist but the less you know about him going in, the better. Everyone else can be a bit crappy in their behaviour, but most people are in real life, right?

Maslany’s talents as an actor is crucial to why this series works. She won an Emmy for best actress a decade ago for Orphan Black, a Canadian sci-fi drama which asked her to play over a dozen distinct clones, each with their own personality and physicality.

Here, she embodies a character who seems almost addicted to panic but probably tells herself she would love nothing more than a chill spa day. That push-and-pull, and the way Paula propels herself through this story is what makes it so fascinating to watch.

Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed treats the viewer like the story treats Paula, it surprises and throws you around, but it’s enthralling, you always want back in.

Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is streaming on Apple TV