Kristin Wiig and the cast of Palm Royale tease what’s in store for the second season of the 1969-set dramedy
It’s time to pull up a chair and pour yourself a grasshopper — Maxine Dellacorte-Simmons (Kristen Wiig) is back at the Palm Royale and you’re going to need a cocktail to keep up with her new adventures. Wiig and the over-the-top amazing cast — including Ricky Martin, Allison Janney, Leslie Bibb and TV legend Carol Burnett — return for more of the frothy 1960s comedy and, as expected, silliness in candy-coloured surroundings ensues.
Yes, Palm Royale has a plot, and it’s a doozy. In season one, Maxine arrives in Palm Beach circa 1969, hoping to gain access to its upper echelon by becoming the caretaker for her husband’s wealthy aunt, Norma Dellacorte (Burnett), a grand dame who spent nearly the entire first season in a coma. From the start, Maxine cleverly creates scenarios allowing her to befriend members of the exclusive Palm Royale country club (including Janney’s Evelyn Rollins and Bibb’s Dinah Donahue), so she can use their secrets to leverage her position. The final step to Maxine’s societal ascent is hosting the extravagant Beach Ball, but as the prestigious event nears, chaos threatens to derail her at every turn.
To make a long story short, we enter the second season knowing that Norma — now wide awake from her coma — is really Agnes, a former boarding school roommate of Norma’s who assumed her identity. We also found out that Maxine’s manicurist and protégé Mitzi (Kaia Gerber) is pregnant courtesy of Maxine’s husband Douglas (Josh Lucas) — and Norma/Agnes can’t wait to use the unborn baby to tear Douglas and Maxine apart.
As for Maxine’s fête of the season — well, if it wasn’t already going steadily downhill when Maxine revealed everyone’s darkest secrets from the Beach Ball stage, it definitely hit the skids when socialite-turned-radical feminist Mary (Newhart alum Julia Duffy) tried to assassinate guest of honour President Richard Nixon. Mary was foiled by Evelyn’s secret stepdaughter-slash-women’s rights activist-slash-Douglas’ ex-fiancé Linda (Laura Dern); Instead of Nixon, the bullet hit Norma’s caretaker Robert (Martin), and it was Linda who was arrested while Mary escaped. Overwhelmed? Confused about how anyone can co-exist from here on? Don’t worry, in the season two premiere everything will come back into focus — but not without a little razzle dazzle to start the show.
Abe Sylvia’s absurdist dramedy is not just a fast-moving vehicle but a continual visual feast that mesmerizes those involved. “It is our own personal Willy Wonka, no doubt about it,” says former Facts of Life star Mindy Cohn, who plays society reporter Anne Holiday. “It’s just deliciousness waiting to happen.” According to Wiig, who also serves as executive producer, production designer Jon Carlos works in tandem with costume designer Alix Friedberg to make sure every detail counts. “The work they do is incredible,” says Wiig. “We did a scene where Jon Carlos pointed out that the colours we were wearing, they had put into the tile in the floor. And there was a scene in a bank last year where there they curated the colour of the fish to match [the characters]. It’s so fun.”
With song-and-dance numbers, quippy one-liners and endless gags, the cast credits series creator and frequent director Sylvia for being their guide through the madness. “I’ve never been on a show like this. It’s such a joy to be able to be on something where you don’t have to worry about, ‘Am I doing too much?’ No, you’re actually not doing enough,” says Amber Chardae Robinson, who plays feminist bookstore owner with a secret, Virginia. “And Abe’s very reassuring when you feel like you’re not [getting it right]. I might be freaking out, but he’s never worried.” Wiig adds that within the creative freedom offered by the broad material is surprising specificity. “Every single theme, tone, relationship, it’s so deliberate,” she says. “Sometimes the circumstances and the dialogue are completely absurd and you just have to find a way to ground yourself. And Abe is just the beacon of light that you go to before every scene.”
Yet all the frivolity would be for nothing if there wasn’t a deeper meaning to the antics of Maxine and her frenemies. For Sylvia, Palm Royale is a farcical take on survival in a society that finds “solutions” for women they deem problematic. “We start off in a place where these women are quite literally trapped, and it’s all about how these marginalized people have to colour outside the lines when the world is trying to keep them captive,” says Sylvia. “The biggest theme of the show, and how we survive in life, is we have to shapeshift. It is all about how, if you live long enough as a woman, you’ll be many people and all of them will be you.”
It’s those undertones that keep both cast and viewers leaning in. “There’s gravitas in all of these one-liners,” says Cohn. “I think people connect to these characters, as broad as they are, because they are firmly grounded in reality and the reality of the day, politically and socially.” Even the theme of belonging is as topical today as it was in the late 1960s. “Everyone wears a mask, in a sense, but what makes the show so rich is that the audience can see what’s underneath it,” says Robinson. “You can see what Maxine is dealing with. You can see what Douglas is dealing with. It’s not just this big circus. You’re looking at people who have layers and I think that’s what makes the show so rich.”
Palm Royale, streaming on Wednesday, December 3 on Apple TV