If a profession ever needed to take centre stage in this era of twisted, bent, half- and fabricated "truths", it's the fact-checker.
More than someone who merely fires up a search engine or drags out dusty hardbound newspapers from the archives, the fact-checker is an investigator and analyst, a verifier, a bastion and a BS filter rolled into one.
With the mere act of documenting events and speaking truth to power under siege globally, with self-proclaimed "authorities" on every subject reducing once-undeniable facts to opinions, the job would seem to be on the highly imperiled list.
So it's nice to see fact-checkers not only front and centre in the comedy-thriller Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, but also watching its central character put her skills to use in tackling its central mystery.
Paula Saunders (Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black, She-Hulk) is a divorced mother in the middle of a bitter custody fight over her daughter Hazel (Nola Wallace).
Given that her feckless ex Karl (Jake Johnson, New Girl) and his unscrupulous new wife Mallory (Jessy Hodges, Indebted) will stop at nothing to win, Paula needs to tread carefully.
Only she doesn't, making one dodgy decision after another – not just confined to current events, as a flashback tells us.
Finding solace in the rented charms and comforting words of webcam boy Trevor (Brandon Flynn), Paula is suddenly (though not unexpectedly) caught in a blackmail scam.
When she is implicated in a death next, she also lands in the crosshairs of NYPD detectives Gonzalez (a delightful Dolly de Leon) and Baxter (Jon Michael Hill, Elementary), as well as in the sights of a ruthless killer named Trevor (Murray Bartlett, The White Lotus).
What can she do against such troubles and trials? Why, enlist the help of fellow fact-checkers Geri (Kiarra Hamagami Goldberg) and Rudy (Charlie Hall) to get to the bottom of this whole scam/blackmail/murder ring, and give us one thoroughly entertaining episode after another in the process.
Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, created by David J. Rosen (Us & Them, with Gilmore Girl Alexis Bledel), hooks you from the outset with its naughtiness (that never quite descends into sleaze), warmth (Paula and Hazel's sweet, loving bond), abrupt turns, and tension from its unspooling mystery.
The writing is sharper than in your run-of-the-mill procedural/mystery, but it's Maslany who commands attention – and more than a thimbleful of viewer sympathy/empathy – as Paula's life spirals out of control at an uneven pace and from unexpected angles.
While Paula runs a gauntlet of adversity, Maslany makes good on every expected emotion and reaction, including the requisite squaring of the jaw and an almost palpable slouching of the soul in moments of deep despair. Heck, she even convinces us to buy into some truly eye-rolling acts on the harried heroine's part.
It's also enough to help us breeze past some of the baffling plotting (a ludicrous confrontation with the scammers in a motel that's being remodelled) and annoying one-dimensionality of key characters like Mallory and a certain scam co-conspirator, even if the performers do their best with the limitations.
Fact: At a length generally hovering around the half-hour mark per episode, the show also doesn't suffer from bloat.
Opinion: If some sequences/situations seem agonisingly stretched out, it's mostly because we are right there rooting for Paula to get through them.
My truth: This one really took me by surprise, turning a seedy-sounding premise into an ultimately satisfying, more-wholesome-than-expected tale with a lead character who rises above her foibles to be one of the year's most relatable, laudable small-screen heroes.
All 10 episodes of Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed are available on Apple TV+.
Summary:
Just the facts, ma'am.
