ATX TV Fest: MAXIMUM PLEASURE GUARANTEED
I’m lucky enough to live in a place where cool things are constantly happening, and this past weekend I had the absolute pleasure of attending the ATX TV Festival, where I consumed inspiring, enticing, exciting television—all from the comfort of my home town. One of my most highly-anticipated and quickly-devoured shows of the year has been Apple TV+’s Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, so imagine my delight when it was announced that ATX TV Fest would be featuring most of the cast, live and in the flesh, for a very special screening and Q&A. As with all Tatiana Maslany-led projects, I knew this show would be thrilling, mysterious, compelling, and well-executed, but I had no idea Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed would be so uniquely, dangerously fun. Maslany stars as Paula Sanders: a fact-checker and recent divorcee, currently navigating an uncomfortable custody battle with her ex-husband, Karl (Jake Johnson) and his new wife, Mallory (Jessy Hodges). Her one source of pleasure seems to be a cam-boy named Trevor (Brandon Flynn), who is kind, respectful, a good listener, and a jaw-droppingly sexy companion when she needs it. Her life is hectic enough as it is, but one night, on a typically-romantic video call, Paula witnesses a man enter Trevor’s apartment and brutally, viciously attack him. Frantic, Paula alerts the police, but Detective Sofia Gonzalez (Dolly de Leon) assures her that this is likely just a scam, wherein Trevor will eventually ask for money in exchange for his safety. And while this game begins to unfold as you’d suspect, Paula discovers that this twisted scheme is even more complicated than it is on the surface.
In order to protect her job, her family, and her future, Paula bravely takes matters into her own hands to uncover the grisly, gory truth. Much more is revealed by the end of episode 1, but in episodes 3 and 4—which were screened to the lucky audience at ATX TV Fest—more details about Trevor’s boyfriend, Dennis (Murray Bartlett) are exposed, and secrets from Paula’s past begin to resurface in disturbing, perplexing ways. It’s hard not to be pulled in by just the title of this series—which creator David J. Rosen stole from a spam email he once received—but the show itself is suspenseful, shocking, sexy, and, as guaranteed, immensely pleasurable. Our digital footprints and online presence(s) are irrevocably, unsettlingly accessible in 2026, and even in the pseudo-intimate setting of a video sex call, this show proves that we’re never truly safe or alone. After the screening, the rowdy crowd was greeted by David J. Rosen, Tatiana Maslany, Jake Johnson, Jessy Hodges, Murray Bartlett, and Brandon Flynn, who offered further insight to the dazzlingly deceptive nature of this show, how frenetically funny the script always was, and how much fun it is to kill and/or be killed on camera—which prompted Jake Johnson to ask, “What the fuck is wrong with you people?” The entire panel was lovely, and the chemistry between all of them was palpable. And though Tatiana Maslany shared how poorly she felt after her audition, she, as always, knocks it out of the park with her portrayal of this somewhat erratic but pretty-much-totally-justified character. Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is a dark, tense, hilarious, perfectly paranoid thrill ride, with more jolts and jockstraps than you’ll ever see coming. Episode 4 drops tomorrow on AppleTV+.
