Kristen Wiig returns to television in new series “Palm Royale”

I'm in. I was wondering what to watch when Feud/Swans is over.

Wow, the wonderful Mindy Cohn!

R1 I’m in also. Looks fun

Looks better than Feud Season 2.

I was sure Bruce Dern was dead.

R2 Stop using hard drugs.

R5 no

It starts this week

The only streaming I don't have is Peacock and Apple and now they both have things I want to watch. It is starting to be as expensive as cable. This looks like competition for The White Lotus.

Itsh looksh sho amashing!!!

It’s nothing like The White Lotus nor on at the same time as White Lotus. So not competing with White Lotus

I'm going to start it when it drops. It'll be fun. Plus I need some sunny desert glam. Especially since my ass hasn't been anywhere this year. Now where're my vintage caftans?

Looks fun

Anyone else watching this tonight? Apple TV dropped the first three episodes early. I just finished episode one and love it so far. It’s campy, goofy and ridiculous.

I watched the pilot episode last night. Apple obviously had a huge production budget. So many names and faces you'll recognize. And the sets, costumes and location shots are exceptionally well done. While the promos might lead you to believe otherwise, it's not a laugh out loud gal-pal comedy ala Bridesmaids. Kristen looks amazing - "well rested" as the press might say. Looking forward to seeing the other episodes just posted.

[QUOTE] The only streaming I don't have is Peacock and Apple and now they both have things I want to watch. It is starting to be as expensive as cable. This looks like competition for The White Lotus.

I thought I wasn’t missing much on Apple TV Plus but they’re working hard to change my mind.

Just finished the premiere. Wildly entertaining, can't wait to watch the rest. Some iffy green screen here and there that cheapens the look, but perhaps that's apropos, given the plot. Kristen makes me laugh with every single facial expression, I just love her.

The actress who played the abortion nurse has goiter, I hope someone told her to see a doctor after the shoot.

R16 Same here. Slow Horses on Apple was slow for me to get into but now I love it - British spy thing. Also Aniston’s Morning Show is camptastic.

This show is boring as hell. Why does it exist?

The acting, especially Wiig, is endless “mugging for the camera”. Just a lot of vapid eye rolls and caftan gowns. Only Ricky Martin delivers some nuance in his performance. Laura Dern is embarrassing as the “rich kid rebel with a cause”.

This is streaming excess. Big budget production full of absolutely nothing substantial episode after episode. Wing’s character truly is annoying. She plays her like the “Target lady” on ketamine.

[quote]Only Ricky Martin delivers some nuance in his performance.

He's the only one whose acting made me wince, it's clear from the first second he isn't an actor.

r19 As always with camp, you either like it or you don't. I'd wager a guess you didn't enjoy her Barb&Starr movie either.

Yeah, if Martin delivered any nuance, it was purely by accident.

Martin is the only one who has “heart” in this campy, overproduced dumb show. He’s far less one-note than Allison Janney who looks like she’s sucking in a fart every time she’s on screen and out of control Wiig who is all over the place and can’t get out of caricature mode.

I enjoyed it.

I'm loving this!

It's totally silly, but a ton of fun.

I'm enjoying it so far. The show is stupid escapism. I'm not expecting much.

It’s stupid and pointless, much like the people enjoying it.

R27 = horse’s ass

Julia Duffy is in it too!

Sad how fags confuse Ricky Martin's shirtless posing for acting.

I’m a Kristin Wiig fan but this is terrible. Worse than terrible.

Whoa. It is incredibly bad. Ryan, I’m sorry for dissing The Swans, can u forgive me?

Palm Royale is competing with The Swans and The Regime for 2024 series that was supposed to be acclaimed by the gays but the gays just aren’t that into them.

It is vapid, mindless, campy fun, but it has so many plot wholes and improbable behavior that i am at times taken out of it.

Ricky Martin looks too good. Is there some filter thing going on?

So this is like Fresno, also with Burnett? Only the eldergays will know what I'm talking about.

There are two types of people in this world: those who have and those who have not.

I have. You have not.

Burnett gets 10 seconds as a corpse

The characters are just cartoon like Housewives of some county in Florida. More crap for ya.

Where are the jokes? There are zero joke.

Ricky Martin always playing the house boy, I think he wants the roll in person not who he is in reality.

I read Wiig was CGI de-aged for her role

Everyone is, R40. The CGI on the faces is unreal. Ricky Martin and Laura Dern’s is especially bizarre and embarrassing. They even did it to Carol.

Carol plays a corpse

It's really giving GCB vibes.

That space between sarcastic, dark comedy and drama is a hard place to land and this show is kinda fun but didn't quite stick the landing thus far.

Kristin Wiig is seriously miscast in this. I’m guessing she is a producer on the show, because no serious casting director would have cast her in this role without some form of external (and decisive) influence being exerted upon him or her.

[quote] I’m guessing she is a producer on the show

Everyone and their mother is an executive producer, which probably accounts for some of the "too many cooks" vibe.

Wiig and Dern are a good decade too old for their roles, for sure.

Life’s too short. What an absolute misfire.

Fresno was another one that could have been funny but missed by a mile.

[quote]I’m guessing she is a producer on the show, because no serious casting director would have cast her in this role without some form of external (and decisive) influence being exerted upon him or her.

The project was developed by Laura Dern as a starring vehicle for herself. When other commitments got in the way, she asked Wiig to take the part.

R47 - I was thinking this reminds me of Fresno.

Sucks Royally

God you tired queens take everything sooooo seriously.

It's good mindless entertainment. I thought the Havana Nights party sequence was spectacular!

I just watched the first episode. It was certainly intriguing in a soapy way, but I also thought it might be trying to do a little too much. Will see where it goes.

Apparently the book is VERY different and this got substantially changed along the way.

How have I never heard of Fresno? Must watch it immediately!! Thanks Elder Gays!!!

R48 not quite. The show has about a dozen executive producers involved. Whig is one of many.

I agree, r51.

Also, I enjoy seeing most of my favorite ladies all in one place.

It's fun so far but I can see why some feel it's missing a little something.

Is Wiig's character supposed to be around 30ish in this show? Wiig herself is 51. She's way too old.

I got an AppleTV 3-month free trial, and thank god I didn't pay for this. I like Kristin Wiig, but she's way overdoing it here, and they haven't found a consistent tone. Agree with R23 re Ricky Martin, he's fine here.

The Laura Dern/women's group parts are bad bad bad.

The CHI explains a lot. I was somehow confounded by Ricky Martin in this and Ricky Martin in a photo someone posted here last week, the difference is astounding.

I continue to see it but as I mentioned above, the improbable behavior and plot wholes make Desperate Housewives look like a documentary.

Still, more watchable than The Regime, which is unfunny AND boring. I am a little surprised that i am finding Shogun the campiest of the latest shows.

Fresno is on Youtube.

I laughed at the vapid poon line.

[quote]Is Wiig's character supposed to be around 30ish in this show?

The series takes place in 1969, and we saw in a flashback Maxine win Miss Chattanooga in 1947. She's probably supposed to be in her late 40s.

Wiig is 50, so....not a huge age difference I guess, but the CGI/filters in this are working OVERTIME, hunty.

It looks entertaining enough to give it a try, but not entertaining enough if it doesn't grab and entertain immediately.

It moves slowly. But I’m loving the sets and costumes.

I love Kristin Wiig, but she just hasn’t locked in to the character. She’s sort of floating over the surface, and I’m seeing glimpses of Penelope, Gilly, the Target lady, and other characters she does on SNL. This role needed an actress who could hone in and focus on the purpose of this character.

Allison Janney is great, as is Julia Duffy. Laura Dern is good, but too old. It’s fun to see Mindy Cohn act again. But everyone else is just sort of flailing all over the place, unable to grasp some sense of character and purpose.

I love Leslie Bibb, even if she's basically playing a variation on a GCB character again. She's been the MVP so far (two episodes in).

I would watch a weekly series with Julia Duffy and Mindy!

I'm just watching for Carol. She delivers. The rest of the show has been a bit of a wreck, but it's mindless entertainment.

Its delightful. Great actors we haven't seen for a while and a fun plot. Delicious interiors, cars & costumes of the time. We like!!

[quote] . She’s sort of floating over the surface, and I’m seeing glimpses of Penelope, Gilly, the Target lady, and other characters she does on SNL.

I said this exact thing to my husband yesterday. I like her a lot, and she has something to say as an actress, but her long career at SNL unfortunately gave away most of her comic ability, and now they just read as tics rather than authenticity. The show is a bit of a mess though, and some of it really isn’t her fault.

Ricky Martin looks okay (thanks CGI!) but he is not an actor, has zero chemistry with Laura Dern other than faghag, and is miscast. Anyone could have played this role better.

I said in another Palm Royale thread that Wiig (who looks amazing - all tanned limbs and perfect golden hair) would be more interesting playing a better written version of Allison Janey’s embattled Queen Bee part (like everyone else in the free world I adore Janney, but she’s not my idea at all of a manicured Palm Beach socialite - whereas Wiig was clearly born to wear vintage Lily Pulitzer in flamingo pink).

I can't stand that fat rhino.

[quote]He's the only one whose acting made me wince, it's clear from the first second he isn't an actor.

Or a singer, for that matter.

Who is the fat rhino?

You can't go home again..

I don't want to spoil anything but am I right that two male characters indulge in the homosex?

(Not the nellie designer)

I am enjoying this so far but R67 nailed my feeling about it.....Wiig is just not locking into the role. She's playing it as a sketch character, but everyone else is bringing that deeper sharp/dark edge to root their over the top camp elements......she seems to either be unwilling or unable to do that.

Have only been watching this to see The Queen of America, Carol Burnett. She delivers. The series is a long slog, but it gets slightly better with each episode. Everyone is too old for their characters, but who cares. You get to see a wonderful cast. Suspension of belief, or whatever. There's quite a bit of political subtext in the story, which Carol has avoided during her career, but is clearly all in with this story.

The reviews for this are awful.

You'd have to be about 60 years old at the youngest to even know who Carol Burnett is.

People in their forties watched Annie as kids, R83, and probably have some passing knowledge of her variety series even if they were too young to watch it. While I doubt Gen Z kids are doing her Tarzan yell on TikTok, it's not like she's Imogene Coca.

I'm pushing 50 and her variety show was even before my time.

@ r83: "You'd have to be about 60 years old at the youngest to even know who Carol Burnett is." You say that as if it's a crime to be age 60 or older. Why are you even bothering to watch this series? It is targeted towards Eldergays. Stay in your own lane. This is possibly Carol's swan song. Too bad the series isn't better.

@ r79, my money is on the Perry character being hooked up and in cahoots with Ricky Martin for greed and homosex. Am hoping for that payoff.

I thought that Perry and his best friend are getting it on

It feels like Ricky Martin is paying a reverse roll of what is actually going on in his personal life and the pool boy.

[quote] Ricky Martin is paying

Oh, dear.

[quote] a reverse roll

Oh, dear, again!

Binging it! The whole show is wonderful and is relevant today (with the bits on women’s rights)

Laura Dern looks great (I know she’s wearing a wig)

Up to Episode 5.

Still interested, though it still feels like Wiig is in one show and everyone else is in another.

But gotta love the opening credits.

That’s what it feels like to me R88. Josh Lucas is so gay. His relationship with his friend seems sexual to me. And what are the ages supposed to be of these people? Kristen Wiig is fifty, on the show they’re acting like she’s forty something and there’s talk of pregnancy? Um, how?

None of the men shown on this series seem particularly heterosexual. Josh Lucas has a very femmy speaking voice.

Josh Lucas pings my gaydar, too. I also think he's adorable and was hoping that he and his best friend ("Perry"?) would end up to be fucking. I Googled him, and sadly, found that he is indeed a pussy hound, but he's also gay-friendly and a Democrat, so he shall remain in my spank bank. Am on the final episode, so maybe there's still hope.

Ricky keeps getting more handsome with age. And he gets to spend all of that time with Carol, so I'm a bit jealous.

It's not a great series, despite the awesome cast.

How do you hire Carol Burnett and then NOT LET HER SPEAK?????

They are digitally enhancing a lot of actors aren’t they?

It sucks ass

R96 Wiig, Burnett, Ricky Martin, and Laura D for sure. Maybe Janney, too. Certainly in the scenes from the aborted wedding......

It's not that easy to digitally enhance video, in spite what you have seen with all the new AI apps. In the real world, or I should say in the nitty gritty world of Hollywood special effects, it's still very time consuming to de-age someone in more than a single shot. Unless they have 100 million budget, I doubt they spent the money needed to do that. I would say 90% of that is just good makeup and lighting.

I have to say, just watched Ep 6 and some of the things that irked me early on are minimized...I am totally hooked.

I am enjoying the Ricky Martin action in the latest episodes, finally some gay action.

This sounds bizarre and I am not fan of the Hiltons or the Housewives show, but a good camp series that I wish hadn't been canceled was 'American Woman' tv series. I think you may be able to find it on Apple. It's about Kyle Richards' mother and starred Alicia Silverstone, Mena Suvari, Cheyenne Jackson(!)

This last episode was really terrible. Allison Janney and a whale? Come on.

^^ that was Chrissy Metz, R103

R104 Racism!

The whale thing was a little over the top. But Ricky Martin having a fling with the fake prince saved the episode.

Anyone watching the new episode?

Doug 🫢

R99 I disagree, but only because I watched The Morning Show. Apple TV+ has the technology and is 100% de aging/smoothing people.

Just watched ep 6, I think.

So much happening. Julia Duffy was hilarious. "Shelbi!"

Every now and then the series looks like it might work, and then the writers screw it up with another dizzy, idiotic plot turn.

Such a disappointment, given the amazing cast.

I was reading a bit of the book this is based on.....but I guess it's REALLY loosely based on it.

Maxine, Douglas and Evelyn are the only recognizable names thus far. It was set in Palm Springs, not Palm Beach.

Fuck this show. That finale was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. It’s just inane plot twist after inane plot twist. All the ingredients were there but they had no idea what to do with them.

R112, like The Regime.

Must be the year of the Post-It wall.

R112 Agreed, the ending was just awful. Wish I’d never seen it, just stopped at episode 9. What were they thinking?!

R113 I haven’t seen The Regime yet but I will skip it based on your post. It’s crazy how hard they’ve fumbled this.

Sometimes I think the only thing they got right is the opening credit.

It goes over the top and then once there, goes even higher.

The Regime is worth a watch for its erratic weirdness, R115. It's not good, but it's not awful awful, it's not hateworthy it's just... an epileptic seizure of hey, I've got an idea!

R117 Thank you. You changed my mind at “not hate worthy.”

This show reminds me of Insatiable on Netflix, just plot twists for the sake of plot twists. Character motivations change on a whim and nothing has any impact whatsoever. I love camp, goofy comedy and melodrama but the stories in this show are untethered as hell.

Are there no homosexual TV creators who can stick the landing?

I mean, "messy" is one thing but this is just falling apart as it goes along.

We know Miss Murphy and her new homie Jon Robin Baitz can't stick a landing either.

I'm afraid this is the first Wiig project I don't care for.

Patron saint Mindy Cohn has some explaining to do.

R120, Chris Kelly, Mike White, Dan Levy and honorary gay man Julie Klausner have all made good and funny television in the last ten years.

It won’t be popular to say around these parts, but it’s a specific generational cohort of guys born in the 1960s whose gay sensibility gives me the icks - Ryan Murphy, Jon Robin Baitz, Gary Janetti, Andy Cohen, Tyler Perry, Bret Easton Ellis.

Robby Baitz is a wildly over-rated writer -- he coasts on a reputation that somehow, probably through his own relentless self-promotion, seems to grow with every failure.

At least Bret Easton Ellis actually wrote something that was pretty good. Once upon a time.

Robby Baitz wrote a few decent plays and gave The Sally Field Programme a decent foundational structure (though the ponderous, bloated stories he wrote there bored the audience to tears).

Baitz and Murphy together seem to encourage each other's worst excesses.

Of course Apple is deaging faces. Christ, Carol is 91 and they’ve smoothed at least 20 years off her age. Ricky seems like the only guy who has been altered.

The filter on Ricky slips in some shots where he’s moving around a lot or when he’s in profile. They spent a ton of movie on the show on both cast and production values. I wish they would have invested in a coherent script.

Can someone explain what the fuck was going n in this episode?

It felt like half the episode was just tracking shots of grinning extras doing implausibly over-choreographed dancing.

Also, it’s funny how quickly the show stopped giving a shit about the Palm Royale.

One of the worst shows I’ve ever seen. It started on a fairly promising (if soapy) note and then devolved into inane, nonsensical idiocy. You have to wonder about some of these writers. Chat GPT could have come up with a more coherent script. I can’t believe I actually wasted ten hours on this drivel, somehow hoping they’d land the plane and bring it all together. I will not be tuning in for another season (which this does not deserve).

For all the hype about the Beach Ball, it sure was a letdown. Looked like every other party Maxine attended this season.

Yeah, R131, I’m no Marjorie Merriweather Post, but I was sort of bemused by the notion that the mid-century WASP high society would be so bullish on goony showgirls teetering around ineffectively?

R129 Thank you! Every time they cut away from any type of plot development to showcase the dancing my heart sank. By the time the drag queens started their numbers I knew we would get no resolution.

R131 They totally dropped the stakes of The Beach Ball and didn’t even bother replacing the Boones and potato salad. The amount of hand waiving in this show is incredible.

As much as I love Kristen Wiig, this was really disappointing. Ten episodes was way too much. They could have dropped the whale bit and shortened up other storylines. And the ending was terrible for a series that hasn't yet received a green light (?) for a season 2. One character dead and Maxine screaming in slow motion is not a good ending for a comedy.

I just watched the whale episode. That was so stupid I can't even believe it. First, a whale can't live that long beached. Can it?

More importantly, it's just so tonally different than the other episodes. I love a weird animal storyline, but it has to match the show!

Also, why is Carol trying to kill Wiig? I can't remember. Or does it even matter?

Alas. I have two more episodes to go. I'll just finish.

R136 A real jump the shark (jump the whale?) moment if I’ve ever seen one.

Robby Baitz is rather cray.

Did Laura Dern catch the flu or something? The whole conceit of having her pass notes from behind a door for an entire episode was utterly bizarre, as if she was suddenly unavailable for filming. Then she showed up in the last two episodes with a hoarse voice, “because of her vow of silence” which makes zero sense. Seems the writers were making it up on the fly.

This is reminding me more and more of Fresno as it goes along.

I gave up on this mess after the first few episodes. Looks like I made the right choice.

r141, you’re right. It was a huge mess. It became somewhat of a chore to watch, but we slogged on till the unsatisfying, “will-there-be-a-season-2” cliffhanger end. Wiig’s character was all based on her horrible accent, which meant there was no real characterization, no subtlety, no nuance, no sense of purpose. Just a bunch of lines manically delivered with a rotten Southern-type of accent. I’ve loved Wiig from SNL to Bridesmaids, and I know she can do better—but this was not as good as it could have been. The writing was all over the place, some of the casting was really questionable, and none of the characters were interesting enough to warrant a second season..

The whole thing was so bad in an uncanny valley way and yet also felt like it was so specifically for “us” - I mean, seriously, Mindy Cohn?! - it almost felt like it was written by chatGPT so the Chinese government could hack into the AppleTV accounts of dataloungers.

Only read a few sentences of the AV Club review for the finale (still need to watch the last few eps) but the headline is what y'all are saying - it's terrible.

I didn't even make it through the first episode. My eyes almost rolled out of my head when one of the characters said to Ricky Martin, "Thank you for your service [in Korea]."

Talk about an anachronism! Nobody, but [bold]nobody[/bold] said "Thank you for your [military] service" in 1969!!! NOBODY!

That was it for me. I know the writers were next best thing to brain dead. Apparently, I made the right decision.

And here I was hoping Ricky Martin had a future in acting. He was very cute in his "The View" shill for this but even with his live face half covered by beard, the cgi on his his face in the promotional clips was obvious.

Has there been any indication yet why that SM was killed by a train?

Just saw the whale episode. Hoo boy.

But I didn't realize that Eddie the hot tennis pro was played by Jason Canela. He looks delicious.

I don't know who played the soldier that Robert (Ricky Martin) was with (and apparently was having a relationship with) but he was very hot.

For that matter, so was the cop that arrested him, yet saw him in the gay bar.

Good GOD, what a letdown despite such a promising concept!

The writers put waaaaay too much stake into being renewed for another season rather than bothering to provide a juicy finale full of explanations. Far too much was left unresolved and unsatisfied.

r148 His older brother is Jencarlos Canela, who was pretty hot himself in "Telenovela."

When Kaia Gerber and Jordan Bridges get together, it's a nepo-rama!

r151

I like that show

Just saw next to last episode.

It actually seemed decent.....but I keep hearing the finale is a shit show so.....ugh.

However, both the gay cop and that tall astronaut need to sit on my face. And hell, Eddie too.

The astronaut is actor Avi Rothman.

Who is married in real life to.....say it with me if you already knew the answer.......Kristen Wiig

Just finally watched the finale.

I didn't think it was all that terrible. Aside from the fact that Maxine's rant sorta came out of nowhere.

There are weaknesses to the show but I thought the finale was a decent cliffhanger. I sorta doubt it will get a season 2, though. All the streaming networks are cutting budgets.

Also, Allison Janney trumpeting the joys of cock was THE moment of all moments of the whole series.

R156 I just finished the last episode as well. I was disappointed. They kind of rushed everything and sort of tied up some of the loose ends, but I had always thought of it as a self-contained limited series (which will probably end up being the case), so I expected more of an actual ending.

That said, the sets, costumes, hair, and most of the acting were all on fire, even if the story and the writing weren't always up to par.

I feel like the cast was A minus and the story was B minus, but not as bad as a number of reviews suggested.

That being said, it had a case of the Ryan Murphys, where it wanted to be both bitchy/snarky and yet serious, and had trouble balancing that, and some questionable character behaviors.....lots of the Murphy style things you'd see on Glee where Character X behaved this way this week, but then next week acted completely differently.

He's not wrong

The gay cop is gay IRL....and a cousin of Hugh Grant?

R74 EXACTLY. Why does she continue to play the straight person who's surrounded by lunatics when she would be the ultimate lunatic? I mean...I get not wanting to be typecast, BUT I would also like to be involved in something great instead of this shit.

Holy shit, it was RENEWED

Apple clearly has no idea what they’re doing.

Did Ricky Martin blow Tim Cook?