Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed: Season 1 Episode 3 – Recap and Review

As things continue to ramp up for Paula, there is a need to question if it is too much too soon, or just too much – period?

ByAmari Allah Hours Posted on

[Unless Said Otherwise] Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.

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Episode 3 “Chunnel” Recap and Details

Don’t Take Personal Calls At Work: Geri, Rudy, Paula

The blackmail hasn’t stopped, but with Detective Gonzalez, as always, doing things on her own time, Paula decides she is going to handle things herself. Unfortunately, Rudy and Geri overhear and notice Paula acting odd. Rudy, since he has a life and wants to focus on the LSATs, doesn’t decide to investigate. Geri? Well, she has an article in mind, and Paula is way too interesting a subject to ignore.

An Ultimatum: Mallory, Karl, Paula

So, the reason why Boise, Idaho, is on the table is that Mallory has a promotion opportunity out there, and Karl is following her. Naturally, he doesn’t want to choose between his girlfriend and daughter, so an offer is made to just buy Paula everything she’d need from a home to a vehicle. For a moment, leaving Queens behind is thought about, but Paula thinks letting a man buy her future and sway things as Karl is trying to do sets a bad example for Hazel, so the offer, the “olive branch,” is rejected.

You Got The Wrong One: Paula, Dennis, Mallory, Detective Gonzalez, Detective Baxter, Ash

Detective Gonzalez and Detective Baxter continue their investigation, and after inspecting Trevor’s (real name: Jeff) home, all signs don’t point towards Dennis, Trevor’s boyfriend, or Ash, the girlfriend, but towards Paula. In fact, we learn Paula apparently committed a crime in Portland, which doesn’t help Detective Gonzalez believing she is a potential prime suspect.

However, as Paula is doing her own investigation, things become complicated. Dennis is tracking Mallory, assuming she is Paula, and he almost kills her in the woods. The only thing that saves Mallory is Dennis remembering that Paula has a tattoo. But, to further complicate things, Dennis isn’t the one blackmailing Paula – That’s Ash.

Apparently, Jeff/Trevor has multiple partners, and while Ash was doing the blackmailing, Dennis? Well, it seems it might have truly been a case of lovers’ scorn. Now, did he know about Ash? Hard to say. But Ash learns Jeff/Trevor is dead, and of all people, Paula tells her. So, who knows if she may not draw the same conclusion Detective Gonzalez did.

New Characters in Episode 3

Detective Baxter (Jon Michael Hill)

Detective Baxter (Jon Michael Hill) in Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed Season 1 Episode 3 © AppleTV+
  • Character Summary: Detective Baxter is Detective Gonzalez’s junior, in terms of tenure, whom she constantly pushes to cross his ts and dot his is, just because he isn’t married to the job as she is.

Ash (Nina Bloomgarden)

Ash (Nina Bloomgarden) in Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed Season 1 Episode 3 © AppleTV+
  • Character Summary: Ash is Trevor/Jeff’s girlfriend, who is also handling Paula’s blackmail.

Review and Commentary

Highlights

Paula’s Work To Get An Upper Hand [83/100]

You have to admire that Paula isn’t a woe is me type of character. When people push her too far, she acts. Now, was going to Trevor’s house with a hockey stick the smartest thing? No. However, catching Ash the way she did was smart.

But, in some ways, while the hockey stick and catching Ash weren’t extremes, they do open the door for you to understand that something happening in Portland, worthy of being fingerprinted, can make sense. If Paula is backed into a corner and feels she doesn’t have someone coming to save or help her, she will react.

The only question is, how far did she go?

On The Fence

Jeff/Trevor’s Murder and The Blackmail Plot [74/100]

Things are slowly but surely getting a bit convoluted, if not the show itself becoming bloated. You have Paula’s custody battle, which in itself has drama. Then you have her workplace issues, with Geri, Rudy, and her boss. Trevor/Jeff added a touch of loneliness, which was quickly swapped out with exploitation, and now we have Dennis, Ash, and learning that those two aren’t connected, so they have their own individual stories to tell.

Again, as said in the last episode, this doesn’t mean we’re going to bad places, but it does make me worry that Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is going to get to that point where it loses what’s good about it because it is in search of a hook. Because, increasingly, as much as we adore Paula, she is starting to feel a bit like she is drowning here.

Overall

Our Overall Rating [78/100]

Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed remains on the cusp. You don’t know if it is going to live up to its potential or with the amount of characters it has, which makes Paula more the featured one than the lead, if it may collapse under itself.

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Amari is the founder and head writer of Wherever-I-Look.com and has been reviewing media since 2010. He approaches each production with hope, rooting for every story to succeed, and believes criticism should come from unmet potential, while praise is reserved for work that meets or exceeds expectations.