Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed Season 1 Episode 9 Review: You’re in the Erroneous Apartment

Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, Season 1, Episode 9, “Erroneous,” sees Paula uncover a mother lode of evidence in an exciting penultimate outing. After a slow-moving few episodes, we finally have narrative momentum. “Erroneous” moves at a steady clip from start to finish. 

Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, “Erroneous” 

The series packs a lot into the episode’s 28-minute runtime. It makes one wish we had hour-long episodes. However, perhaps this choice is for the best — the story never lags, and every scene is important. The action is punctuated by a tense, white-knuckled score as Paula, Geri, and Rudy band together to exonerate Paula. 

Tatiana Maslany’s Paula is tenacious, to be sure. We see her more focused here after hitting rock bottom. She’s less scattered and anxiety-ridden, but her impulsivity still reigns supreme. 

She’s so desperate to clear her name, and understandably so. Meanwhile, The Souter Group is fighting tooth and nail to wipe Paula off the board, and there’s something to be said here about society at large and its obsession with silencing women. Heaven forbid they speak the truth. 

Two Opposing Forces 

Ever the fact-checker, Paula uncovers an intricate web of manipulation, coercion, deceit, and fraud. This is all so much bigger than Dennis (who I’m willing to bet is alive somewhere). 

On the other side of this, Paula, whose arrest for homicide still hangs over her, now has to contend with a custody trial within the next week. Jake Johnson, normally known for playing likable characters, digs deep into Karl to make him, well, unlikable. It’s a welcome change of pace for the actor, and he plays off Maslany well. 

While Karl seems to believe Paula is innocent, you can see that Mallory is pulling his strings. She’s the mastermind behind the custody trial. Karl also changes his behavior when Mallory is around, which proves that he has no backbone or real convictions — he becomes whomever he’s with. 

There’s an intriguing dichotomy between Paula and Mallory: Paula has no control over her life at the moment, while Mallory is always in control. Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed plays around with this somewhat, but I wish the series would delve into it more. 

Who Will Survive? 

“Erroneous” also sees the detectives finally do their job. The commentary on law enforcement in this show is clever and spot-on. All these elements collide in a compelling cliffhanger, as Jennifer follows Paula and Baxter tails Jennifer. We don’t see who pulled the trigger on whom, but I’m pulling for Baxter to survive (someone needs to take care of Trevor’s cat). 

Stray Observations: 

• Steve seems too good to be true. He’s so nice. And he assumes that Paula is innocent, as he should. I’m waiting for the revelation that he works for The Souter Group or something. 
• Rudy putting that linguistics major to good use with “erroneous.” I’ve never heard someone say “erroneous” when referring to apartments before. 
• That’s some expensive yeast. 
• Geri and Rudy will kiss in the finale next week. I can see the future (but also, context clues). 
• While Paula wasn’t allowed to attend Hazel’s art show, at least she didn’t have to share those sweet treats with anyone else. Silver lining? 
• Rudy’s crashout in the pool is weird, and not really in a “haha, funny” weird way. 

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Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed drops new episodes every Wednesday on Apple TV. 

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