Who Can Be Trusted When Everyone Is Vulnerable?

A spring Apple TV debut centers on Paula, a professional fact-checker and divorced mother in a messy custody battle. Paula decompresses by videochatting with Trevor, an online performer who listens, asks thoughtful questions, and gives her genuine attention that often turns sexual. During a call, Trevor leaves to answer the door and is attacked by a masked man while Paula records what she sees. She reports it to police and is told it is likely a scam, followed by a demand for money from Trevor. Trevor later reveals he recorded their meetings, knows everything about her, and threatens to ruin her life if she does not pay.

"Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, created by David J. Rosen, stars Tatiana Maslany as Paula, a professional fact-checker and divorced mother in the middle of a messy custody battle whose preferred way of decompressing is videochatting with a beguiling online performer named Trevor (Brandon Flynn). Their interactions usually end up being sexual, but what seems even more compelling to Paula is having someone to talk with-someone who listens, asks thoughtful questions about her life, and pays her genuine, if compensated, attention."

"During one of their calls, Trevor gets up to answer the door and is attacked by a masked man while a horrified Paula can only watch, recording everything she sees on her phone. When she goes to the police, she's told it's likely a scam-that she'll soon get a call asking for money, which she does, from a supposedly distressed Trevor. And when Paula calls him out over the phone, he tells her the truth: He's recorded all of their meetings, he knows everything about her, and if she doesn't pay, he'll ruin her life."

""I don't want that for you," he says, cruelly. "I like you, Paula. You know that." Read: Life isn't easy in the OnlyFans economy Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed seems consciously to be aping classic nervy thrillers. Its opening scene, which has a camera trail slowly over the exterior of a New York City apartment building, nods to Rear Window, with its wild array of sunbathing, dancing, bickering neighbors, carefree and fully exposed."

"In Paula's building, conversely, the blinds are all at least semi-closed, as though its inhabitants have become wise to the idea that anyone could be looking in. Paula's open laptop, of course, suggests new avenues of vulnerability. Some context: During the time I sp"

Read at The Atlantic