Dispatch • ‘Palm Royale’: The Cast on Consequences, Carol Burnett, and a Thornier Palm Beach

Welcome to Dispatch, a new series within Scene and Unheard where I report on the most interesting moments from the panels, screenings and other TV and film events happening in Los Angeles, Calif. These aren’t deep dives—just quick snapshots from the rooms, theaters and convention halls where entertainment is unfolding in real time. My goal is simple: highlight what resonates and what illuminates. Last night, that meant a private screening and cast reception for Apple TV’s limited series Palm Royale.

Palm Royale has always framed Palm Beach as a place where image is everything. Season 1 followed Maxine (Kristen Wiig) as she maneuvered her way into the town’s high-society circle: Dinah (Leslie Bibb), Evelyn (Allison Janney) and the formidable Norma Dellacorte (Carol Burnett). The pastel sheen held until the Beach Ball in the season finale, when Maxine’s careful ascent collapsed in public and the story’s lightness gave way to something sharper. Maxine’s chase for acceptance was always bound up in her need for stability—in her marriage, her identity and the future she was trying to invent for herself—which made the unraveling land even harder.

Season 2 picks up in that instant, a choice creator and showrunner Abe Sylvia explained during a panel at an FYC event for the series in Los Angeles on Dec. 6. Apple TV opened the writers’ room early, allowing him to cut the season 1 finale while building the premiere. “I love when shows don’t wipe the slate clean,” Sylvia said. The continuity let the show lean more directly into the era’s realities, including the fact that “a wealthy husband could commit his wife for little more than having a feeling”—a nod to Douglas (Josh Lucas) committing Maxine to a sanitarium after her onstage meltdown in the finale.

The season premiere makes that shift immediately clear. It opens with Maxine drifting into a musical number with Robert (Ricky Martin) before the illusion fractures: Robert is wounded, Mitzi (Kaia Gerber) is pregnant and Maxine has been placed in a sanitarium. The glamour remains, but the consequences close in. Robert has long been one of the few people who sees Maxine without judgment, which lends the dream—and his condition—a sharper emotional edge.

Wiig recalled filming the opening dream sequence with Martin as equal parts exhilarating and intimidating. Shot in a single day, the number combined structured choreography with stretches of improvisation. “Some of it was rehearsed, but then there were parts where we could just go and freestyle,” she recalled. “That was scary, but also freeing.”

She added that Maxine’s optimism becomes more pronounced this season. “There should be a drinking game every time she gets bad news and then goes—” Wiig said, miming the character’s quick pivot. “There’s always a solution on the other side.”

The panel took on a reverential energy when the conversation turned to Burnett, whose expanded role anchors several of Season 2’s storylines. Wiig described her presence as a steadying force. “You just watch her and soak it in,” she said. “She knows everyone’s name. She’s happy to be there.”

For Gerber, acting opposite Burnett bordered on surreal. “I grew up watching her,” she said. “I never imagined being on the same show, let alone acting opposite her.” Offscreen, Burnett became a quiet mentor. “She took me under her wing,” Gerber added. “She’s much kinder than Norma.”

Lucas shared a brief on-set memory that underscored Burnett’s influence. In their first scene together in season 1—Norma lying unresponsive—he warned Burnett he might enter the room aggressively. The take ended with him entering the room more forcefully than expected; Burnett loved it. Lucas laughed as he recounted the moment but also noted how Burnett’s professionalism guides the ensemble. “There’s no diva behavior on this show,” he emphasized. “You have Carol Burnett lying in a coma for months on end, stealing every scene, doing nothing and doing it with joy.”

Bibb later offered insight into Dinah’s emotional landscape. In Season 1, Dinah often looked composed even as her marriage and social standing were quietly slipping out from under her. Her rapport with Maxine has always mixed mentorship with a flicker of rivalry, and that tension only sharpens in Season 2. She may present as polished and assured, but Bibb said that exterior hides something more fragile. “Inside she’s having a panic attack at every moment,” she said. Dinah’s motivations—toggling between money, love and the expectations of the era—remain unsettled. “She’s trying to figure out what drives her,” Bibb added. “She doesn’t know yet.”

What emerged was a clearer view of where Palm Royale goes next. Sylvia emphasized a plot that keeps its characters on the hook, while Wiig and her castmates described people meeting pressures they can no longer outrun. It hinted at a season less about breaking in than about staying afloat once you’re already inside—a direction that seems not just fitting but inevitable.

New episodes of Palm Royale Season 2 air Wednesdays on Apple TV.