Comedy
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew
Disney+’s ‘Skeleton Crew’ has some problems, but overall it’s a return to form, when the galaxy far, far away was relatively safe for the family.
Maxine just wants to belong.
The former pageant star is the “new girl” in Palm Beach, Florida, circa 1969, and she’s lonely. She’s not alone, per se. Maxine and her husband, Douglas, are happily married, but he’s often away, flying the friendly skies as a pilot while Maxine stays at home.
Maxine is looking for a place to fit in. And, in her mind, there’s only one place that will do: the Palm Royale, an exclusive country club where the elite lounge poolside in pastel luxury. She idolizes the wealthy women of the Palm Royale, supreme in style and charity. They’re everything Maxine wants to be.
The only problem? She’s currently on the outside looking in. She’s stuck in a crummy motel and with little money to afford the fancy fashions all those club socialites take for granted. To join the club, she’ll need a member to vouch for her—a dicey proposition considering her social status.
“You will never be a member of the Palm Royale,” the club’s manager tells Maxine after she tries to sneak in. But that’s a challenge that the relentlessly positive Maxine is more than happy to accept.
She’ll find a way in—whatever it takes.
An opportunity arises when Maxine spies on a Palm Royale member, Dinah, during a lover’s quarrel—not with her husband, but Eduardo, the club’s tennis instructor. Maxine takes advantage of the opening, driving after the distraught Dinah and even engineering a fender bender (which is made to seem like Dinah’s fault) so that she will feel too guilty to ignore Maxine.
Though Dinah refuses to sponsor Maxine for the Palm Royale, she does confide in her the reason for her distress: She’s pregnant with Eduardo’s child. If her husband finds out, she is sure to lose everything (“everything,” here, being her money, influence, and a pampered life on a lavish estate). Dinah is conflicted but seems intent on not having the baby.
Maxine suggests that if Dinah really loves Eduardo, they could keep the baby and run off together. Dinah refuses to be the one to end her marriage, but not due to any notions like “love” or the “sanctity of marriage.” She must look out for herself, and her unborn child isn’t helping with that.
And so, with Dinah sure of what she wants to do but unsure how to do it, Maxine sets out to solve Dinah’s “problem” and further worm her way into the socialite’s confidence and attain that elusive sponsorship to the Palm Royale.
Maxine’s search for belonging makes for a sympathetic motivation. Less sympathetic, however, is the way she pursues it. Everything that Maxine does is in service of gaining access to Palm Beach’s most exclusive country club.
We find out that the reason Maxine and her husband moved back to Palm Beach was to care for his aunt, Norma, who is comatose. But Norma is also a member of the Palm Royale (and quite wealthy), so Maxine pilfers her clothes and jewelry to keep up her charade with the country club elites.
As mentioned above, Maxine arranges a traffic accident with Dinah because she hopes it will manipulate the woman into sponsoring her for a club membership. When Dinah shares her dismay over her pregnancy, Maxine suggests she try to pass the child off as her husband’s (Dinah rejects this plan since her lover is of a different race than her husband).
And once Dinah makes up her mind to terminate the pregnancy, Maxine cheerily offers to help her find someone to perform an abortion—which, sadly, she does. Later, Maxine uses her knowledge of Dinah’s abortion to get what she wants. It may not be outright blackmail, but it feels pretty close.
The actual members of the Palm Royale aren’t much better than Maxine. The ladies of the club leverage a variety of maladies as a conduit for their own personal glory—competing with each other through extravagant fundraisers.
Behind that philanthropic veneer, the women (whom Maxine admires) are cynical, vain, and cruel, each trying to claw their way to the top of the Palm Beach hierarchy. They have little time or interest for anyone else they view as beneath them, including Maxine.
On a broader level, this show devotes a fair bit of time to 1960s-style feminist ideology, mostly through a women’s group that meets at a bookstore (called “Our Bodies, Our Shelves”). The group is led by Linda, an avowed feminist who rails against men who try to dominate women by controlling their bodies. She stumps for a woman’s “right to choose” abortion. (As you may have guessed, there’s no discussion about an unborn child’s right to life here.)
That said, we don’t actually see this oppression of women by men; we’re only told about it, at least in the early episodes. It’s sweeping rhetoric over specific instance. In fact, Maxine’s husband, Douglas, has a case to make as the most upstanding character in the entire show—he treats his wife with love and respect and without condescension.
Maxine wants to belong to the Palm Royale, but it’s fair to wonder why she should—and why we should watch. Characters (Maxine chief among them) deceive and manipulate. Folks are scarcely seen without their preferred drink or drug in hand. Sexual content, while not explicitly shown, is frequently referenced. And the show is pervaded by a cynical, pro-abortion worldview.
Ultimately, Palm Royale feels a lot like the whitewashed tombs Jesus talks about in Matthew 23:27. Beneath the show’s stylish and silly façade, there’s not much worth recommending.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at [email protected], or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
In 1969, Maxine Simmons sneaks into the Palm Royale, an exclusive country club for the über-wealthy. However, she soon gives herself away and is tossed out.
Undeterred, she returns to the lavish hotel where her aunt-in-law, Norma, lies comatose. It’s revealed that Maxine has been stealing clothes and pawning jewelry from Norma to give the appearance that she is wealthy enough for the Palm Royale.
She soon bumps into a distraught Dinah Donahue, a famous socialite and club member. Maxine arranges for a fender bender to give her the excuse to meet Dinah. Though Dinah refuses Maxine’s request to sponsor her to join the country club, she does confide in Maxine that she is pregnant with her lover’s child.
Maxine, seizing on the opportunity, offers to help. She initially suggests that Dinah keep the baby (either by pretending it’s her husband’s, or by running off with her lover). But Dinah’s mind is set on having an abortion and Maxine offers to help her get one. (Abortion, unless “necessary to preserve the life of the mother,” was illegal in Florida until 1972).
Through a chance connection to a feminist women’s group, Maxine arranges an abortion with an “underground collective” of nurses. Dinah gets the abortion. Later, while recovering from the operation, Dinah initially expresses regret.
When Dinah still refuses to sponsor Maxine for the Palm Royale, Maxine lets slip to some club members that Dinah is recovering from “something.” This, naturally, raises questions. When Dinah confronts her about this, Maxine leverages her knowledge of the abortion to force Dinah to sponsor her.
A woman has an affair, flashing a bare leg at her lover as he approaches in a car. She then disrobes, revealing scanty underwear. Maxine changes her clothes in a car—though she tries to keep out of sight from passers-by, we briefly glimpse her bra and underwear. She also wears tight, high-waisted pants. Pool-goers are seen in bathing suits. A woman exercises on a trampoline in her underwear. There is a mention made of a woman’s libido. A wife kisses her husband.
Men and women drink at the Palm Royale. A doctor offers a woman a sedative to go along with a medical exam. When the woman refuses both, the doctor continues to insist she take a sedative.
The f-word is used once, along with uses of “d–n,” “h—,” and “b–ch.” A woman refers to other women as “p–ns,” a slang term for a part of female anatomy. God and Jesus’ names are abused.
A flashback shows how Maxine met her husband—she performs at a beauty pageant and impresses the judges, especially Douglas, with her escape act.
Back in 1969, Maxine is now a member of the Palm Royale (thanks to Dinah’s sponsorship). She’s surprised to learn, however, that it’s only on a one-month trial basis. She needs three members to recommend keeping her in the club. She’s already got one in Dinah, but now she needs two more. That’s easier said than done, especially when the Palm Royale’s most prominent socialite, Evelyn, despises her.
Maxine tries to ingratiate herself into the Palm Royale social scene, donating $10,000 for a table at an upcoming charity auction. She is clearly being squeezed by bidding such a sizeable sum, but she turns the tables and uses the donation to secure a promise for another recommendation to stay on at the club. Two down, one to go.
She wants Evelyn to sponsor her, but the veteran socialite is having none of it. Evelyn spreads the story, told to her by a pre-comatose Norma, that Maxine tricked her husband (Norma’s nephew) into marrying her by making him think she was pregnant with his child.
Maxine learns that Linda, the leader of a local feminist group, is Evelyn’s stepdaughter. She accompanies Linda to a group meeting, where Linda advocates for legalized abortion in all but name (it’s put as “the right to choose”). Maxine expresses that she’s only concerned with “happiness and beauty” in the here and now, which for her is embodied in the Palm Royale.
In need of an item to put up at the charity auction, Maxine swipes a cat statuette from Norma’s vacant mansion. She also encourages Dinah to keep her abortion secret from her lover, stating that keeping secrets can be “sexy.”
At the charity auction, it’s revealed that the stolen statuette is a rare relic that was offered to an ancient Egyptian goddess. Naturally, this kicks off a bidding war between the Palm Royale socialites. In the end, Maxine outbids everyone to win back the cat, feeling guilty for pilfering something so valuable.
Maxine is distraught after the auction—she doesn’t have the money to cover her bid. She and Linda talk, and Maxine reveals that the story about her tricking her husband into marrying her is not true. She did get pregnant, but she lost the baby due to natural causes after she and Douglas were married.
She also claims the reason she wants to become a member of the Palm Royale is for Douglas’ sake. He had to give up the high life when he married her, and Maxine wants to give that back to him. But, based on what we’ve seen so far, this statement may or may not be true. Maxine seems to want the “happiness and beauty” of the Palm Royale far more than her husband.
As it turns out, Linda is technically a member of the Palm Royale (through Evelyn and her father), though she rejects the elitist lifestyle. Feeling sympathy for Maxine, Linda gives her a third and final recommendation to stay on at the club.
Elsewhere, a socialite’s fashion sense is said to have been “copied more times than the Bible.” A man promises that his word is gospel. A woman says (perhaps disingenuously) that she and her husband pray for a coma patient’s miraculous recovery. Another woman crosses herself mockingly. A man is called “so Catholic” referencing his opposition to abortion. Someone references the story of Judith decapitating Holofernes. A statuette up for auction was originally dedicated to an Egyptian goddess.
A woman shakes her backside at a panel of pageant judges while wearing an outfit that shows a lot of her legs. We see a woman in a bra as she changes clothes. A husband kisses his wife. Women wear short-skirted tennis outfits. A tennis instructor flirts with Maxine and holds her close as he “teaches” her a tennis swing—all of this is to make his ex-lover jealous. Someone claims, “incuriosity is the ultimate aphrodisiac.”
Women sit in a steam room wearing only towels. A woman is flustered by a man’s bare, muscular torso. Another man in his underwear zips up the back of his lover’s dress. A stylist wears short shorts and struts as if modeling on a runway. One woman talks about her continued affair. Someone says she got pregnant when she was 23 and unmarried. A woman pinches another woman’s backside as an example of something a man might do to a woman.
A person is smothered with a pillow (though this event isn’t entirely as it seems). A woman slaps herself. A man holds another person at gunpoint.
Women drink while trying on different outfits. A man takes quaaludes and shares some with a customer. A woman enjoys “Grasshoppers,” a cocktail, and says she wants to consume a “whole swarm of Grasshoppers.” A group of women are referred to as “day drunks.” Someone drinks from a liquor bottle after breaking into a house. The emcee for a charity auction appears drunk, slurring his words and with a near-empty glass in hand.
Jesus’ name is abused. The f-word is used twice, while a woman relays that her boyfriend called her “s–t for brains.” A man says he dressed a woman like a “baby dock whore.” A woman is called a “tramp.” Someone tells themselves not to “step in the doo.”
Bret loves a good story—be it a movie, show, or video game—and enjoys geeking out about things like plot and story structure. He has a blast reading and writing fiction and has penned several short stories and screenplays. He and his wife love to kayak the many beautiful Colorado lakes with their dog.
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