Maxine Dellacorte-Simmons is exhausted. Well, she should be exhausted, except Kristen Wiig’s intrepid social climber in the Apple TV comedy “Palm Royale” is one of those special folks who never seems to get tired. Credit her 24/7 exercise regimen of downing cocktails and dishing dirt, or chalk it up to a hopeful striver’s indefatigable inner spirit. Either way, after escaping her forced stay at the “loony bin” and emerging from a lengthy series of underground tunnels connecting Palm Springs’ oldest estates — where she’s been collecting her few pricey possessions while searching for an elusive assassin — it’s reasonable to expect Maxine to topple down on top of the six-piece set of matching red suitcases she’s just unearthed from the bowels of South Florida.

Yet our hellbent bellhop can’t even set down her burdensome baggage before another responsibility beckons: a ringing telephone. No rest for the weary (or, in her case, the never-worn), Maxine straightens her unblemished aqua blue attire, hustles her heeled feet over to the receiver, and picks up a fresh piece of gossip — gossip that sends her scurrying back out on her next errand.

As much a tribute to “Palm Royale‘s” fantastic leading lady as an example of Season 2’s madcap plotting, the relatively minor moment described above actually sticks in my mind for a different reason. Sure, Abe Sylvia’s sophomore run remains a grand platform for its cast. (Allison Janney, my god.) And yes, all that heavy-lifting goes to show just how many outlandish stories Maxine & Co. are expected to carry in a bigger, bolder second season. (Which, with all that heightened melodrama — an assassin! a prison break! a slew of secret tunnels! — feels like a tastefully manicured middle-finger to the haters who wanted Season 1 to do less and mean more).

But “Palm Royale” isn’t just about more, more, more. It also rewards viewers’ acute attention and active curiosity. The meticulous language, gorgeous sets, and gasp-worthy costumes are foundational elements of equal if not greater importance to the narrative itself. Unlike second-screen streaming options, these attributes encourage audiences to devote their full attention to one vivid piece of entertainment, as do the clever compositions and physical comedy that build extra jokes into frame after frame.

And frames are important. Take, for instance, the doorway Maxine walks through while carrying all those bright red bags. It’s a frame within a frame, and Maxine fills it with an abstract human suitcase. The little round hat bag is stacked on top, where her head would be, two sizable rectangular suitcases are positioned in front of her torso and legs, while a slender fourth container juts out from her hip. Given the preceding scene saw an actual, permanent painting hanging in the very same spot onscreen — another frame within a frame, this time of a circular comic-book style explosion hung within a house indebted to Piet Mondrian — it’s no stretch to see Maxine’s entrance as its own geometric work of art: a person made of her material comforts.

Now, did Sylvia, the episode’s director, intend anyone to derive deep meaning about his object-oriented ensemble from a two-second shot that functions perfectly well as a simple transition from one scene to the next? I would never assume as much, but “Palm Royale” is filled with similarly thought-provoking designs, be it Alix Friedberg’s carefully concocted couture, Jon Carlos’ all-encompassing production design, or Zachary Galler’s lush, playful cinematography — all in service of a story that’s private, period setting serves as a cozy escapist bubble where we can tsk-tsk our materialistic protagonists as easily as we can enjoy them.

To an extent, the series is what you make of it. Call it camp, call it meta, call it melodrama, call it comedy — call it whatever you want. There are secrets scattered throughout “Palm Royale,” and finding them all can seem overwhelming, especially if you expect conformity with other recent rich-people shows. (“The White Lotus,” this is not — despite making great use of Leslie Bibb.) But as long as you focus on the journey, rather than the destination, you’ll be just as eager as Maxine to keep exploring.

Grade: B+

“Palm Royale” Season 2 premieres Wednesday, November 12 on Apple TV. New episodes will be released weekly through the finale on January 14.