‘Margo’s Got Money Troubles’ Series-Premiere Recap

The intro credits for Margo’s Got Money Troubles are a whole vibe. We’re dropped into a surreal, candy-colored pinball game, created by Peter Anderson Studio. The sequence introduces us to an alien-like princess figure. She scoots down a series of moving ramps and shifting landscapes. Her movements are smooth and assured, but she keeps getting bumped into even more precarious situations. Each time, she recalibrates her position, catching lucky breaks just as often as she fails to navigate the new gauntlet she’s landed in. Eventually, she finds her way out of the maze — which happens to be a spaceship (!) — and out onto new terrain. The visual is endearing, playful, and serves as a useful allegory for the narrative we’re about to be dropped into.

When we first meet Margo (freshly minted Oscar-nominee Elle Fanning), she’s an idealistic college girl, waiting tables by night and attending classes by day. She’s a writer and a dreamer. There’s a sloppy, carefree quality to her life (complimentary), and when her married lit professor (Michael Angarano) starts hitting on her, she thinks, “Why not?” But this affair immediately complicates things, as she gets pregnant and decides to keep the baby. While the remainder of the series will surely delve into the myriad consequences of this decision (the titular “money troubles”), Margo remains laser-focused on the positives. The premiere episode sets Margo up in opposition to her mother, Shyanne (a pitch-perfect Michelle Pfeiffer), a woman who also had a baby in her twenties (a.k.a. Margo) with minimal support. Shyanne has been knocked around this particular pastel pinball machine before, and she’s petrified of what the ride is going to do to her daughter.

Based on the novel by Rufi Thorpe, Margo’s Got Money Troubles was adapted for television by the ever-prolific David E. Kelley. (Eagle-eyed viewers will also note that his frequent collaborator Nicole Kidman is also listed as an executive producer on the project.) Fun Fact: This is the first time Kelley has worked with his wife (Pfeiffer), and honestly, it’s producing some of the best work of her career. Did y’all see her epic face journey in the baby shower scene?! The emotional depth that she manages to wordlessly convey in mere seconds of screentime is truly astounding.

Ostensibly, this story is about Margo, and the premiere episode basically follows her for a year as she gets pregnant, decides to keep the baby, and becomes a mother. The two people closest to her — her mother and her bestie at NYU — tell her time and time again that having this baby will derail the life she’s planned for herself and severely limit what she can do in her future, but she’s having none of it. Even before she gets an ultrasound, she knows in her heart that she wants this child, and she’ll blow up everything she’s ever wanted in exchange. Funnily enough, her mother did the same exact thing back when Margo was born. She had a one-night stand with a hottie wrestler (Nick Offerman) who sat down at her table at Hooters, and she ultimately decided to keep the baby. When Shyanne and Margo talk about this, and Margo asks if she ruined her mother’s life, Shyanne softly kisses her cheek and lovingly replies, “You ruined my life so pretty.” It’s clear that Shyanne loves her daughter with every ounce of her being, but she’s also painfully aware of what she missed out on by becoming a mother instead of pursuing other paths.

Now, as a parent to two small children myself, Margo’s choice stirred up a lot of feelings for me, especially because this exact narrative — a young, twenty-something woman decides to keep her baby after getting impregnated by a married professor — is also playing out on HBO’s Rooster. In Rooster, the pregnant character is auxiliary to the main narrative, but the coincidence is making me wonder why these stories are being told now, especially in a post-Dobbs world. Just like Shyanne, I was initially upset with Margo for choosing an accidental pregnancy instead of continuing to attend college and pursuing a writing career. It’s absolutely unfair that having a child frequently precludes young women from following their professional dreams, but for most women, especially women from low-income families, the responsibility of motherhood quickly swallows all other ambitions. However, Margo’s Got Money Troubles seems to be asking: What if it didn’t?

It’s a curious thing to watch a young woman choose to have her baby even though she knows she lives in a cruel system that is stacked against women and mothers in almost every way. Margo is one part adorably naïve and two parts determined to make her life work within the parameters she sets for herself. This outlook is refreshing, even if it is ultimately couched in fantasy. I was fascinated to see Margo make all the preparations for her baby boy — stocking up on diapers, grinning at her baby shower, and shopping for a stroller with her mom — all while living with her roommates who definitely did not sign up to have a baby in their midst. We can already see Margo’s small village coming together, with Shyanne and Margo’s few female friends supporting her decision … even if they don’t fully endorse it. One of Margo’s roommates, Suzie (Thaddea Graham), is sweet, eager, and delightfully supportive of her friend. She’s also obsessed with wrestling, specifically a wrestler called Jinx, the character played by Margo’s dad. We’ll get to the Nick Offerman of it all in future episodes, I promise. But for now, we just see him, resplendent in full wrestling regalia, howling into the sky as Suzie exercises to footage of an old match.

Rounding out Margo’s nascent support system is a stepfather-in-waiting, played by Greg Kinnear. Shyanne has clearly been waiting for a man to take care of her, and is (sadly) willing to bury parts of herself to attain this goal. Kenny is a pastor of an Episcopalian church, and honestly, he’s a dude that most of Kinnear’s other characters would laugh at. Watching Kenny give Shyanne a sparkly cross necklace, I was reminded of Dear God, the mostly-forgotten but heartwarming Garry Marshall film that sees Kinnear’s character Tom believably go from grifter to giver within a two-hour runtime. Kenny seems pretty pious, but I’d love to see some of that trademark Kinnear edge somewhere in this series, so I’m hoping that he’s holding out on more than just an engagement ring for his hottie girlfriend.

Of course, Mark is nowhere to be found in the equation of Margo’s found family. It’s kind of fitting that he calls her the “hungry ghost” and then literally ghosts her when she decides to keep the baby.  When Margo, her mother, and her giant pregnant belly eventually run into him and his entire family in the Bloomingdale’s parking lot, he literally uses his son as a shield, shoos his family away, checks out Margo’s mom, who passes by with the stroller, and then questions if the baby is actually his. Not all men, but definitely this asshat.

Margo and her mom leave, and they get into an altercation in the car. Shyanne admits that she cannot celebrate the birth of her grandson because it means that Margo’s chance at a big life will die. This is not what she wanted for her daughter. She shouts, “Life will break you! This will break you!” Then, both mother and daughter take a break to scream into the ether. We cut to Margo giving birth, with Shyanne at her side. “You’ve really done it,” she says. And the credits roll.

Shyanne is right. Life does break you. Becoming a parent breaks you, over and over again! Lots of things will break you, derail your plans, or knock you down. But, like the pinball alien princess in the opening credits, we get back up again. And we find new terrain that we can explore, both scary and exciting. I’m looking forward to seeing how Margo puts the pieces of her life together now that she’s on planet parenthood.

• Margo and her friend talk about “orange meal,” which is orange juice and a bag of cheddar Sun Chips. I love how this is a shorthand for how close their friendship is (Margo also chats with her from the tub), but also underscores how very young and resilient they are.

• “Blow My Mind” by Robyn soundtracks the intro sequence and, as I’m sure you can tell, I’m in love with it all.

• Laura San Giacomo makes an appearance as Margo’s manager at a local restaurant. More of her, please.

• I’m a big book reader, but I have not yet read the book, and I don’t believe that I’m going to until the show is done airing. But if you have non-spoilery book commentary, please feel free to leave it in the comments!