In the second episode of Margo’s Got Money Troubles, Margo (played to perfection by Elle Fanning) is holding an ice pack on her vagina after having given birth. In the next scene, after her eccentric mother, Shyanne (Michelle Pfeiffer), drops her off at her apartment, Margo struggles to lift her new baby up the stairs in his carrier while also carrying what feels like the weight of the world. In the days that follow, she experiences sleepless nights, poop on her face, and endless crying. Through it all, the bills and costs keep rising faster than Margo can keep up.
While I’m not a mother myself, all of it feels like the perfect metaphor for life in 2026. Salaries aren’t keeping up with the rate of inflation, gas prices are at all-time highs, and rent is unaffordable for so many in our country. Then there’s the state of the world at large, which is exhausting in and of itself. Some days I’m so overwhelmed, I wish I could move to Michelle Pfeiffer’s other TV series—The Madison, set in the Montana River Valley—and spend my days taking deva of horses. (For the record, I only know how to take deva of a cat.)
My plan B is unrealistic, just as Margo can’t go back nine months in time and decide not to have unprotected sex. Life is what it is, and you have to adapt. But when Margo tells her mom that she doesn’t think she’s going to make it as a new parent, Shyanne says, “Don’t be ridiculous. You’re a mother. Mothers make it. You got this.” Margo’s response? “Why does everybody say that? ‘You got this?’” Amen, Margo (and the writers). It’s air-filled encouragement.
Elle Fanning as Margo, and baby Bodhi
Apple TV/Allyson Riggs
Margo knows she needs to get a job and make money, but she also needs to hire a babysitter. And if she hires a babysitter, most of the money she’s making will go to paying that person. It’s no wonder that Margo tells her friend, “I’m starting to realize nobody is straight with you. They all just harp on the ‘joy’ and the ‘miracle’ and ‘wonderful’…which it is, it totally is…but….” Then she describes the physical pain that comes with breastfeeding.
“It was something that was certainly talked about a lot, in wanting to make [Margo’s struggles] feel authentic,” Elle Fanning tells Glamour. “She doesn’t have all of the answers at all, so she’s just trying to figure it out the best she can.”
“It’s the story of people without a ton of resources having to use their own ingenuity just to survive,” executive producer and writer Eva Anderson says of the series. “It was so important to make the show feel like the lives that a lot of people around the country are living right now.”
The series, which is based on the book by Rufi Thorpe, sees Margo turn to Only Fans to make extra money to support her son. Whether through sex work or other service-based jobs, it’s much more common in today’s exhaustive world to do whatever’s necessary to get by.
Elle Fanning’s Margo as Ghost Face
Apple TV/Allyson Riggs
“I appreciated the unfiltered honesty of the messiness that encapsulates all of that and the resilience that it takes,” says Thaddea Graham, who plays Margo’s roommate Susie. “It’s tiring, and it’s hard work, and it’s not always going to go the way that you planned or the way that you maybe want, but you just have to figure it out. [Because of this show], I’ve really started to appreciate how ridiculously priced diapers are. It’s insane. I don’t understand why. It’s a necessity. It’s like feminine products. What is going on?”
Nick Offerman, who plays Margo’s dad, former pro wrestler Jinx, agrees. “In this day and age, I think [Margo’s Got Money Troubles] really points to what’s broken about our society. You can bust your ass doing two or three jobs, just trying to put food in your kid’s mouth, and still fail. We don’t live within infrastructure that supports you. One broken arm, one health deva mishap, one missed payment and bank foreclosure, and people are finding themselves without a home.”
Nick Offerman as Jinx
Apple TV/Allyson Riggs
And yet, even though Margo is based in such depressing reality, it also offers hope to anyone struggling in today’s world. Thanks to sweet and eccentric characters—whether it’s former Hooters waitress Shyanne, cosplayer Susie, former wrestler and addict Jinx, or Shyanne’s by-the-book, church-going boyfriend Kenny—there’s a feeling that as shitty as this world is right now, there is still plenty of hope and whimsy. Every character wants, and actively pursues, a better life, whether that is through romance, sobriety, or cosplay.
“There’s a lot of hardship out there right now,” says executive producer David E. Kelley, who created the series for television. “But our goal was that through these tribulations and tough, tough events, you’d feel the love bursting through the seams of these characters. And the way that they inhabited them, I hope if we executed this properly, that it’ll really come across as a very affirming piece, both about life and about human beings as well.”
Three episodes of Margo’s Got Money Troubles are now streaming on Apple TV. New episodes drop weekly on Friday.
