It’s fascinating that, after barely being on TV over the last 40+ years, Michelle Pfeiffer is starring in two very different TV projects in rapid succession. But they both show the range of what she’s capable of, from the contemplative drama of The Madison to the more brash role of Shyanne in the Apple TV series Margo’s Got Money Troubles.
Opening Shot: A girl is playing with “dolls”, which are actually wrestling action figures.
The Gist: Margo Millet (Elle Fanning) was an only child, and because she played by herself a lot, she developed a vivid imagination, which led to her becoming an exceptional writer. One day, after a writing class at Fullterton College, her professor, Mark (Michael Angarano), pulls her aside and tells her that her paper was Harvard-level exceptional, and invites her to have coffee with him.
Margo’s buddy Becca (Sasha Diamond) tells her that the only reason why the married professor wants to have coffee with her is to have sex with her. Margo naively downplays that, but then we cut to the two of them naked in bed together.
This isn’t a one-off thing, either, and he gets her to open up about her parents: Shyanne (Michelle Pfeiffer), who works at Bloomingdale’s and was at one time a Hooters waitress, and Jinx (Nick Offerman), a pro wrestler whom she has little contact with. She tells very few people about Jinx, which is why she silently scoffs when she sees her roommate Susie (Thaddea Graham) charged up by watching old tapes of Jinx, who is her favorite wrestler.
Shyanne is in a relationship with Kenny (Greg Kinnear), a churchgoer who wants Shyanne to be more involved with both him and the church, which doesn’t go over well when Margo finds out she’s pregnant. Shyanne is of course concerned for Margo, but how will that look to her religious boyfriend? She knows what it’s like to have an unplanned child, because that’s how Margo was created after a one-night-stand with Jinx. To his credit, though, when Margo was little he’d spend time with them when he was in town.
When Margo tells Mark about the pregnancy, Mark not-so-subtly encourages her to have an abortion. When she decides to keep it, though, Mark ends up ghosting Margo, which comes to a head when she sees Mark and his family in the parking lot outside Bloomie’s after she and Shyanne shopped for a stroller using her employee discount. Mark even took a second to check out the gorgeous Shyanne, not knowing she was Margo’s mother, as he questioned if the kid was even his.
When Margo yells at her mother for not showing any joy over the pregnancy, Shyanne, speaking from experience, retorts, “Your life as you know it… No, check that… as you never got to know, is over.”
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Created by David E. Kelley and based on the novel by Rufi Thorpe (Pfeiffer, Fanning and Nicole Kidman, who has a small role, are also EPs), Margo’s Got Money Troubles has a somewhat similar vibe to Raising Hope, though there is a lot more nudity and sex in this show.
Our Take: The first episode of Margo’s Got Money Troubles sets up Margo’s situation, right until the moment when her son Bodhi is born. We don’t even really see Jinx, except in vintage footage that Susie watches while jumping around and pumping her fists. It certainly had that incomplete feel of a first episode that stops at a particular running time instead of stopping when we get the full scope of the story. But what we did see we liked, thanks to both Fanning and Pfeiffer.
Pfeiffer is predictably fantastic as Shyanne, a person who knows what it’s like to struggle as a young single mother, and the love she has for Margo is communicated through her anger and concern about this “tragedy” of a pregnancy. She thinks Margo has unlimited potential, and having Bodhi is going to scuttle all those plans. When she tells Margo to get out of the car so she can scream, every parent everywhere felt that anguish.
But Fanning is also great. We don’t usually cite an actor for bearing it all, but Fanning’s nudity in the first episode matches Margo’s openness and vulnerability, and Fanning communicates that through her performance. She seems to have a cynical streak, but it’s more of a show than anything else. She’s not a Pollyanna, but the idea that a professor she admires sees her for what she is excites her. It’s why his treatment of her after she gets pregnant becomes all the more frustrating.
It’ll be fun to see the world around the Millet women grow and develop, with Jinx getting more involved after he finds out he’ll be a grandfather, with folks like Susie and others as part of Margo’s support system.
Performance Worth Watching: This is the first time Pfeiffer has worked on one of Kelley’s projects, and we get it; mixing marriage and business wasn’t what they wanted to do. But watching her as Shyanne makes us wonder what it would have been like if she was in, say Big Little Lies or even Ally McBeal.
Sex And Skin: Yes and yes. We discuss it above, because Fanning’s nudity seems to parallel Margo’s openness.
Parting Shot: As Margo has her baby, Shyanne looks at her and says, “You did it,” and we don’t think she said that in a good way.
Sleeper Star: Michael Angarano tends to play good guys. If they’re not good, they’re usually weaselly. But Mark seems to be a flat-out asshole, and he does a good job playing one.
Most Pilot-y Line: The Dire Straits song “Walk Of Life” plays over the montage showing Margo’s pregnancy. Great song, but it’s over 40 years old! Couldn’t Kelley or director Dearbhla Walsh find a more contemporary tune?
Our Call: STREAM IT. Margo’s Got Money Troubles has serious moments, but it’s a show that doesn’t try to take itself too seriously, and that sense of fun is going to make Margo’s journey to provide for her son very watchable.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
