Margo’s Got Money Troubles moves fast. In episode one, we see the titular college freshman (played by Elle Fanning) engage in an ill-advised affair with her married pondsucking scum of a lit professor, endure nine months of pregnancy, and deliver her baby, all in little more than half an hour. With the trending artistic choices of this tv era, I would’ve put my money on her water not even breaking until the close of episode three.
Thankfully, the episodes that follow don’t go quite at the same breakneck speed, permitting us to watch Margo both cope and delight in parenthood—which itself is portrayed with a frank realism rarely seen, including the fraught realities of breast feeding—with help from her eccentric, but loving, family. It’s among Apple TV’s best shows to date, and with the finale premiering next week, my biggest complaint is that it should’ve slowed down even more because eight episodes doesn’t feel like quite enough.
As though anticipating my concerns, Apple TV formally announced a second season renewal this past Wednesday. The timing also proved comforting considering Wednesday’s episode made a valiant attempt to pull my heart out of my chest by having the beloved Jinx (Pajiba favorite Nick Offerman) relapse and suffer from a overdose. The close call is avoided thanks only to Margo, aware of the precariousness of drug recovery, cleverly storing away some naloxone, but seeing her suffer her own brush with death by nearly drowning in the tub under an unconscious Jinx (an entirely believable scenario made moreso by the fact that Offerman transformed into a damn tank to play the former wrestler) ramped up an already terrifying situation.
Closing that roller coaster of an episode with an unannounced visit from Child Protective Services was an additional kick in the ribs, but it’s just the right amount of dramatic pain and suffering, not to mention a reminder of why David E. Kelley’s among the upper echelon of showrunners. It would have been easy to adapt a novel about a struggling single mother who turns to sex work into a soapy tragicomedy, but the tone is finely pitched into a series that’s far more grounded than some other far quirkier family-based drama series also available on the streaming platform; I’ve long bowed out of Shrinking, I’m afraid, as I can no longer handle the sheer quantity of sugar-coated hijinks (sorry, Dustin!).
Admittedly, the show gets close at times: the moment we see Shyanne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Elizabeth (Marcia Gay Harden, graciously playing a villain we love to hate) were left alone together at the custody mediation, I wondered how long it would take before Shyanne landed a punch on her (about a minute and twenty seconds, as it turns out). But those wild comedic moments are used sparingly, and the plot hews far closely to reality.
As smart as it is, however, I wonder why each episode is limited to a rough average of thirty-five minutes, especially in an eight episode season. I respect tight storytelling, but when you have a cast with this much collective chops, I think it’s worthwhile to allot for a bit more narrative breathing room. While there’s no need to languish in the daily grind of Jinx’s subsequent recovery at the methadone clinic, I have no idea if many weeks passed or just a couple of days. The question of time passing isn’t a frequent occurrence on the series, but it does compel me to ask, what the hell’s the rush, David E. Kelley?
Margo’s Got Money Troubles can fill up the space if it sought out some additional running time. The dynamic of a woman sharing her body, by necessity, with her biological child while also claiming sexual agency over it in a world that simultaneously clamors and shuns her for it, is a storytelling goldmine all on its own; it would be great to see those tensions stretched out even further. But I’ve gotta hand it to David E. Kelley: he certainly know how to leave people wanting more.
The season finale of Margo’s Got Money Troubles streams on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, May 20th.
