Margot's Got Money Troubles

Apple TV

TV has its best new show, and truly new, not just a returning entry of a series people already like (Invincible, The Boys, One Piece, etc). And after watching its three-episode premiere, I have to say that it deserves its near-perfect scores.

The show is Margot’s Got Money Troubles, starring recent Oscar nominee and former Emmy nominee Elle Fanning. The show follows a single mother attempting to raise a baby with no support at all, which leads her to try to earn cash on OnlyFans, a true “work from home” situation.

Apple TV has aired the first three episodes of Margot’s Got Money Troubles as of last night, and yes, I do believe it deserves this very high 96% Rotten Tomatoes score, which was 100% a few days ago (only one negative review in so far).

The series will run for eight episodes, and it’s based on a book from 2024 by Rufi Thorpe, so a second season may not be in the cards, especially for the constantly busy Elle Fanning, who will also appear in a blockbuster this year as young Effie Trinket for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, and another project, The Nightingale, with her sister Dakota after that. However, Fanning did stick around her last show, The Great, for three seasons, earning herself an Emmy nomination across from Nicholas Hoult, last seen as Lex Luthor in the DCU.

Even in these first three episodes, it’s easy to see how Fanning will probably land another Emmy nomination for the part. The show plays like a more comedic version of Maid with Margaret Qualley. Plenty of despair, but rather than toiling endlessly as a maid, turning to OnlyFans, a much different form of income, and one that can increase very rapidly, very quickly. In real life, we’ve seen many women make full-time careers out of the site, with some earning tens of millions. That may not be in store for Margot, but we’ll see. OnlyFans is now running parallel tracks between this show and Euphoria, where Sydney Sweeney’s Cassie will now turn to the site to pay for flowers for her wedding.

Fanning’s Margot alternates from wistful dreamer to panicking mother jarringly, but in a good way, as such a transformation should unfold. It’s unlike anything we’ve seen her in, and looks like it very well may be one of her defining roles, as she will have more to do than even in her Oscar-nominated supporting role for Sentimental Value. It’s easy to see how this could become another classic like The Great in short order, and the two have close to identical reviews.

It’s not a one-woman show, however, and Fanning is bookend by her “I’m a bad grandma” mother, played by Michelle Pfeiffer, failing to offer meaningful help at every turn, and also Nick Offerman as her estranged father, coming off a rehab stint after his career as a somewhat famous pro wrestler, now attempting to reconnect with his daughter in her darkest hour.

It’s easy for these first three episodes to have you both simultaneously stressed out and hooked, and over the course of five more weeks, we’ll see how this all turns out for Margot. Also, for Fanning and her potential award prospects.

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