Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a warm, funny family comedy with an unusually sensible attitude to sex work. Elle Fanning makes it worth following, even when the heavier drama starts asking for too much attention.
There is an appealing lack of fuss about the sex work in Margo’s Got Money Troubles. Margo is a single mother who needs an income, and OnlyFans offers a way to earn it. The series is warm, funny and worth watching for Elle Fanning, though its more solemn stretches are less convincing. Adapted from Rufi Thorpe’s novel, with David E. Kelley among the writers, it takes an open-minded interest in how work, money and family complicate one another.
Fanning gives Margo enough humour to keep her from becoming a case study in financial difficulty. We warmed to her more than we expected. Her handling of Margo’s move into OnlyFans lets the character remain funny and capable, without asking us to pity her for needing the income. There is pleasure in a performance that makes practical choices interesting without continually asking for our approval. Fanning understands how much a comedy gains when its lead is allowed to get on with things.
Michelle Pfeiffer’s Shyanne and Nick Offerman’s Jinx give Fanning people worth playing against, and their chemistry is the strongest reason to stay. The family material allows each performer to be funny without reducing the others to an audience for the joke. Pfeiffer keeps Shyanne from becoming simple, while Offerman makes the eccentricity feel like part of a person we might know. The attention given to these relationships pays off: the OnlyFans premise never has to supply all the interest by itself.
Directors Dearbhla Walsh, Alice Seabright and Kate Herron keep the material approachable, without treating the sex work as an invitation to leer. Tari Segal and Carl Herse’s cinematography contributes to the lively presentation, with Richard Bloom’s production design supporting the same welcoming tone. Nathan Micay’s music helps sustain the buoyancy. That approach suits the comedy and gives the actors space to make the family complications matter. We do sometimes wish the programme allowed its financial pressures to feel a little less comfortable.
The difficulty comes when the series presses harder for dramatic weight. The transitions handled by editors Ben Lester and Libby Cuenin become less persuasive as the programme moves towards more earnest material. We wanted it to trust the cast to make the trouble matter without making such a point of it. The laughs become less reliable when being taken seriously seems to take priority. This is a limitation rather than a collapse, but some stretches feel more dutiful than the performances deserve.
Family comedy is a good fit for the subject because relatives can make a person’s business everybody’s business. The series treats sex work as part of Margo’s life without demanding that it explain everything about her. Its refusal to moralise is welcome, particularly when it considers the need to earn money alongside the demands of being a parent. The reservation is that its determination to remain good company can soften the harder questions about who has choices and who simply needs paying.
Come for the family comedy rather than the promise of a provocation. There is enough in these performances to reward that choice, even if the programme occasionally grows too solemn. Anyone hoping for a harsher account of making a living may find it a little reassuring. Give it an evening for Fanning, Pfeiffer and Offerman, and allow for a few stretches that could have used another joke.
