We are all the narrators of our stories. The difficulty is figuring out how to tell them. Do we make ourselves blameless protagonists or complex characters whose choices — both good and bad — create our problems? Do we fight to control our narrative or give it away to others who may get it wrong and make a damaging misinterpretation that leads to harmful, real-world consequences?
These are the themes Rufi Thorpe explores in her 2024 novel “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” that Apple TV+ has adapted into a series. The first three episodes dropped this week. The show sticks closely to the source material, which is about Margo, a 19-year-old who has a brief affair with her English professor, gets pregnant and sets up an OnlyFans account to support her baby.
Even though the novel tackles well-trod topics like the double standards of gender as it relates to sex and parenthood, it feels fresh because of its unique narrative style and the way it weaves together Margo’s interior life as a burgeoning writer with her real-world experiences as a new mother and OnlyFans creator. The same is true of its adaptation, starring Elle Fanning as Margo; Michelle Pfeiffer as her mother, Shayanne; and Nick Offerman as her dad, Jinx. However, while Margo’s voice is the show’s strength, it’s also the root of the show’s main shortcoming, because the story is broken up into eight episodes that rely too heavily on Margo’s perspective to be the through line that ties them together.
