Fans of professional wrestling and prosthetic breasts, your ship has come in. This episode of Margo’s Got Money Troubles, the second installment in the show’s three-part premiere, officially introduces Nick Offerman as James “Jinx” Millet, a rehabbed and retired wrestler whose character comes from the “Macho Man” Randy Savage school of aesthetics. It also introduces actor Elle Fanning’s The Substance–style fake breasts, which are subjected to the trials of breastfeeding in all their prefab glory, and as such get a lot of airtime. That’s as it should be: Breastfeeding, like every other aspect of single motherhood, is a full-time job.
That’s Margo’s problem in a nutshell at this point. After bringing home her baby, Bodhi (like Patrick Swayze’s character in Point Break), she’s trapped in an existentialist hell of pediatrician zoom calls, Amazon diaper orders, nipple irritation, episiotomy stitches, and a colicky baby who can’t latch properly and won’t stop crying. Sure, it’s joyful and life-affirming and all that, but when you start talking about how your infant “spits [your nipples] out with such vicious contempt,” as Margo does, that’s an indication of what a mind-bending grind it all is.
In short order, Margo loses her job at a restaurant when her mom shows up with the baby during her first shift back, convinced she’s too bad a person to be a grandmother. Margo loses two of her roommates with only a week’s notice when they bail rather than put up with another night of Bodhi’s caterwauling. Fed up with being shit on, Margo “demands” three thousand dollars from the baby’s father, Mark — and almost immediately gets a vaguely threatening phone call from his mother (Marcia Gay Harden), who seems to be an attorney and refers to Margo’s demand as “extortion.”
At least there’s a little uplift towards the end. Kenny, Shyanne’s boyfriend, first asks Margo’s blessing, then proposes to her mom as the three of them have dinner together at Applebee’s. Susie, Margo’s roommate, starts babysitting for her, and offers to get her into cosplay, which, hey, parents need hobbies. Finally, and most importantly, Jinx arrives at her door. This comes as a huge surprise, because for months now he hasn’t returned her calls or texts — but a stint in a phone-free rehab facility will do that to you every time.
Once again, nearly everything good about Margo comes from the winning presences of its stars — whether it’s Michelle Pfeiffer’s Shyanne smiling and telling new mom Margo “You got this” before peeling the hell out of there in her convertible while blasting “Man! I Feel Like a Woman,” Offerman’s Jinx furrowing his brow in a way that defies description, or Fanning’s Margo crying her guts out over her adorable baby’s unceasing demands.
Mostly, however, Margo mistakes obnoxiousness for comedy; so many characters say most insensitive or clueless possible thing about the baby that by the end of the episode you could set your watch to it. Margo’s ghastly roommate Kathryn (Annalise Basso) wants her to take the baby outside at 2am because he’s interrupting her rest prior to a biochem midterm — you know, something important. “Do you have any idea how clueless you sound?” she yells at Margo, cluelessly. Haha, yes, very droll.
It’s like this across the board. Margo’s boss fires her “as your friend.” Kenny the youth minister gives practically an entire monologue that’s nothing but condescension and backhanded compliments about Margo’s decision to allow “the chickens to come home to roost” or some shit, instead of just getting an abortion like most “girls” her age. The telehealth pediatrician suggests that to combat Bodhi’s colic, she do deep squats while holding him, something all first-time moms are dying to do. Shyanne gets mad at the baby for “judging” her like an I Think You Should Leave bit.
Even other characters have to put up with this: As soon as Jinx tell a diner waitress he used to wrestle, she calls it stupid. (“No offense.”) None of this rises to a level I’d call “funny,” and until that happens, Margo’s got more troubles than just money.
Sean T. Collins (@seantcollins.com on Bluesky and theseantcollins on Patreon) has written about television for The New York Times, Vulture, Rolling Stone, and elsewhere. He is the author of Pain Don’t Hurt: Meditations on Road House. He lives with his family on Long Island.
