Series Goes Off Script When A Professor Suggests Abortion

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The buzzy new Apple TV series “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” didn’t seem poised to be appreciated by conservatives. The show’s premise of a single mom making money on OnlyFans felt icky, leading me to tune in out of morbid curiosity more than expecting any kind of solid entertainment. The near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score from critics did nothing to alter my preconceived notions; if anything, it made me even more skeptical. We all know how mainstream media critics think.

So imagine my surprise when I found myself not only rooting for Margo (played brilliantly by Oscar and Emmy nominee Elle Fanning), but also agreeing with her on major social issues such as abortion and the transformative power of motherhood. I kept thinking, “Wait, this is Apple TV?”

The series follows a first-year college student who becomes pregnant after having an affair with her married professor. I knew based on the show’s synopsis that she would not choose abortion, but what I could not anticipate was how little she even considered it.

The cheating professor immediately offers to “support” Margo after she informs him about the pregnancy, hurrying to suggest that she go to Planned Parenthood, not “some cheap clinic.” Margo looks on in confusion, then accuses him: “Sounds like you’ve made my decision.” 

The awkward professor quickly backtracks with platitudes about it being her body and her choice while still making it clear what his preference is. 

“Terminating a life, that’s something to think about,” Margo tells the professor. 

In the same episode, Margo gets an ultrasound and hears her baby’s heartbeat as tears run down her face. She gazes in wonder at the printed ultrasound photo.

Margo’s mother, Shyanne (Michelle Pfeiffer), is similarly unhappy about Margo’s decision to have the baby, despite also being a single mother after having a one-night stand. “You kept me,” Margo points out, to which her mom really has no good response.

When Shyanne asks if Margo loves the professor, she says she doesn’t. But she also decides, “For whatever reason, I want this baby. I want it more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”

Predictably, Margo gets pushback from her roommates, with the most vocal among them haughtily complaining that Margo was “supposedly a feminist” and asking “what message is she sending?” by keeping the baby. That same roommate turns out to be a villain later on when she abruptly moves out, leaving Margo with a heavier burden of rent. 

Margo debates internally but decides pretty quickly that she’s going through with the pregnancy despite having zero support from her mother, her friends, or the child’s father. And yet, she is undoubtedly the protagonist of this story and arguably the most sane among them.

Only three episodes out of eight have been released so far, and the series has only begun dabbling in the OnlyFans territory, which is broached after Margo loses her job due to not having reliable childcare. There’s still a chance this show could go off the rails and become a subtle advertisement for online prostitution in the face of financial hardship. 

But even if it does, “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” has done something that few modern shows have attempted in a long time. Instead of glorifying abortion and careerism, it’s showing a young woman who chose motherhood even when her entire support network told her it would ruin her life.

The series depicts the messy, uncomfortable side of single parenthood; Margo’s son Bodhi is colicky and constantly crying, he won’t latch, and she’s forced to drop out of school after he’s born. For some reason, she’s dropping $200-plus on diapers every week. 

But despite all this, the young mother still looks at her son lovingly and calls him “beautiful.” Throughout the first three episodes, she never once questions if she made the right choice when she decided not to end his life in the womb.

It’s refreshing to see this perspective coming out of Hollywood. Maybe the world really is healing after all.