Elle Fanning, Pfeiffer Lead Kelley's 'Margo's Got Money Troubles'
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- Margo's Got Money Troubles is an eight-part comedy-drama adapted from Rufi Thorpe's 2024 bestselling novel, created by David E Kelley and directed by Dearbhla Walsh
- Elle Fanning plays the titular Margo, a young woman who becomes pregnant by her English professor and turns to sci-fi OnlyFans content to address her resulting money troubles
- Michelle Pfeiffer plays Margo's mother Shyanne, a former Hooters worker still carrying a torch for Margo's absent father, in a role the reviewer suggests could mark a Kidman-style career renaissance alongside her work in 'The Madison'
- Nick Offerman, Greg Kinnear, Nicole Kidman and Marcia Gay Harden round out the cast as Margo's recovering wrestler father, her mother's Episcopalian fiancé, a wrestler-turned-lawyer, and a malevolent maternal figure, respectively
- Pfeiffer's scene confronting Margo about the pregnancy — 'This life as you know it — this life that you never got to know — is over' — is singled out as the most extreme and complex moment in the series
- The reviewer faults the show for staying 'firmly on the side of the angels' in 'Kelleyland,' arguing that punch-pulling prevents it from delivering the darker drama the premise seems to demand, despite its three major leads
Why it matters: The series reunites three prestige performers (Fanning, Pfeiffer, Kidman) in a high-profile adaptation of a buzzy 2024 novel, yet the reviewer's verdict is that Kelley's house style — light, resolved, glossy — keeps the show from interrogating the darker themes its premise (teen pregnancy, sex work, absent fathers) invites, capping it as 'cosy commentary' rather than the drama its cast deserved.
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