Margo’s Got Money Troubles TV Pilot Beat Sheet Analysis
Shari Simpson
Why we chose to do a Save the Cat!® beat sheet analysis of Margo's Got Money Troubles
Nominated for 8 Emmys, including Outstanding Comedy Series, this David E. Kelley project has heart, soul, and perfect structure.
Created by: David E. Kelley, based on the novel by Rufi Thorpe
Written by: Rufi Thorpe, David E. Kelley, Keiko Green
Directed by: Dearbhla Walsh
S1 E1: “The Hungry Ghost”
The World: Young adulthood/motherhood in SoCal with a spicy side dish of online sex work
Franchise Type: Fool Triumphant
TV Pilot Genre
Rites of Passage
A hero suffering through a relatable life problem (divorce, growing up, death, mid-life crisis, etc.) tries to solve it by avoidance instead of tackling it head-on. Like most heroes, they choose the wrong path and ultimately need to learn the hard way, for only the experience can offer a solution. The end point of these stories is acceptance of our humanity.
The 3 elements of a Rites of Passage story
1. A life problem: from puberty to midlife to death—these are the universal passages we all understand.
2. A wrong way to attack the mysterious problem, usually a diversion from confronting the pain.
3. A solution that involves acceptance of a hard truth the hero has been fighting, and the knowledge it’s the hero that must change, not the world around them.
Platform: Apple TV
TV Genre: Half-hour comedy-drama
Story DNA
Hero: Margo Millet, a 20-year old community college student
Goal: To make something of herself, hopefully as a writer
Obstacle: She gets knocked up by her college professor and decides to keep the baby
Stakes: Margo is now responsible for another life—emotionally, physically, and financially
Save the Cat! Beat Sheet Analysis for Margo's Got Money Troubles
Opening Image
In VO, Margo Millet (Elle Fanning) introduces herself to us in third person, as a character she is trying to write about—and inhabit—without duplicating her parents’ mistakes.
We see her sweet fierceness as a child, slamming her wrestling dolls together, and her searching vulnerability as a 20-year old, riding her bike to class.
It’s one long Save the Cat! sequence, quickly bonding us emotionally to the Hero with whom we’ll be taking this crazy ride. (And the casting doesn’t hurt, since Fanning is one of the most appealing actresses working today.)
Theme Stated
As we STC-ers know by heart, it’s usually another character who states the theme, but the “Margo” in Margo’s writing is a different character.
So, her VO question—“Was she just trying to avoid reality by rewriting it?”—foreshadows the effort that will be made to bring fantasy and reality into alignment, especially when it comes to being a single mom with no money and no marketable skills.
Set-Up
Equal parts sincere and slimy, Literature Professor Mark Gable (Michael Angarano) tells Margo she’s a good enough writer to get into Harvard, lighting up her entire thesis world. She giddily agrees to have coffee with him even though her long-distance best friend Becca (Sasha Diamond) warns her that Mark’s just trying to get into her pants. Margo rolls her eyes; she is not going to sleep with her teacher!
Catalyst
In the least surprising jump cut ever, we immediately see Margo and Mark in bed.
Debate
Sure, Mark is swooning over Margo’s naked legs, but he’s also writing her poetry and talking about literature while they hump like jackrabbits.
Becca thinks Mark should be reported to the school and Margo’s mother Shyanne (a very funny Michelle Pfeiffer) is frustrated by her daughter’s choices, especially since Shyanne’s now dating an uptight Episcopalian minister (Greg Kinnear).
Margo drifts along merrily, her head in the clouds, so divorced from reality that when she’s puking at her restaurant job and her coworker says that she should take a test, Margo asks blankly, “What do you mean, a test?”
Break into Two
Margo takes that test—she takes four tests—and they’re all positive.
B Story
Shyanne and Margo’s estranged father, Jinx (the always brilliant Nick Offerman), serve as both mentors and cautionary tales for Margo as she strives to be her own person and a responsible mom.
To their credit, Jinx and Shyanne love her fiercely and unconditionally, but they’re also such colossal screw-ups that Margo frequently finds herself having to parent them as well as her son, Bodhi.
Fun and Games
Margo utters a heartfelt “Oh my fuck,” as she enters her antithesis pregnancy world and Mark immediately assumes she will get an abortion.
But Margo is a singular soul and as a product of a one-night stand herself (with Jinx, a married wrestler Shyanne picked up at Hooter’s), not as easy to sway with Big Life Decisions as she was with flattery about her talent.
Hearing the baby’s heartbeat at her OBGYN appointment is an experience so real, even Margo is unable to fictionalize it.
Midpoint
In a Midpoint that also serves as the Catalyst for the entire series, it’s a false victory for Margo (and a false defeat for everyone else in her life) when she decides that she wants to keep the baby.
The stakes shoot through the roof, a very specific time clock starts ticking, and the whiff of change smells a lot like intoxicating baby scent… and diapers.
Bad Guys Close In
Yep, everybody’s mad: her roommates, because Margo was supposed to be a feminist; Shyanne, because Margo had a chance to “do something” with her life; and Mark, because cheating on your wife is not supposed to be this complicated.
Margo assumes her father is mad too, since he’s apparently ghosted her on text, and even Margo herself gets pissed when she goes with Shyanne to Bloomingdale’s and is stunned at the prices; this is the kind of world her baby deserves, but she’ll never be able to afford it.
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All Is Lost
Margo runs into Mark and his family in the parking lot and as she angrily confronts him, he takes a moment to check out Shyanne’s ass as she walks by.
Dark Night of the Soul
Margo is furious with Mark and his sliminess, with Shyanne and her perfect ass, but mostly with her own situation and the world at large.
After she picks a fight with Shyanne for not being happy about the baby, both women utter primal screams, an appropriate response to Shyanne’s declaration that “life breaks you.”
Break into Three/Break into Series
As Margo gives birth to Bodhi and in her joy, cries, “I did it!”, Shyanne can’t help but utter the ominous, “Yes. You’ve done it.”
The whole of Margo’s Got Money Troubles will be one long synthesis as Margo struggles to grow up at the same time she’s learning how to be a mom and do whatever needs to be done to secure her child’s future, a truly selfless love that she both learned—and kinda didn’t—from her own parents.
NOW TRY IT ON YOUR STORY
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