You might assume that the gift of foresight would make dating easier: you could avoid the time and pain of investing in flirtations that will lead nowhere, or redouble your efforts during difficult times with complete confidence, that your efforts will pay off. According to Maggie, you are wrong. Hulu’s half-hour film centers on a spunky but emotionally reticent 30-something psychic (Rebecca Rittenhouse) whose glimpses of a potential future with a cute guy named Ben (David Del Rio) only complicate her love life — especially after Ben moves into the other half of her duplex with his high school sweetheart, Jesse (Chloe Bridges).
It doesn’t take a fortune teller to imagine the resulting nonsense, though Maggie’s amiable tone is more endearing than compelling. To put it in terms his love-seeking heroine can understand: this series is a nice summer relationship, not a once-in-a-lifetime love.
Maggie
Conclusion Not a once in a lifetime love, but a nice weekend getaway.
Air Date: Wednesday, July 6 (Hulu) Starring: Rebecca Rittenhouse, Nicole Sakura, David Del Rio, Leonardo Nam, Angelique Cabral, Ray Ford, Chloe Bridges, Carrie Kenny, Chris ElliottCreators: Maggie Mull, Justin Adler
Despite its magical premise, Maggie leans less towards Harry Potter or The Time Traveller’s Wife than Friends if Phoebe’s psychic powers were confirmed. Or perhaps a more accurate comparison would be How I Met Your Mother, with Maggie’s visions taking the place of Future Ted’s sage narration. As with this series, the romantic fate of its protagonist serves as a framework for a sunny comedy that deals with the challenges of young(and) adulthood in general, emphasizing the zigzagging journey over the destination—while also taking pains to remind us that we are headed for a specific, grand, long-lasting destination, so don’t worry.
And like How I Met Your Mother, the romance angle can be both appealing and off-putting. Rittenhouse and Del Rio share a pleasant chemistry that makes it easy to imagine the two of them together for a long time, albeit without the urgent sexual tension that would turn their wish-you-won’t-you into a truly dreamy affair. More entertaining is the unwavering devotion between Ben’s uptight sister Amy (Angelique Cabral) and her more laid-back partner Dave (Leonardo Nam), who have been inseparable since literally bumping into each other at Burning Man and who are so in love with each other, they can’t even work on their marriage vows without breaking down into sobs.
Then again, it can be hard to ignore the creaking plot machinations that keep Maggie and Ben apart. They do Jesse a particular disservice, reduced to the role of a human obstacle whose numbing appeal is at one point compared to ketchup. Maybe the writers (led by creators Maggie Mull and Justin Adler) were careful to make the audience fall for her too much so we wouldn’t take her side when Maggie tried to get her man, or maybe they just didn’t care getting to know a character they don’t plan to hold back for too many future seasons.
Indeed, Maggie proves to be most interesting when she is not focused on love at all, or at least not on the romantic side. The richest and most rewarding relationship is that between Maggie and her beloved childhood friend Lou. In part, that’s because Nicole Sakura (Superstore) is blessed with the bright presence and right comic timing to bring her character into focus several episodes before anyone else; Lou is the only one who feels fully formed by the jump, and the premiere only clicks into place with her introduction.
But it’s also because their friendship feels lived-in, in a way that so few of the others do. Not only do Maggie and Lou go way back in high school, as we see in one episode that flashes back to the girls’ prom. It’s that neither seems more themselves than when they’re together. In one scene, they place expired Bugles on their fingertips to rattle like fingernails. It’s silly and completely nonsensical plot-wise, and it’s the funniest and most genuine moment of the entire season.
As for Maggie’s most unusual twist: Although the series features a handful of storylines about the hows and whys of Maggie’s powers or her place in a larger community of psychics — which includes her diet-obsessed mentor Angel (Ray Ford ) and her would-be teenage mentor, Abby (Arika Himmel) — whose abilities largely serve as a sweet twist to more grounded and familiar storylines about the angst of young adulthood. Her visions, accurate but often incomplete, confuse as much as they clarify. She gets to glimpse her cooing over a baby, but without the context of whose baby it might be, and then spend the rest of the episode frantically trying to see more of the future so she can understand.
From time to time, Maggie laments how out of place her gifts make her, and with good reason: dates dismiss her gift as a delusion, acquaintances chafe at her well-meaning advice, and her loving friends can only go so far in understanding her unique experiences. But Maggie’s journey is ultimately one of discovering that she’s more like the rest of us than she lets on. As anyone who’s ever been in an apparently doomed relationship or fallen in love at first sight can attest, second-guessing has its limits as a shield against vulnerability, insecurity, or even heartbreak. The only way out of the 30s is through – even for psychics who know exactly what’s next.
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