Apple TV is best known for its lineup of science fiction shows and feel-good sitcoms, but of late the streaming service has taken a different turn. A pair of her current buzzy shows explore the world of OnlyFans creators and cam models, and their timing is perfect. As one ends (Margo’s Got Money Troubles) the second one is about to start (Maximum happiness is guaranteed.). According to Maximum happiness is guaranteed. Creator and showrunner David J. Rosen, Time is a coincidence, but also indicative of the present moment. “I think it’s in the air,” he says. “There’s more and more acceptance of finding companionship and friendships and relationships through our computer screens and our phones, and it’s only natural that there’s going to be more storytelling in this way.”
Despite their similar themes, the two shows differ dramatically in tone and approach. Based on the novel of the same name by Rufie Thorpe, Margo’s Got Money Troubles – whose finale is on May 20, though the show is on. Already renewed for season 2. – is a drama film starring Elle Fanning as the titular character. Margo is a college student and budding writer who has an affair with her professor and becomes pregnant. Forced to drop out of school, and fired from her part-time job, she ventures into the OnlyFans realm as a way to support her child as a single parent.
The show is playful and funny — Margo’s OF persona is a clueless alien, and one of her paid services involves describing Dix as different Pokemon — but it also tries to get at some of the realities of the industry. Although Margo finds a supportive community among her best friends, fellow creators, and (eventually) her family, she is still forced to deal with the stigma that can come with sex work. In one particularly terrifying scene, she is plunged into the real world when she is recognized at a party, and must find a safe way home. Her line of work becomes a particularly challenging issue in the season finale, where Margo is embroiled in a heated court battle over custody of her child.
While MargoThe story is told from the creator’s point of view, Maximum happiness is guaranteed. One is focused on the subscriber, though it is. too In this case about a single mom, Paula (Tatiana Maslany) is a recently divorced mom who turns to a cam service like OF for companionship, and becomes very close with a cam boy (Brandon Flynn). While there is sex involved, most of their time is spent chatting about her life, including things that are not sensitive to discuss with anyone else. Things take a turn for the worse when Paula thinks she witnessed the kidnapping during one of their video chats, only to discover that it was actually an elaborate scam to extort money from him. The show becomes a tense crime thriller as the scandal not only intrudes into every aspect of Paula’s life—thanks to their private conversations, the scammer knows an incredible amount about her—but also becomes increasingly complex and violent.
Rosen says the show’s initial inspiration wasn’t just fans or cam sites, but the explosion of video calls and virtual relationships that occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic. “I’ve been thinking a lot about the epidemic of loneliness we’re living in, largely brought on by technology,” he explains, pointing to the irony that the technology that connects us to family can also keep us lonely. “I started thinking about a character who might be immersed in that, and I really wanted to write about a mother because I feel like she’s the most important of all of us, juggling a million different things. I started picturing the character in her house at night, and turned to technology where she could have a little companionship, and then suddenly looked at her. [computer] Window, transforming it into its modern age. Rear window story.”
While Maximum happiness is guaranteed.‘s provocative episode centers on a cam model, Rosen says he decided early in the writing process that “it wasn’t really a show about the world of sex workers, or the world of cam workers.” Instead, he wanted to use the subject as a way to explore the broader issue of loneliness. He admits that his knowledge of cam models “wasn’t that deep” going into the project, but still, it was important for the show not to demonize or misrepresent sex workers, which would have been easier given the criminal theme. Maximum happiness is guaranteed. There are many twists and turns, and one of them is to humanize the man who is terrorizing Paula.
“It was about finding companionship, and this moment, and this particular sex worker pulling a scam,” Rogen says of his approach, “as opposed to saying that the industry itself and everyone in it is out to get you. Obviously that’s not true. I found it more interesting to be about two people who come across each other and cause this story.”
Of course, these aren’t the first shows to tell stories about OnlyFans and online sex workers. HBO’s enthusiasm Perhaps the most prominent example is; In season 1 a high schooler named Kate (Barbie Ferreira) becomes a virtual dominatrix, and in the current season Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) is just a fan creator. But Apple TV shows are notable in part because of the company’s often-tough history with censorship, including keeping anything “adult” off the App Store (with notable exceptions), only to force fans to launch SFW apps themselves. This has also somewhat extended to its streaming service, which mostly steers clear of anything that could be considered controversial.
The appeal of OnlyFans and its people to workers is obvious, as it can be a substantial source of income. And now with the company A multi-billion dollar business with the Celebrities are jumping on board.this is a completely mainstream proposition. The reality is that OF has become so pervasive that it has become impossible to ignore, even for a service like Apple TV. Maximum happiness is guaranteed. And Margo’s Got Money Troubles The releases so closely together may indeed be a coincidence, but it also points to a future where these themes are too commonplace and writers can’t help but touch on them.
“It’s one of the biggest industries in the world, or at least online, and so it seems like it’s going to become more and more of a part of our storytelling,” Rosen says. “It’s an endless well of human emotion, condensed on the Internet where we can all find ourselves.”