Recommended: Maggie on Hulu
What's Maggie About?
A thirtysomething psychic struggles to date when she can see how every relationship is doomed to end.
Who's involved?
Why (and to whom) do we recommend it?
Maggie is a joy, and much of that comes down to Rittenhouse's charm. With a highly expressive face and wry way with a joke, the actress blends humor and heartache as Maggie struggles not to let her psychic visions dictate her choices.
The emotional complexity of her performance gives resonance to scenes that might seem boilerplate in another romcom, like a moment where she has a heart-to-heart with her mother about how lonely she feels. After she admits to herself that she has feelings for Ben, we see chagrin, embarrassment, relief, and infatuation all play across her face in rapid succession. It's a wordless moment that says volumes about her inner life.
But Rittenhouse isn't the show's only light. All the characters are written and played with specificity, giving Maggie what feels like a fully realized world from the start. Nowhere is this more on display than in a dinner party scene that devolves into everyone taking over Louise's dating apps. As the jokes pour forth, they're layered with flashes of Louise's vulnerability and her friends' efforts to ignore their own problems.
More than its lightly supernatural premise, it's this kind of emotional depth that sets Maggie apart.
Pairs well with
TOPICS: Maggie, Hulu, Angelique Cabral, Chloe Bridges, Chris Elliott, David Del Rio, Justin Adler, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Leonardo Nam, Maggie Mull, Nichole Sakura, Ray Ford, Rebecca Rittenhouse