It doesn’t take a fortune teller to imagine the hijinks that follow, though Maggie’s friendly tone is closer to endearing than overwhelming. To put it in terms, its heroine looking for love can understand: This series is a nice summer fling, not a once-in-a-lifetime love.
Maggie
The Bottom Line Not a once-in-a-lifetime love, but an enjoyable weekend.
Air Date: Wednesday, July 6 (Hulu) Cast: Rebecca Rittenhouse, Nichole Sakura, David Del Rio, Leonardo Nam, Angelique Cabral, Ray Ford, Chloe Bridges, Kerri Kenney, Chris ElliottCreators: Maggie Mull, Justin Adler Despite her magical background, Maggie leans less towards Harry Potter or The Time Traveler’s Wife than Friends if Phoebe’s psychic powers are confirmed. Or perhaps a more accurate comparison would be to How I Met Your Mother, with Maggie’s visions taking the place of Future Ted’s sage narration. As with that series, its protagonist’s romantic fate serves as the context for a sunny hangout comedy that deals with the challenges of young(strong) adulthood in general, emphasizing the zigzag journey to the destination — while still trying to remind us that we are headed for a certain, big, happy destination, so don’t worry. And just like on How I Met Your Mother, the romance angle can be both a draw and an attraction. Rittenhouse and Del Rio share a pleasant chemistry that makes it easy to imagine the two of them together for a long time, although in one there is no urgent sexual tension that would turn – they do not want – into a truly dream relationship. More entertaining is the unwavering devotion between Ben’s close sister Amy (Angelique Cabral) and her more laid-back partner Dave (Leonardo Nam), who have been inseparable since they literally bumped into each other at Burning Man, and who are so in love for each other they can’t even work out their wedding vows without breaking down into sobs. On the other hand, it can be hard to ignore the shakiness of the plot machinations that keep Maggie and Ben apart. They especially do Jessie, who is relegated to the role of a human obstacle whose upward appeal is compared, at one point, to ketchup. Maybe the writers (led by creators Maggie Mull and Justin Adler) are wary of making the audience fall for her too much, lest we go along with her when Maggie tries to get her man, or maybe they just didn’t care about a character which they do not intend to maintain for too many seasons to come. Indeed, Maggie proves most interesting when she isn’t focused on love at all, or at least not in the romantic kind. Its most rich and rewarding relationship is that between Maggie and her childhood BFF, Lou. In part, it’s because Nichole Sakura (Superstore) is blessed with a lively presence and precise comedic timing that makes her character the focus several episodes before anyone else’s. Lou is the only one who feels fully formed from the jump, and the premiere just clicks with her introduction. But it’s also because their friendship lives on, in a way few of the others do. It’s not just that Maggie and Lou go way back in high school, as we see in a flashback to the girls’ high school. It’s that neither seems more themselves than when they’re together. In one scene, they put expired Bugles on their fingers to beat together like fingernails. It’s silly and completely pointless plot-wise, and it’s the funniest and most genuine moment in the entire season. As for Maggie’s most unusual twist: While the series features a handful of stories about the hows and whys of Maggie’s powers or her place in the larger psychic community — which includes her obsession with dieting her mentor, Angel (Ray Ford) and her teenage would-be mentor, Abby (Arika Himmel) — her abilities largely serve as a cute twist to more relatable and familiar stories about the anxieties of young adulthood. Her visions, which are accurate but often incomplete, confuse as much as they clarify. She can catch a glimpse of herself moaning over a baby, but have no context for who it might be, and then spend the rest of the episode frantically trying to see more of the future so she can learn. At times, Maggie laments how out of place her gifts make her feel, and not without reason: Dates dismiss her gift as delusional, acquaintances cringe at her well-intentioned advice, and her dearest friends can only do so. much 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 knows. As anyone who has ever entered a clearly doomed relationship or fallen in love at first sight can attest, awareness has its limits as a shield against vulnerability or uncertainty or even disappointment. The only way out of your 30s is to get through — even for psychics who know exactly what’s coming.
