succeeds because of its characters, not just its concepts.
Maya teams up with (Karan Soni), a physics grad student and her reluctant love interest, to understand the rules. They discover: every “OMG” creates a 1-second rift. Rifts leak sound, light, and occasionally, creatures. The more stressed Maya gets, the more she says the phrase. A hilarious montage shows her trying to replace the curse with “Goodness gracious” (fails) and “Holy mackerel” (creates a rift to a dimension made of fish).
By the end of the pilot episode, the viewer realizes that "OMG" is not an exclamation of surprise, but a whisper of recognition. The characters on screen, despite their black hats and wigs, feel familiar. Their struggles with loneliness, artistic ambition, and romantic longing are the same struggles that define the human condition.