MAID

All hail a mother’s love

REVIEWED BY Ashwini Vethakan

Love, anger, abuse and some very disgusting toilets: Netflix’s Maid, which is a limited drama series, stole the hearts of viewers through a timeless story of how a young mother’s love overcomes her demons in order to provide for her child.

The first episode begins poetically with the last straw finally breaking our character, a 25-year-old aspiring writer who lived in a trailer park with an abusive partner and their baby daughter.

When she’s sure he is asleep, she gathers their two-year-old daughter Maddy and tiptoes out of the mobile home they share – and they’re about to be rendered homeless for the first time… but not the last.

The 10 hour long series is an adaptation of Stephanie Land’s bestseller titled ‘Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother’s Will to Survive.’ So working off a memoir gives the show a sense of credibility, which many projects like this fail to achieve.

We find ourselves yelling at the TV, fighting for our helpless protagonist, and wanting justice for Maddy and her mom.

The cast comprises the real life mother and daughter duo Andie MacDowell and Margaret Qualley, along with Nick Robinson and Twilight’s Billy Burke. The characters are well scripted and they develop over the 10 hour long show – which makes for watching them grow as they would have done in a real life scenario.

There’s Alex (Qualley) who is basically the sole caretaker of her bipolar mother Paula (MacDowell). She is also dealing with her abusive marriage to an alcoholic bartender named Sean (Robinson)

Sean and Alex have the type of young love romance that many of us have read about time and again. The studious girl had everything going for her, and was so close to leaving the trailer park and making a name for herself; but unfortunately, she ends up becoming pregnant by the bartender.

Their relationship is tumultuous at best and leaves us not really worrying too much about Alex (she made her bed)… but instead, about the poor child who is a silent bystander in their war. When a glass comes flying through the air and shatters above Alex’s head, she decides that she’s had enough and runs away with little Maddy.

And then begins Alex’s journey to try and free herself from the clutches of an abusive relationship, and give Maddy a better life. The show focusses on the ugly side of custody battles in the US and other social issues, such as poverty and mental health.

We watch as Alex – who has no prospects except for her high school GED – finds work as a maid in order to provide a ‘stable home’ for Maddy. Meanwhile, she is fighting Sean for custodial rights and seeking help from her estranged father (Burke), and also her free spirited and slightly manic mother.

Since we don’t want to ruin the show and give away any spoilers, we think it’s best to simply give you a heads up about the emotional rollercoaster ride you’ll be on when watching the series.

You will laugh and cry, empathise with Alex and feel frustrated for poor little Maddy. You may even sympathise with Sean (though to be honest, we didn’t) and feel for poor old Paula.

Maid is the kind of show that’s sure to pull at our heart strings and leave us longing for more. So even though this is a limited series, we’re refreshing our Netflix feed and hoping for more content of the same kind in the new year.