Imagine having to wake up in the middle of the night, grab your two year old daughter and run away from your abusive boyfriend, with nowhere to go and no money. That’s what Alex, the main character in Netflix’s new limited series “Maid” did in the beginning of episode one, “Dollar Store”.
“Maid” was released in the beginning of October, and it has stayed in Netflix’s top 10 watched Netflix shows right now, with over 67 million households already having watched it. Made by the producers of “Shameless” and based on the memoir “Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Way to Survive” by Stephanie Land, the show embarks on Alex’s journey of trying to care for her two-year-old daughter, while going back and forth with housing and job issues and relationships with people in her life. While each episode is almost an hour long, the show will surely have you hooked every second of the way with all the drama and realistic details of dealing with poverty added into it.
In my opinion it’s a great show to watch at any time. From the show having a remarkable cast with stars such as Margaret Qualley (Alex) and Nick Robinson (Sean) to the beautiful scenery and cinematography being extreme (it was filmed in Vancouver Island, Canada) it’s definitely worth taking time to watch. Also in the show each character is different. For example, you have Maddie, a loveable three year old who has a strong imagination, then you have Sean who tries to be the nice calm guy until he is drunk and then is angered easily and abusive, along with tons of other characters who all have their own personalities and issues throughout the series. Along with all of that, the show does a great job showing the contrast between people who have money and people who don’t have money. Especially in the scenes where Alex is cleaning Regina’s house due to her job of being a maid, and is talking with Regina (Anika Noni Rose) because Alex prys into Regina’s life finding out all the time how Regina’s life is with money; unlike Alex’s.
What I didn’t like about the new show is that even though the show captures the raw part of domestic abuse, the flaws of the government system, and poverty, the show doesn’t capture the reality of being a parent of a toddler. I say this because during the whole series the show portrays Alex as being this super mom to Maddie, having no issues with Maddie; and that isn’t realistic for anyone who has a child. Many adults have issues with parenting and even if they don’t struggle with parenting there are still moments when they can’t be the perfect parent like Alex. Along with that, when someone is facing as many issues and stress as someone like Alex is, they are more likely to be stressed and tired leaving them to be more short tempered and react to many things leading to them not being an amazing parent that has no issue with their child like Alex is.
Even though the presentation of Alex’s parenting is somewhat unrealistic, the show is still amazing to watch and if you have time over these next holiday breaks coming up, you should definitely go watch “Maid.”
