Patron Pick – Maid

This special reward is available to Patreon patrons who pledge at the $10 or $20 monthly levels. Each month, those patrons will pick a film for me to review. If they choose, they also get to include some of their thoughts about the movie. This Pick comes from Bekah Lindstrom.

Maid (Netflix)
Written by Molly Smith Metzler, Marcus Gardley, Rebecca Brunstetter, Colin McKenna, and Michelle Denise Jackson
Directed by John Wells, Nzingha Stewart, Lila Neugebauer, Helen Shaver, and Quyen Tran

Maid is an American drama mini-series created for Netflix and inspired by Stephanie Land’s memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive. It focuses on Alex (Margaret Qualley) leaving her emotionally abusive boyfriend and struggling to provide for her daughter by getting a job cleaning houses.

I am going to start with the harsh bits. Although it has a lot of good qualities, there is a layer of cringe to Maid that resembles the storyline structures from the US version of Shameless. Their link to this is Molly Smith Metzler, a writer for both, and John Wells, executive producer and director for Maid, who developed, wrote, and directed for Shameless.

My problem is that sometimes the humor can rub some people as sitcom-like. Alex (Margaret Qualley) is quick-witted and occasionally awkward, but endearingly so. Something familiar is seen in Fiona (Emily Rossum) in Shameless.

Another beautiful, skinny white woman who somehow was dealt the wrong cards in life but doesn’t dwell as their spirit hasn’t been broken just yet.

Despite this, there are strong storylines. There is something there for some of us to keep watching.

The best performances come from Margaret Qualley as Alex and Nick Robinson as Sean. Their chemistry is believable.

Qualley has a natural way about her. I believe her as Alex, the way she feels overwhelmed during the first scenes in the courtroom during a custody hearing. The delay in response is because everything is too much. Her facial expressions are vital to understanding how over her head she is about this. She questions if she was abused, argues about what she should be allowed to have, and is afraid to title herself as underprivileged while navigating a system that does not want or love her and her daughter.

Robinson takes on a role that could have easily been cartoonish regarding being a “villain.” You swing between wanting him to be redeemed and wishing he never sees Alex and their daughter again. He indeed plays pathetic when needed. Sean tries to squeeze sympathy at any chance given to get his way. They give him enough background to understand why he is like this while not turning you against Alex and why she needs to stay away from Sean as a partner.

I did not care for the character Regina, played by Anika Noni. It’s not the actress’s fault. It just felt as if they put in an outline of a bitchy rich woman and asked her to fill in the rest. In my experience, as someone who has access to people’s homes to take care of specific tasks, rich people will ignore the hell out of you and complain privately while asking their names to be redacted. When correcting you, they usually want you to know they’re doing you a favor by providing such criticism and realize they’re just as disappointed as you are. She softens a little towards the middle, but the storyline was too much of Rich people have souls, too!

Let’s get to Andie MacDowell, Qualley’s real-life mother, and her mother in the show, Paula. This is my bone to pick with John Wells and Molly Smith Metzler- please explain to me why the fuck in two series you’ve had, the neglectful mothers both have severe bipolar disorder? Why?

It just irks me because there can be other reasons a mother is perhaps unavailable to their child. Mental illness is a severe thing, but in both series, it’s always mom is unwell and so QUIRKY.

MacDowell is doing too much. I can tell she probably had a blast acting in this role, but there are moments when she’s on screen, and I feel myself cringing. Depression, mental health issues, and poverty sometimes go hand-in-hand, but often, mental health is neglected for the sake of survival.

Everyone else was okay. They perform their roles accordingly, but these are the most characters on the screen and who I have strong opinions on.

The show does well on the mental math working class people do is constant when funding is almost non-existent. I enjoyed how it displayed that Alex was overwhelmed, and people’s dialogue shifted to what she imagined they were thinking about her needing assistance.

When the show is close to reality, it is at its best. However, the pitfalls of wanting to keep things lighthearted demonstrate they don’t want the audience to get uncomfortable with this serious situation. Scenes of her fantasizing about Nate, who allows her to stay at his place, can feel strange. It wants the audience to expect her to hook up or be together somehow. I did appreciate her not going that route.

I also applaud the show having Alex go back to Sean momentarily, for us to witness the cycle of abuse occurring again. From her estranged father taking Sean’s side, her realizing she’s a child of abuse, to coming to terms with what she wants and how to get there.

It needed to go back, maybe to trim the whole story tightly with editing and maybe have the show be a few episodes shorter for it to be a “masterpiece,” but Netflix doesn’t push as it should.

My whole reason for wanting a more grounded is because of my past as a child who had lived in shelters momentarily and experienced financial hardships; it can be pretty isolating. In the original book, Stephanie Land expresses the feeling she had to extract herself from many friendships because they were not in the same economic class. She often witnessed people she called friends lament having to pay taxes for people like her to smooch on.

There needs to be more understanding of the high cost of being poor, not just money but also time. You can be dehumanized for needing the basics. In the book, Stephanie Land remembers a man behind her at the grocery store who said, “You’re welcome,” when she retrieved her SNAP card to pay, and that’s just her experience as a single white woman.

I would still recommend it. It’s above what you expect from Netflix and a mini-series, so it isn’t a complete drag.

I’d highly recommend the book if you want a realistic point of view.