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By Coren Feldman
In the middle of the night, Alex grabs her daughter Maddy and escapes from her abusive boyfriend with no plan and nowhere to go.
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| Alex and Maddie, plus cleaning supplies |
Maid is based on a memoir by Stephanie Land, Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive. It follows Alex (Margaret Qualley) as she leaves her emotionally abusive, alcoholic boyfriend and attempts to make a life for her and Maddie. She must navigate government bureaucracy, handle her unmedicated, bipolar mother (Margaret's real-life mom Andie Macdowell of Groundhog Day fame), and manage a low-paying maid job that just barely keeps her afloat.
The show's priority is to make you understand how Alex is feeling. Sometimes it does this through pointed use of magical realism, such as when she's in court and the lawyers start muttering "legal, legal, legal" in lieu of actual legalese, and sometimes it does this via a money count on the screen getting crossed out and updated every time she spends what little cash she has. It also makes a point to show how little support Alex has: between her absent father to mentally-ill and broke mother, she has no helpful family. She lost most of her friends over time after having a child and accusing her ex of abuse. She does, however, find friends and professional support at a domestic violence shelter that help her move forward.
It's so important to highlight how legitimate emotional abuse is, and the show takes time to show how it happens and how it works. When Alex first arrives at the domestic violence shelter, she keeps qualifying her experiences, saying he didn't hit her, he just hit a wall and would shout. But as another woman at the shelter points out, "before they bite, the bark. Before they hit you, they hit near you." The DV shelter organizer also affirms this.
One of the show's biggest strengths is the relationship between Alex and Maddie. It's safe to say the show wouldn't work if the actual two-year-old playing her daughter didn't look at her like she was actually her mom, especially given that she's in a very big chunk of the show. There is not one moment where Maddie doesn't seem in character, which is a feat not easily accomplished, even with older child actors. A big part of how they achieved this was that Margaret Qualley would spend her one day off set with the actress getting to know her better and making her feel comfortable around her, and when on set, she would hold her all day, even between scenes and takes.
Another impressive accomplishment the show pulls off is fully humanizing all of their characters. Alex's mom is a manic artist who wants the best for her daughter but can't fully take care of herself and relies on partners to run her life for her. Alex's abusive partner Sean is also not one dimensional. And while the show delves into his alcoholism and childhood trauma, it at no point excuses his behavior. The show wants to make you understand what Alex's relationships with these people are like and how they formed. True to life, they're complicated. Abusive partners aren't all abuse all of the time, there are cycles where they make you feel like they've changed, and that's how you're kept in that situation.
This show is about abuse and there are difficult moments, but it's important to note that it is NOT abuse porn. Rather than show actual traumatizing moments, the show tends to skip past them and instead show the impact it has on Alex. And while it is dark at times, the show overall strikes a hopeful tone, focusing on Alex's strength, resilience, love and determination to create a safe life for her and her daughter.
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| Coren is the founder of CorenTV and the producer of the reality show "I can smell your voice" which Fox has called "a rip of of I Can See Your Voice" and also "really dumb". |