The Netflix NFLX limited series, Maid, was released on the streaming platform on October 1 and has remained in the Top 5 Shows most viewed ever since in many countries. According to Netflix, the series is on its way to reach 67 million households in its first four weeks, surpassing the record set by last year’s big hit, The Queen’s Gambit, which was watched by 62 million subscribers.
If you’ve not seen Maid yet, its popularity being overshadowed in the headlines by Squid Game’s overwhelming success (viewed by an amazing 142 million accounts), the 10-episode limited series takes viewers on the personal emotional journey of a young woman dealing with domestic abuse, the precarity of poverty and homelessness, and a troubled mother/daughter relationship.
Maid is inspired by Stephanie Land’s Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive, a New York Times best-selling memoir. The series expands on the book, putting more emphasis on Alex’s relationship with her ex-Sean and her mother Paula.
Alex, played by Margaret Qualley, is a young mother escaping an abusive relationship. As the series opens, Alex is leaving her boyfriend Sean (Nick Robinson) in the middle of the night, taking their daughter with her. Homeless and without a job, Alex battles to make ends meet for her and her young daughter Maddy, played by Rylea Nevaeh Whittet, to survive. Alex has no one really to turn to for help. Her mother Paula, played by Qualley’s own mother Andie MacDowell, is an eccentric artist who proves to be unreliable and incapable of looking out for Alex. Her absent father Hank (Billy Burke) is at first unwilling to help. Alex’s friends are all Sean’s. She is alone, fending for herself and her daughter. She seeks help from social services, but finds no real support. The social worker though does help her find a job at Value Maids, but the pay she gets from it barely covers her finances.
From the synopsis, the series sounds like a dire ten hours to go through, so why has it become so popular? What showrunner and writer Molly Smith Metzler, and her team of writers, Marcus Gardley, Bekah Brunstetter, Colin McKenna and Michelle Denise Jackson, along with the directors John Wells, Nzingha Stewart, Lila Neugebauer, Helen Shaver and Quyen “Q” Tran, have managed to create is a tender and at times funny series that makes viewers feel invested in Alex’s journey. The camera never strays too far from Alex, showing her point of view of the situations she finds herself in. We, the viewers, go through her experiences with her, thanks to Qualley’s incredible performance.
The series is at its most powerful in its raw depiction of the devastating impact domestic abuse has, showing the clear difference between couple arguments and emotional abuse. The series emphasizes the sense of complete isolation in which a young woman such as Alex would find herself. One of the most chilling moments (amongst many) in Maid is a scene where Sean is emotionally abusing Alex, forcing her to go sit at the table, while her father looks on, not saying a word. It is one of the most difficult episodes of the series, showing Alex sinking, removing herself from reality, only her unmoving shell remains, inert. Throughout the episodes, Alex has received no support. No one around her seems to understand her actions. In the opening sequence, when seeking refuge at her friend’s, one of Sean’s friends appears telling Alex “to stop being a bitch.” Perhaps none of them have seen the way Sean can be with Alex. But in that scene with Alex’s father Hank, there is a witness to the behavior. And he does nothing.
There is a rawness to Maid that prevents it from falling into the melodramatic. It plunges us into Alex’s reality, her tender moments with her daughter, her difficult relationship with her mother, who needs help herself, and her darkest moments. It is a must-see.
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