MAID

Maid is the type of drama that I live for. I mean that genuinely and not as a dramatic cliché although it definitely sounds like one. Let me explain: all my life I have wanted to be a writer, one day with practise as if I were actually Andy Murray trying to perfect my serve I want to write something that is so vivid I can create an entirely different world for someone to escape into with me. This is what Maid was to me. It was such an intense story with complex characters that it kind of makes you hate the writer for having such a great idea, to have served the ball so hard it would be impossible for your opponent to hit back...for someone who knows nothing about sport I think I'm getting a bit too fixated on this tennis analogy but you get the idea.

What is Maid about? Well...I was feeling pretty sorry for myself because I was eating chicken curry in bed and some sauce stained my new bedsheets (feral I know, don't judge it's been a long eighteen months ok) but watching Alex's (Margaret Qualley) life unfold in Maid made me appreciate how easy I have it. Joking and personal hygiene shame aside, Maid explores the life of a young single Mum, Alex, who has run away from her emotionally abusive boyfriend Sean (Nick Robinson). She's estranged from her father (Billy Burke), her mother (Andie Macdowell) has undiagnosed bipolar disorder and Alex lives with her three year old daughter Maddy in poverty. In order to make ends meet Alex takes a job as a maid...cleaning the houses of exceptionally rich folk such as: the lawyer called Regina (Anika Noni Rose) who treats Alex as nothing more than the dirt on her shoe.

Alex's situation seems to get worse and worse. A car crash happens, she can't find housing, a little hope is built as she finds support in a DV shelter -BUT hold your horses because now she loses custody of Maddy to her ex boyfriend Sean for seven days until another court hearing and in this time she is subtly denied access to Maddy by Sean's mother, she's so food deprived she faints while cleaning Regina's house and Regina doesn't like how she's cleaned the house and refuses to pay her. Oh my God. Can someone please give this woman a WIN? Even just a bar of chocolate would do at this point. Anything.

Alex is given a huge amount of kindness and support by Nate (Raymond Ablack) but by the rules of every story ever written ever Alex obviously cannot be attracted to him because he has money, is single, a good Dad, perfect body, luscious and presumably conditioned beard, good morals and is an all round 'nice guy.' It's never going happen Nate, get over it buddy, no girl wants a nice guy I don't know why that is but it is what it is #don'thatetheplaya -the only guy I've ever seen break this rule is...no nobody. Don't even come at me with Ross and Rachel from Friends they were not on a break that relationship opens a completely different can of worms. Anyhoo...

Andie Macdowell who plays Alex's mother Paula is Margaret Qualley's actual mother in real life! Their chemistry was obviously one hundred percent convincing and Macdowell's performance is a masterclass in acting as she plays Paula who teeters on the edge of lucid and unintelligible, she's an artist and free spirit but her dramatic mood swings go from soaring high as a cloud to being utterly unpleasant which means you're never quite sure what she's going to do next. What is clear is that Alex will be there to pick up the pieces whether Paula wants her to or not.

Alex's relationship with her own daughter Maddy (Rylea Nevaeh Whittet/a star in the making) is nothing short of a planet in it's own right filled entirely with love. 'I live for my daughter' Alex says at one point and even though I don't have a child I think this story was so powerful because Alex's desperation to give Maddy a good life never falters, we follow the story so closely through Alex's eyes it's like we become her. Qualley gave a lovely performance.

The way the scriptwriters presented emotional abuse was also extremely well done. The abuse was presented in a careful way, it was not gratuitous and didn't deviate from the overall softness of the show by being overly violent. This isn't to say it didn't shy away from the horror of emotional abuse. At one point the despair Alex feels inside her head because Sean has isolated her from the rest of the world is presented through a black hole which Alex find herself lying in. She is surrounded by darkness and dirt, the rest of the world seems very quiet and far away as she lets the abuse engulf her. 

Alex is belittled by Sean, he controls her by taking her car away, he refuses to give her money so she can call anyone on her phone, in front of her father he orders her to sit down and eat dinner with them even when she says she feels sick. It almost feels like he tries to justify his abuse towards her: 'You Dad just bought over a home cooked meal,' he tells her, getting up to stand inches away from her face, 'you're being fucking rude.' We're made to feel uneasy as viewers.

In the first few episodes Alex initially finds it hard to accept the abuse she has faced, when it is suggested that she contacts a DV shelter for help she says: 'I'd really hate to take a bed from somebody who has been abused for real.'

'Abused for real? What does that mean?' her housing advisor replies.

'Beaten up. Hurt.' Alex says.

'And what does fake abuse look like? Intimidation? Threats? Control?' Sean and Alex's relationship explores all of these elements of abuse and I found it interesting because I think in terms of drama it is a device which is less obviously dramatic. We don't see bruises or hear Sean repeatedly screaming at Alex which would show in a more obviously dramatic way the abuse. This type of abuse has been explored very powerfully in a lot of TV soap storylines such as Little Mo and Trevor's relationship or more recently Chantelle and Gray's marriage in Eastenders. I'm saying less 'obviously dramatic' in terms of a storyline which is definitely not to say that this abuse is in any way less than or there's a type of hierarchy, it just means it is shown in a more subtle way. This show highlights the different types of abuse someone can face and the trauma which comes with it. It feels like we are always in a state of limbo, constantly holding our breath as Alex sleeps in Maddy's bed every night, she is clearly afraid of Sean coming home and lives in this constant state of apprehension that his emotional abuse will turn into something physical. We don't see any bruises but the abuse is completely valid as the housing advisor implies and I think this is an important perspective to get across as I have not watched it on TV shows as often. The support Alex receives in the DV shelter is also very moving and BJ Harrison's character Denise is a pillar of strength to hold Alex up which shows the vital work places like this do. 

And now we come to Regina, the rich lawyer who's house Alex cleans and fantasises as having as her own. I don't want to say too much about this iconic woman because she has a magnificent character development that I don't want to spoil BUT one of the final lines she says is 'maybe I'm not a cunt' which I think speaks for itself. I enjoyed the way the writer's explored this character because they gave us an explanation to the way she acts, we see elements of the background story of her life and the unhappiness that she feels which permeates into the way she treats Alex. She also pays fourteen hundred dollars (over one thousand pounds) for sweaters which is a useless purchase I can get behind if I had the money. One day I will get Gucci socks. We all have our dreams.

You will binge watch this series in two days tops. Enjoy!