There are many moments in the new limited Netflix series Maid that will have viewers holding their breath and waiting on the edge of their seats to see what happens next.
The show takes viewers on a journey of how generational trauma can play out in someone’s life and how emotional abuse can go unnoticed. Throughout the series, there is a perfect balance between lighthearted moments, thoughtful redemption arcs and comedic timing.
The series came out on Oct. 1 and is inspired by the best-selling memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive, written by Stephanie Land.
Maid follows the story of a young mother named Alex (played by Margaret Qualley) circling through the struggles of finding a home, job and independence from an abusive relationship.
In the first episode, Alex rushes out of her home with her daughter in the middle of the night. She jumps into the back of a beat-up car with no gas in the tank and only $12 left in her wallet, setting the stage for the continuous loop of struggles to follow.
The following day, Alex seeks help from a social worker. She’s told to file a police report but hesitates since she wasn’t physically abused by her boyfriend Sean (played by Nick Robinson).
The series does a brilliant job of bringing focus to the seriousness and subtle nuances of emotional abuse.
As the series progresses, we start to learn how Sean controlled Alex’s finances, access to her phone, car and relationships with other people.
Like Alex, many women don’t realize when they’re being emotionally abused, until it’s too late.
A report done by Statistics Canada in 2018 on intimate partner violence said that psychological abuse was the most common type of abuse in partnerships, in comparison to physical or sexual.
As many as 43 per cent of women said they’ve been psychologically abused in a partnership at some point in their lifetime.
Although it becomes easy to hate Sean and the cast of unsavoury characters in Alex’s life, it also becomes hard not to sympathize with them as well.
Characters who are expected to be typical one-dimensional tropes such as, “the abusive-drunk-boyfriend,” “the-snobby-rich-lady” or “the-selfish-unfit-mother,” always manage to change and progress as the series does.
The series makes it easy to immerse yourself into scenes and sympathize through every emotion the characters go through, even in their worst moments.
The series leaves you with a lasting impression of how powerful a mother’s will is to survive and how even in the darkest situations there is always room for change.
Whether it’s carefree moments of Alex and her daughter bumping along to Shoop by Salt-N-Pepa, tense moments of Sean coming home drunk, or pure joy after Alex earns her scholarship back, this series is sure to absorb the viewer into every moment.
By the end, viewers will be taking a deep breath and sighing in relief.