M is for Maid

Have you watched Maid on Netflix? I loved it. Our TV watching schedule is complicated, because Maya and I watch TV while Ted works, and then Ted and I watch TV while Maya gets ready for bed, due to work schedules. So we have the option of watching certain shows only on the weekend, or we can watch things in shifts. So if I can’t wait until the weekend to watch, I have to watch with one of them one day, and then watch with the other the next day. For me, this show was worth it. I really, really enjoyed it. It broke my heart so many times.

Maid is the story of Alex (Margaret Qualley) who is in a difficult relationship that is turning toxic. She wants to keep herself and her daughter safe, so she leaves. She has very little safety net. Her mother is nuts. (Her mother is played by Andie MacDowell, Qualley’s real life mother). Alex has hit the end of her rope with her boyfriend, but she doesn’t really have anywhere else to go. She is broke. Broke broke. If you are broke broke, where do you go? A shelter, perhaps, but what about after that? Or during that? How do you navigate the system?

I came from a home that was a few degrees above this…my mom never suffered abuse as an adult, and there was a bit of a safety net in that she could ask my grandparents for money if things got really hard. But they were not wealthy, and she was hesitant to ask, and a lot of those close to really broke moments in the show really spoke to me. We lived in a dangerous neighborhood, and I don’t know why my mom didn’t (did she? I don’t know) ask for help to fund us moving somewhere safer. I remember when I got my first job, and I had to borrow money from a neighbor for nylons. We drank powdered milk. There was one Christmas with zero gifts. Zero. That was hard as a kid, but it was MUCH harder for our mom. I saw that at the time, and it was heartbreaking.

I saw this same desperation in ‘Maid’. Alex wants so badly to make life better for her daughter. She wants so badly to make life better for herself. She has to find her way, and her strength, and she is hit down time and time again. It was frustrating to watch, but ultimately satisfying and I hope you will give it a try.

And Andie MacDowell is amazing as the nut job mother. I would absolutely slap her to sleep (as my Grandma would say) if she were my mother. But it’s a great role, and she is glorious.