Maid
Essential
One of the most commonly asked questions regarding women in abusive relationships is why can't she just leave him?
'Maid' answers that question in the best way possible. It shows just how difficult it is to leave and highlights the reality of living as someone who is a lower class citizen. And on the complete opposite end of the spectrum it shows the privileges that the upper class continuously take for granted. With the emphasis of unequal income distribution, the treatment of the lower class by the upper class is also observed. I noticed parallels between this and Parasite (2019) in the way that the rich often complained of how the poor smelt not knowing they'd spent hours on manual labour so it makes sense to smell bad. Also the way the workforce in this series is portrayed is so important. Alex worked long hours for low wages whilst facing dehumanising treatment and dealing with her insane family.
However while this is a necessary series in showing the reality of abuse in relationships I didn't like a lot about this. Firstly, there wasn't any need to have more than like five episodes. Everything just felt horribly prolonged. Secondly, I don't think the writers thought the ending through. It was just so underwhelming in the way that everything conveniently worked out just because it was the last episode. Thirdly, in the middle things got slightly strange like that one episode about the child thief and it's all so ominous for no reason. Fourthly Margaret Qualley is a really good actress but her acting here resembled Kristen Stewart's in Twilight it was the most annoying thing I've ever seen. Fifthly, why'd they cast the twink from Love, Simon to be the abusive husband?? Sixthly, while Alex did go through a lot she also got excused for a bunch of random stuff like inviting her tinder date to her employers house while she wasn't home.
Overall this was an important series but it could've been done way better. One of the things that stuck with me is how Alex referred to time as a privilege; rich people don't have to wait in queues or figure out how to survive when they get home from work.