Maid

Excellent well worth a watch

Holy shit, the level of realism in this show is just unbearable at times. Completely raw and unapologetic throughout the opening few minutes which continues well into the series. I'm on episode seven and it had reached an even more elevated height of authenticity if that's possible. If you think for one minute that anything in this show is impossible then take a big step back and wake up.

Absolutely amazing, important and perfectly written

This is my nr 1 series. I love the depth of the story and the perfectly balanced dialogues in this. The details like the moment [spoiler]where Alex is at the supermarket with food stamps and behind her people are getting frustrated and laughing with her cause she is poor shows how awfull many people are , and nice she is, she pays more for a paper bag to respect the planet while she is very desperate for money. The guy after her 'just plastic please' , like a real dirtbag that doesn't give sh#t about the planet. The moment where food and phone is written on the tshirt to tell the audience what the above digits are is so nice and fun. [/spoiler]
Margaret is killing it here. Without her this series wouldn't exist or be so good. Her performence is over the top. The moment where [spoiler]she gets a panic attack when coming out the crawlspace is just next level acting. [/spoiler] Apart from the fact that she looked like a squirrel or chipmunk that moment haha... Everything about this serie is so well done. The music, the sets... Just gold.
A series that i will sherish as long as i live.

I honestly can't think of a single bad thing to say about this miniseries. It's just so good! There's great acting all around and Margaret was truly exquisite as Alex. Her performance was so subtle and charming, I empathized with her character right away and felt her pain and joy throughout the show.

The examples of domestic violence, emotional abuse, trauma bonding, toxic relationships, and neglect are all over this show, but there's also love, friendship, beauty, and a protagonist that shows you that thriving is possible, even when everything is against you.

I love when good people can flourish in spite of their trauma and suffering, in spite of everyone taking advantage of them or trying to tear them down and break their character. I love that life and the world can't turn them into their abusers or bullies.

An emotional rollercoaster. Alex makes me angry and sad when she fails, yet I'm still cheering for her to keep going and finally have a win. It's heavy and so relatable, even if you're not in a similar situation that's portrayed. Amazing acting, and the directing was spot on.

as a domestic abuse survivor, this show is hard to watch. it brings back all of those muddy, icky, second-guessing feelings and a lot of the thoughts i remember having myself. but it's also kinda therapeutic watching someone else go through something similar, hearing (on tv) someone blatantly validate emotional abuse is really important for a lot of people, because a lot of abuse starts that way. before they escalate to hitting you and pushing you down the stairs they scream and yell at you and blame you for everything.

and while this show is about domestic abuse, it's also about surviving and making it out. i appreciate more than i can say with words that there are shows depicting what these types of situations are like and for giving hope to anyone stuck in these situations that there is a way out of it.

margaret qualley has done a fantastic job with this role. definitely a show worth watching.

acting, direction and handling of different mental issues and themes of violence were all spot on. you will root for everyone at some points, even people you don't want to root for. and then you will be disappointed by everyone at some points, even people you don't want to judge. it's a painfully raw, upsetting series, and if you can stomach it, do watch it.

most importantly i'd suggest taking all the comments and reviews floating around the internet seriously. it is triggering, and not in the pop culture sense of the word. the only other time i've experienced this amount of visceral, physical distress over something otherwise harmless was the sound of a particular type of voice triggering a traumatic event. i went in believing wholeheartedly that it might be intense like everyone warned squid game would be (and it was), but that the triggers wouldn't be things i needed to be concerned about: i don't have my own child, and i'm not a victim of domestic partner violence.

but there are scenes of panic, anxiety, dissociation and dread. there are scenes with perspective views that are jarring, and scenes which act as unreliable narrative tools. there are characters who relapse into alcoholism, and there are extremely authentic and distressing manic episodes that play out on screen when alex's mother is concerned. there is homelessness, depicted in a number of ways and in the ways that most people don't think about, like sleeping in your car and having no safety net between various, fleeting types of temporary housing. there are courthouse scenes, and courtroom scenes (particularly stressful for me, having experienced them), and there are sensations of claustrophobia, loss of time and helplessness that the camerawork and acting convey in a way that translates outside of the actual show and into your own reactions, if you have ever felt any of those sensations yourself.

there are people who try to do the right thing, for the wrong reasons. there are people characterized as good, who are not good. there are people who keep doing the wrong thing. there are no straightforward villains because everyone is realistic, and that makes it worse. and there is a lead character in alex, with an innocent child, who consistently encounters obstacle after obstacle and does not get to breathe—not really—until the very last episode.

if you don't have any experience with the issues tackled by this show or you're watching it for maid confessions like the book, you will likely not get everything out of this experience that the show has to offer. if you are prone to dissociation, intense worry, or have firsthand experience with any of the things i've mentioned here, you're going to have a tough time. i regularly attend therapy and i'm doing quite well, but it was still not the kind of show i could binge-watch and it did come up a couple of times in therapy—for the better, honestly.

the last thing i want to say regarding the content is that, if you were a parentified child, or had insecure attachments growing up due to neglect, abuse or addiction—this is scary. unless you are completely cut off from your experiences with insecure attachment? this will remind you of things that aren't actually happening on screen, from different times and of different natures. i was a parentified child, and i still to this day struggle with not worrying about people who aren't my responsibility. that theme is present throughout the show, and it does not let up, not until the very end.

Such a raw, powerful, and gripping piece of media. This was a miserable watch at times; an absolute rollercoaster of emotions. Margaret Qualley deserves all the praise for her performance here.