Netflix Drama ‘Maid’ Spotlights The Divide Between The Haves And The Have-Nots

There is a clear divide between those with money and those without. For many, poverty is a catastrophic cycle they can never escape because the cards are stacked very much against them.

The new Netflix NFLX drama series Maid, which premiered October 1, spotlights one woman’s struggle as she navigates the systems that are put in place to help people but instead hold many back.

The 10-episode female-driven limited series, inspired by the New York Times NYT bestselling memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive by Stephanie Land, follows the gut-wrenching story of Alex (Margaret Qualley) who turns to housecleaning to barely make ends meet as she escapes an abusive relationship and overcomes homelessness to create a better life for her young daughter.

This riveting, powerful and emotional series is one of my absolute favorites of the year. It’s at times hard to watch because you know Alex represents so many who are currently in the same dire situation.

Showrunner, executive producer and series writer Molly Smith Metzler explained in an interview how she came upon Land’s beautiful writing and why she felt compelled to tell this story.

It was the spring of 2019 and Metzler was working with John Wells on the tenth season of Shameless and he and Margot Robbie had just officially obtained the rights to Land’s novel.

“It was very organic and kismet,” Metzler recalls. “They were so excited about the book and coincidentally, I had just written a play called Cry It Out about motherhood and socioeconomics in America. The story centers around three mothers who come from different class systems and it shows the lack of support we give mothers in this country.”

At the time many in the Shameless cast and crew had gone to see her play. “They asked me if I’d be interested in adapting the book. I went home and read it and it really grabbed me and upset me. It fired me up! As a writer you want to lean into that feeling and so I said yes.”

Metzler knew of the systemic failures the poor face but explains how taken she was with Land’s particular story. “I saw just how the system failed Stephanie and it was really infuriating! The gap between the haves and the have-nots is widening. The memoir is set in 2010 and we updated it to a pre-pandemic 2018 and in that time period everything has gotten worse. We are in a crisis.”

This is a love story for mothers and daughters the world over and casting the real-life mother-daughter duo Qualley and Andie MacDowell was a brilliant choice but Metzler says the decision came from Qualley.

“We knew going in that casting Alex would be the biggest decision we would make,” Metzler explains. They wanted Qualley and she was the first person cast. “We then built the cast around her. One thing about Margaret is how unaffected and raw she is. She’s just so true to the role and this really informed the casting. We all immediately thought of Andie but we were afraid to bring it up. We wanted to see if she would and she came to us and said she felt her mom would crush this role and she wanted to do this with her. We allowed Margaret to lead the parade with Andie.”

They filmed in 160-plus locations across Vancouver Island in British Columbia and Metzler describes the process as a labor of love. “We wrote and filmed the entire series during the pandemic over the course of nine months. We were in this bubble together.”

Land’s memoir was challenging to adapt in one unique way. “In her book, Stephanie is stuck in this hell by herself,” Metzler explains. “The biggest challenge was to populate the world around her and bring these characters to life.”

Metzler and a team of four writers created fictional characters but she says the emotional heart of the story is true. One of the most significant relationships in the series is between Alex and Regina (Anika Noni Rose), a wealthy woman she cleans for who is initially not kind to her but ends up being an incredible support. “Most people don’t get out of poverty. I wish Stephanie had a Regina but she didn’t.”

Though Regina has more money than she knows what to do with, what she wants most in the world is to be a mother but on that front, she has as many challenges as Alex has with money. She ends up adopting and when she learns firsthand how hard being a parent is, she appreciates Alex for the first time.

“Motherhood is an equalizing factor between women. It’s one thing to fear for your life and another for your child’s. We really wanted to capture this onscreen,” Metzler adds.

When asked how Land feels about the series, Metzler says she’s happy with the end result. “She feels we did right by her. She’s been through a lot. She’s truly an exception. Most never get out of poverty but now she’s on the other side of it.”