By Kaitlyn Goldberg – News Editor

The Netflix drama “Maid” follows a single mother from Washington who leaves her abusive relationship and struggles with poverty and the broken government assistance system.  

The show’s lead is Alex Russell, a 24-year-old young mother to a 3-year-old daughter, Maddy, who leaves her emotionally abusive and alcoholic boyfriend, Sean, and starts a new life without him. Her mother, Paula Langley, is a hippie who suffers from undiagnosed bipolar disorder and lives in a trailer with her boyfriend.  

Alex had found a job being a maid from “Value Maids” which would make her take a ferry to an island and clean houses for the rich. She had also moved into a shelter for women who had been victims of domestic violence. 

Alex’s passion is writing and she receives a full scholarship to Missoula State University in Montana. She had to turn it down because she found out she was pregnant with Maddy. While going through all of her hardships she wrote about her experiences, helping her express her frustration and pain that had come along with what she was going through. 

A memorable moment in the show is, when in the shelter, Alex meets a woman named Danielle. They become friends after Danielle helps Alex stand up to one of the women she cleaned for after she did not pay her. They become close, but then sadly Danielle leaves the shelter, and goes back to her abusive boyfriend, which upsets Alex.

A more upsetting moment that happened in the show is when it turns out that Paula’s now-husband, Basil, is a con artist and was selling out Paula’s childhood home. This causes Paula to break down and try and break into her old home and causes Alex to go back to Sean after seeing how he helped her mom and her. 

An exciting moment that happens in the show is when Alex reapplies for college at Missoula State University in Montana. She gets accepted back and applies for full custody of Maddy.  Sean first wants to fight it, but after a bad time at the park with Maddy, he lets Alex have full custody and move to Montana with Maddy so Alex can live out her dreams of being a writer. 

Overall, this show does a great job of showcasing the struggles of homelessness, poverty, and the flaws of the government assistance system. It is a powerful show with complex, moving characters.  

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars