I'm a guy, so you'll have to excuse me when I proudly proclaim that Lifetime's "Devious Maids" is hot! So hot, in fact, that it's almost on fire (and reportedly, there is a fire somewhere in there within the first few episodes)! I also don't mean that the actresses are hot - because in fact they are, but so are the settings, the performances, the big rich houses, and the various situations that the characters find themselves in.
Marc Cherry (of "Desperate Housewives" fame) is the creator, and prominent Hollywood actress Eva Longoria (also of the aforementioned "Desperate Housewives" - a show that I'll readily admit that I never watched) is one of the show's key executive producers. Admittedly when I first heard about "Devious Maids" - which is adapted from a popular Mexican TV series called "Ellas son... la alegría del hogar" (which translates from Spanish into English as "They Are the Home's Joy") - I thought it was just more crap to keep us glued to the American idiot box for yet another hour that could be spent doing something else better with our lives and time.
But I'll say, right off the bat, that "Devious Maids" is crap well-worth watching and like the the best television out there, it's highly addictive and entertaining comedy/drama/whodunit murder-mystery that will keep you tuning in week after week for your weekly "Devious Maids" entertainment fix. So in other words: Welcome to your new TV addiction!
Early on, I remember reading about how the show may perpetuate negative stereotypes regarding Latina housemaids - you know, how supposedly most young, beautiful Latina housemaids like to dress in skimpy, cleavage-bearing outfits meant to up the titillation factor for male viewers. It's kind of ridiculous, if you ask me, because this is something we've been seeing in the movies and on TV for years, and it has not always been Hispanic actresses dressing scandalously for the men in the audience. Sure, there's some titillation here & there, some exposed flesh (of the "PG-13" or "TV-14" variety, the latter for which as it is for most TV shows), but for most of the time the actresses seem to dress fairly normal and much like the snobby, lazy rich people that they're paid to serve. (The show more often than not, stereotypes upper-crust elites - and their values - as rich, snobby, and culturally illiterate about their servants. They also seem to have many disturbing secrets that I'm sure will be exposed in due time as the series progresses. Lastly, the show also not-so-subtly reminds viewers about the ever-widening income disparities in 2013 America.)
While essentially a comedy series with some dramatic moments that's typical of most Lifetime fanfare, "Devious Maids" is also a whodunit. Set in sunny Los Angeles, California, the show settles on the lives, loves, and secret hopes & aspirations of four Latina-American housemaids and the wealthy L.A. families they serve. What sets things in motion, is that a maid is brutally murdered during a house party, and she collapses into the swimming pool in front of dozens of horrified party-goers. Her replacement is the beautiful, highly educated Marisol Duarte (Ana Ortiz). After being hired and proving her worth to her new, wealthy, dysfunctional employers, she soon initiates her own private investigation into the murder; she also has a compelling personal motivation for her actions.
She also manages to make friends with four other maids working in the same neighborhood - Rosie Felta (beautiful Dania Ramirez), who is probably the hardest-working of them all because she wants to bring her young son from her home country to live with her in America; Carmen Luna (Rosalyn Sanchez) wants to launch a singing career while also working for a famous Latino musician; and Zoila Diaz (Judy Reyes) works with her 20-ish-age daughter Valentina (Edy Ganem), who also has a serious romantic infatuation with Remi Delatour (Drew Van Acker), the college-age son of her slightly neurotic employer.
"Devious Maids" has so far had a promising start and it already looks like it's really going somewhere three episodes into the series. If you're looking for more highly addictive television with compelling-enough emotional melodrama, humor and plenty of scandalous situations, "Devious Maids" is just the right show for you!
9/10
Marc Cherry (of "Desperate Housewives" fame) is the creator, and prominent Hollywood actress Eva Longoria (also of the aforementioned "Desperate Housewives" - a show that I'll readily admit that I never watched) is one of the show's key executive producers. Admittedly when I first heard about "Devious Maids" - which is adapted from a popular Mexican TV series called "Ellas son... la alegría del hogar" (which translates from Spanish into English as "They Are the Home's Joy") - I thought it was just more crap to keep us glued to the American idiot box for yet another hour that could be spent doing something else better with our lives and time.
But I'll say, right off the bat, that "Devious Maids" is crap well-worth watching and like the the best television out there, it's highly addictive and entertaining comedy/drama/whodunit murder-mystery that will keep you tuning in week after week for your weekly "Devious Maids" entertainment fix. So in other words: Welcome to your new TV addiction!
Early on, I remember reading about how the show may perpetuate negative stereotypes regarding Latina housemaids - you know, how supposedly most young, beautiful Latina housemaids like to dress in skimpy, cleavage-bearing outfits meant to up the titillation factor for male viewers. It's kind of ridiculous, if you ask me, because this is something we've been seeing in the movies and on TV for years, and it has not always been Hispanic actresses dressing scandalously for the men in the audience. Sure, there's some titillation here & there, some exposed flesh (of the "PG-13" or "TV-14" variety, the latter for which as it is for most TV shows), but for most of the time the actresses seem to dress fairly normal and much like the snobby, lazy rich people that they're paid to serve. (The show more often than not, stereotypes upper-crust elites - and their values - as rich, snobby, and culturally illiterate about their servants. They also seem to have many disturbing secrets that I'm sure will be exposed in due time as the series progresses. Lastly, the show also not-so-subtly reminds viewers about the ever-widening income disparities in 2013 America.)
While essentially a comedy series with some dramatic moments that's typical of most Lifetime fanfare, "Devious Maids" is also a whodunit. Set in sunny Los Angeles, California, the show settles on the lives, loves, and secret hopes & aspirations of four Latina-American housemaids and the wealthy L.A. families they serve. What sets things in motion, is that a maid is brutally murdered during a house party, and she collapses into the swimming pool in front of dozens of horrified party-goers. Her replacement is the beautiful, highly educated Marisol Duarte (Ana Ortiz). After being hired and proving her worth to her new, wealthy, dysfunctional employers, she soon initiates her own private investigation into the murder; she also has a compelling personal motivation for her actions.
She also manages to make friends with four other maids working in the same neighborhood - Rosie Felta (beautiful Dania Ramirez), who is probably the hardest-working of them all because she wants to bring her young son from her home country to live with her in America; Carmen Luna (Rosalyn Sanchez) wants to launch a singing career while also working for a famous Latino musician; and Zoila Diaz (Judy Reyes) works with her 20-ish-age daughter Valentina (Edy Ganem), who also has a serious romantic infatuation with Remi Delatour (Drew Van Acker), the college-age son of her slightly neurotic employer.
"Devious Maids" has so far had a promising start and it already looks like it's really going somewhere three episodes into the series. If you're looking for more highly addictive television with compelling-enough emotional melodrama, humor and plenty of scandalous situations, "Devious Maids" is just the right show for you!
9/10