The show, which is based on the Mexican telenovela Ellas son la Alegria del Hogar, was created by Marc Cherry, a longtime Hollywood person most famous for holding Satan's butt cheeks apart while Desperate Housewives fell out. Thus far, the face of the show has been Eva Longoria, one of its executive producers and a former Housewives star. Her stewardship of DM makes me feel the way rappers probably felt when Stacey Dash started tweeting about being pro–Mitt Romney.
Devious Maids was originally developed by ABC, but ABC passed on it because someone there is smart. It's since been picked up by Lifetime. It is on Sunday nights. Don't worry about setting your DVR, though, because every time it's about to air a whole bunch of birds will fly straight into your living-room window at full speed and kill themselves.
Some notes from the show, along with some other important general information:
A Synopsis of the Series, as (Probably) Told by Show Creator Marc Cherry to the Show's Producers
"Five Latinas who work as maids in Beverly Hills for rich white* people show off their fiery attitudes and cultural-liness, right? Pretty crazy, huh? Like, that's winner on sass right there. But then, oh my God, here's the twist: If you can even believe it, it turns out THE MAIDS are the normal ones and the rich people are rich, sure, but they're crazy and they don't understand what's really important in life and these maids are so noble and mas fuerte and oh my god what a beautiful story to tell. Good stuff, huh? But, just to be clear, like, I want to make sure we're all the way clear on this: They're still maids. The Latinas HAVE to be maids. That's it. Like, that's THE ONLY way. Latinas. Maids. They HAVE to serve the white people. The white people are rich and the maids aren't. We're good on that, right? Like, white people: rich. Maids: clean shit up. Cool? Dope. Let's shoot."Marisol Duarte: Played by Ana Ortiz (Ugly Betty). She's mother to the boy accused of murdering the maid stabbed in the guts in the first few minutes, though nobody knows it yet. She spends the whole episode making sure that everyone who's not rich and white knows she's up to something. When she finds herself in the room where Flora was murdered (to clean it, of course), she does everything short of putting on a Sherlock Holmes hat and taking out a magnifying glass. The rapey husband walks in. He doesn't suspect Marisol is there for anything other than to clean. White people are so dull and Latinas are so sharp.
Rosie Falta: Played by Dania Ramirez (Entourage). She works as a maid to save money to bring her son, whom she left in Mexico when his father died, to America. Sidebar: "Falta" basically translates to "missing" or "lacking," which is an especially ham-fisted hat-tip from the show to itself.
Carmen Luna: Played by Roselyn Sánchez (lots of stuff). She is a musician. She works for the Latino singer. She spends the entire first episode trying to get him to hear her music. Eventually, this leads to a Russian (German?) amputee having to spend several nights in a hospital. For real.
Zoila Del Barrio: Played by Judy Reyes (Scrubs). She's mother to Valentina, who also works as a maid because, I mean, legacy, yo. Sidebar: "Del Barrio" basically translates to "from the hood" or "from the ghetto." I don't have enough G's, T's, F's, O's, and H's for all of the GTFOH's that belong here.
Valentina Del Barrio: Played by Edy Ganem (never seen her before). She's also from the auspicious Del Barrio tribe, daughter to Zoila. She spends the first episode trying to get her employer’s son to want to sleep with her. After Zoila notices what's going on, she gives Valentina a cumbersome uniform to wear while working because "rich boys never fall in love with the help. Trust me on this [sad face sad face sad face]." Valentina outsmarts Zoila, though, cutting it up (I guess Zoila'd never seen a pair of scissors before, what with her being from the barrio and all) and sewing it into something provocative because she really wants that rich D, I guess.
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