On Sunday, a fictional TV program called
Devious Maids
debuted, and it has stirred up a lot of controversy between the Latinas. The show represents the first time in the history of American
television that a show has featured an all-Latina leading cast. They're
all maids. THEY'RE ALL MAIDS. Awesome. When I tell you this will be a big hit once everybody jumps on the bandwagon and see how messy these maids can be. Lifetime has definitely picked a winner.
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.
FlyGossip Guy
THE SHADE IS REAL
CARMEN: BACK IN BLACK | Carmen may be playing house
with Alejandro this season, but just because she’s walking the red
carpet, that doesn’t mean she won’t also be vacuuming it. “Her future
has not been set in stone,” Wind explains. “The show is called Devious Maids, and we will always go back to our roots.”
