darisr freborn oxford
Wynellewe Gr
I was late to one of the best Netflix shows I've ever seen. And as someone who writes about this all for a living, that's kinda disappointing. But this show was so good I had a hard time putting it down, even though it doesn't feel designed to be binge-watched.
Yes, some Netflix shows need time to breathe between episodes, so you can take in what's happened. So you can process everything that's gone on. And Maid (which is adapted from Stephanie Land's 2019 memoir) is definitely one of those shows.
I almost felt like recommending Maid (an eight-episode miniseries) would be a bit outdated, as it came out in October 2021. But the more people I talk to about this show, the more I realize that it practically went under the radar for many a Netflix subscriber. Or at least people didn't give it a chance.
That should change, though. Maid, which is more than just a star-making series, may be one of the best Netflix shows ever. And its star Margaret Qualley just got an Emmy nomination for her work on it. So, let's dive into why I'm so mad about Maid.
Out of the gate, Maid gives little context, only urgency. Late at night, in utter darkness Alex (Qualley) needs to leave her husband Sean (Nick Robinson) and take her daughter Maddy (Rylea Nevaeh Whittet) with her. The scene unfurls almost like she's a prisoner sneaking out of an enemy base. And we soon realize that's the truth.
Sean, angry, pounds on the car as Alex leaves, the first sign that she won't have an easy go of things. Seeking help from social services, and her friends and family family, Alex is bombarded with a lot of terms she doesn't understand while people take Sean's side. Even Alex's mother Paula (Andie MacDowell, Qualley's actual mother) isn't on her side. But Alex does what she can to make things almost work, getting a job a local maid service.
Basically homeless, Alex is living out of her car until that goes wrong. Fortunately, she finds home and help at a domestic violence shelter. She even meets Nate, a single dad who wants to help, but he really wants a relationship too. Something Alex isn't ready for.
Throughout Maid, we the series breaks the fourth wall a bit to emphasize the chaos of Alex's situation. When legalese she doesn't understand is presented to her, it's audibly modified to the point where you might remember the teacher from The Peanuts.
More difficulties reside at work, where Alex's boss Yolanda (Tracy Vilar) is hard-nosed and holds grudges. Regina (Anika Noni Rose), one of Alex's extremely wealthy clients, often seems like she could help Alex out, but Regina is going through too much trouble of her own.
Similarly, Lucy Mangan at the Guardian writes that Maid "is also good at showing the insidious forms and effects of emotional abuse (more rarely depicted on screen than physical abuse is) without insisting that Alex be an ever-broken Victim-with-a-capital-V."
Inkoo Kang at the Washington Post praises Qualley and MacDowell's collaborative work, writing "It's the mother-daughter bond - and strain - that shines brightest. Qualley and MacDowell are each other's best scene partners."
Just know that Maid probably can't be easily binge-watched. Each of Maid's eight hour-long episodes had me wanting to take a break to do anything else. It's just as tense as Hulu's The Bear, but in a different way.
That said, in a moment where Netflix seems all about Stranger Things, true crime and weird stuff like Snowflake Mountain, shows like Maid prove that the big red streaming machine has some truly brilliant gems you need to see.
Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple languages.[6]
Launched on January 16, 2007, nearly a decade after Netflix, Inc. began its pioneering DVD-by-mail movie rental service, Netflix is the most-subscribed video on demand streaming media services, with over 277.7 million paid memberships in more than 190 countries as of July 2024.[5][7] By 2022, "Netflix Original" productions accounted for half of its library in the United States and the namesake company had ventured into other categories, such as video game publishing of mobile games through its flagship service. As of October 2023, Netflix is the 23rd most-visited website in the world, with 23.66% of its traffic coming from the United States, followed by the United Kingdom at 5.84% and Brazil at 5.64%.[8][9]
Initially, Netflix offered a per-rental model for each DVD but introduced a monthly subscription concept in September 1999.[20] The per-rental model was dropped by early 2000, allowing the company to focus on the business model of flat-fee unlimited rentals without due dates, late fees, shipping and handling fees, or per-title rental fees.[21] In September 2000, during the dot-com bubble, while Netflix was suffering losses, Hastings and Randolph offered to sell the company to Blockbuster for $50 million. John Antioco, CEO of Blockbuster, thought the offer was a joke and declined, saying, "The dot-com hysteria is completely overblown."[22][23] While Netflix experienced fast growth in early 2001, the continued effects of the dot-com bubble collapse and the September 11 attacks caused the company to hold off plans for its initial public offering (IPO) and to lay off one-third of its 120 employees.[24]
DVD players were a popular gift for holiday sales in late 2001, and demand for DVD subscription services were "growing like crazy", according to chief talent officer Patty McCord.[25] The company went public on May 23, 2002, selling 5.5 million shares of common stock at US$15.00 per share.[26] In 2003, Netflix was issued a patent by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office to cover its subscription rental service and several extensions.[27] Netflix posted its first profit in 2003, earning $6.5 million on revenues of $272 million; by 2004, profit had increased to $49 million on over $500 million in revenues.[28] In 2005, 35,000 different films were available, and Netflix shipped 1 million DVDs out every day.[29]
In 2004, Blockbuster introduced a DVD rental service, which not only allowed users to check out titles through online sites but allowed for them to return them at brick and-mortar stores.[30] By 2006, Blockbuster's service reached two million users, and while trailing Netflix's subscriber count, was drawing business away from Netflix. Netflix lowered fees in 2007.[28] While it was an urban legend that Netflix ultimately "killed" Blockbuster in the DVD rental market, Blockbuster's debt load and internal disagreements hurt the company.[30]
On April 4, 2006, Netflix filed a patent infringement lawsuit in which it demanded a jury trial in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that Blockbuster's online DVD rental subscription program violated two patents held by Netflix. The first cause of action alleged Blockbuster's infringement of copying the "dynamic queue" of DVDs available for each customer, Netflix's method of using the ranked preferences in the queue to send DVDs to subscribers, and Netflix's method permitting the queue to be updated and reordered.[31] The second cause of action alleged infringement of the subscription rental service as well as Netflix's methods of communication and delivery.[32] The companies settled their dispute on June 25, 2007; terms were not disclosed.[33][34][35][36]
On October 1, 2006, Netflix announced the Netflix Prize, $1,000,000 to the first developer of a video-recommendation algorithm that could beat its existing algorithm Cinematch, at predicting customer ratings by more than 10%. On September 21, 2009, it awarded the $1,000,000 prize to team "BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos".[37] Cinematch, launched in 2000, was a system that recommended movies to its users, many of which might have been entirely new to the user.[38][39]
Through its division Red Envelope Entertainment, Netflix licensed and distributed independent films such as Born into Brothels and Sherrybaby. In late 2006, Red Envelope Entertainment also expanded into producing original content with filmmakers such as John Waters.[40] Netflix closed Red Envelope Entertainment in 2008.[41][42]
In January 2007, the company launched a streaming media service, introducing video on demand via the Internet. However, at that time it only had 1,000 films available for streaming, compared to 70,000 available on DVD.[43] The company had for some time considered offering movies online, but it was only in the mid-2000s that data speeds and bandwidth costs had improved sufficiently to allow customers to download movies from the net. The original idea was a "Netflix box" that could download movies overnight, and be ready to watch the next day. By 2005, Netflix had acquired movie rights and designed the box and service. But after witnessing how popular streaming services such as YouTube were despite the lack of high-definition content, the concept of using a hardware device was scrapped and replaced with a streaming concept.[44]
In February 2007, Netflix delivered its billionth DVD, a copy of Babel to a customer in Texas.[45][46] In April 2007, Netflix recruited ReplayTV founder Anthony Wood, to build a "Netflix Player" that would allow streaming content to be played directly on a television rather than a desktop or laptop.[47] Hastings eventually shut down the project to help encourage other hardware manufacturers to include built-in Netflix support, which would be spun off as the digital media player product Roku.[48][49][50]
In January 2008, all rental-disc subscribers became entitled to unlimited streaming at no additional cost. This change came in a response to the introduction of Hulu and to Apple's new video-rental services.[51][52][page needed] In August 2008, the Netflix database was corrupted and the company was not able to ship DVDs to customers for 3 days, leading the company to move all its data to the Amazon Web Services cloud.[53] In November 2008, Netflix began offering subscribers rentals on Blu-ray and discontinued its sale of used DVDs.[54] In 2009, Netflix streams overtook DVD shipments.[55]
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