Serving the sinners
The Devious Maids should take out the real trash: their cruel, mean and misery-inducing bosses!
It’s clear that the maids will never get those luxurious Beverly Hills mansions sparkling clean in campy dramedy Devious Maids (2013-2016, seasons 1- 4 are on Showmax, with season 4 on e.tv from Monday 18 February – see p51). Not as long as their filthyrich madams keep making such a mess! But that’s part of the fun for viewers, who can’t resist running a moral whitegloved hand over the shiny successful super rich and turning our noses up at all the dirt clinging to them.
TRASH MOUTH
No one in the show is as wonderfully repulsively wealthy as the unhappily married Powells: shallow, selfish Evelyn (Rebecca Wisocky) and her cruel, pervy hubby Adrian (Tom Irwin). The bloody murder of their original maid not only starts the series, it exposes Adrian’s dirty secret: running a prostitution ring from his mansion while he records his drunk friends’ hooker hook-ups for his personal pleasure (and without their consent). Evelyn might be worried that without a maid there is no way of getting blood stains out of the carpeting and furniture, but honestly, at that point she might as well throw out the whole husband too. Except don’t! The Powells are such great fun because most of their evil schemes are directed at getting one-up on each other. And while Evelyn is officially The Worst, she’s 100% worth watching for her trash mouth alone. Behold…
Evelyn describes her Rio holiday in season 2 episode 1 with: “The poverty was unimaginable. Streets filled with beggars, children running around in tatters. Every time we looked out of our hotel window, we were confronted with the reality of human suffering. Finally, we called the concierge and got a room facing the pool. So much nicer.”
RUBBISH ACTRESS
Pathologically selfish actress Peri Westmore (Mariana Klaveno) has a tragic past but that doesn’t excuse her spreading misery wherever she goes. In fact, she’s so unpleasant to work for that we find out (in season 1 episode 2) that her maids have called her “bitch” in five different languages before quitting. But she has enjoyable flashes of mischief too – like when she reveals (in season 2 episode 20) that she buys expensive clothes on her husband Spence’s (Grant Show) account every time he disappoints her. In season 2 episode 2, Peri admits to lying about a pregnancy to keep Spence and their maid Rosie (Dania Ramirez) apart. And in the season 3 finale, Peri comes breezing back in, doing the best acting of her life (she’s still terrible) when Spence has amnesia to convince him that they’re still married – and that his new wife Rosie is still just their kid’s nanny.
TOO NICE TO TOSS
Evelyn and Peri are gold-plated evil, but ditzy, ritzy, glamorous Genevieve Delatour (Susan Lucci) is simply exhausting. The gold-digging Genevieve announces (in season 1 episode 12) that “I don’t see why feminists complain so much. Being a sex object is fun” and she’s prepared to go to any length, no matter how absurd, to land her catch – even telling her legally blind date that she’s just 39 years old. Her long-suffering maid Zoila (Judy Reyes) has supported her through every heartbreak, idiocy and recovery bout after one of her endless plastic surgeries. She can be blindly selfish. In season 2 episode 9, she asks Zoila if she has any poor friends willing to sell her a kidney. “Poor people have organs. Rich people need them. Why must the government stand in the way of the small businessman,” she complains when she’s told that’s a no-no. Genevieve has no boundaries. But do you know what she does have? Jewellery specially for sleeping in! She is a delight.