SUMMER TV EXTRAVAGANZA

DEVIOUS MAIDS

**1/2 (out of ****)

Once again we must ask ourselves that classic, age old question “Was Devious Maids kind of okay, or did it just seem that way because you just watched Crossing Lines?” The answer is obvious — it just seemed that way — but just for a second, let’s pretend we live in a world where a show called Devious Maids, on Lifetime no less, could be halfway watchable.

Devious Maids is creator Marc Cherry’s new show. He’s the one who created Desperate Housewives, and continues his trend of how to name shows here (adjective that starts with D, followed by a job for females). I didn’t see very much of Desperate Housewives but watching Devious Minds, I think I can kind of get the gist. Four ladies, each with secretive pasts, presents, and futures, get their seemingly mundane lives spiced up, thanks to piles and piles of crazy drama. It’s an easy formula for a show, but even though no one would confuse DM for something great, it does feel like it’s being done by people who have done this kind of thing before — in a good way.

All of the Latina television actresses there are (Maya from Heroes, Carla from Scrubs, Hilda from Ugly Betty, and Elena from Without a Trace) star as the maids, whose lives are really only connected by the fact that they take their breaks at the same table in the park. Other than that, DM feels more like four shorter shows edited together than a cohesive whole. This isn’t ideal, but neither are pilots, so maybe future episodes will gel more now that we’ve met the ladies and their plots are underway. The most shocking part of the whole show is that the maids are treated like people, and the episode does the best it can to show them as three dimensional characters, even though they are Latinas and women. This shouldn’t be shocking, because they are the main characters, but it is. Where the show doesn’t do that is with everyone else, namely the Whiteys. These are some of the most vapid, horrible characters on television. If you’re predisposed to hating shit like that, then I would steer clear of Devious Minds. If you’re like me, and also think that white people are the worst, then jump right in, even though it’s impossible to imagine a show where the roles are reversed, where the white people are the main characters and very little time or attention is paid to the “help.” Just impossible.

-Ryan Haley