Anyone watching Maid on Netflix?

[Anonymous]

We did see him telling her to leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a great series, one of the best I have ever seen.
I have just one episode until the end.

I think Margaret Qualley is an excellent up-and-coming actress.
Her talent is beyond any other young actress today.

She deserves an Oscar for portraying a character that she has absolutely nothing in common with.
That takes a ton of authentic talent.

She is overacting with her facial expressions

[Anonymous]

I hated the 50 page form that had to be filled out EVERY MONTH for food stamps and MA. The hilarious parts were where the form asked how much you expected to work the next month or if you expected any change in your medical expenses. "I plan to have 4 days of stomach flu and will miss work the second week of next month and for my son to have an ear infection the week after that" was what I often imagined writing. This was before people could do this stuff online and they didn't even have a drop box, you had to get there before the office closed. When I had recertification meetings, my brain would go completely numb--you'd wait a long time, then you'd sit brain dead while the worker entered the info into the computer and had questions and stuff. They would have DMV records of every car you'd ever owned that died and became salvage, it was like a journey into my automotive history of used cars. Workers vary--there are people who feel (and will say out loud) that they represent the TAXPAYERS of the county, and there are others who have lived the life themselves and have great suggestions.

For awhile they had this pilot program going, the idea being to screen applicants for possible service needs like addiction or mental health services. But it was sneaky. They had some kind of state mental health worker who also interviewed you but she didn't really say what her role was--I happened to find out about this project several years after the fact.

The child care subsidy had two tiers, 30% and 70%, for awhile. I made $7 a month too much for the 70% tier. The tough part was weekend work--I was a graduate TA but worked as a CNA every other weekend--and juggling who could watch my kid on the weekends.

One thing that was off was they made it sound like SNAP benefits are paid weekly (when she gets $67.50 for the week)--which is not the case but I think was done to bring home what it would break down to. The first few times I used food stamps I felt uncomfortable but wasn't long before I was ok with it. I lived in a neighborhood where I lot of people also had food stamps. I've been in line when someone was arguing with the cashier over whether a particular item was permitted with the food stamps (I think it was a cold deli item? and at least at the time hot deli items weren't allowed?).

Section 8 is a lot like the TBRA program they portray. I have a friend with mental illness and alcohol issues, on SSDI, who had a section 8 voucher, but she periodically had to get new apartments after a major psych episode and long term hospital stay (yes, state hospitals still exist and some people are there for months on end). The trick is, landlords require income 3x the rent and the section 8 rate is that you pay 30% of your countable income--so really you DO have income 3x the rent you are responsible for, but this is not how property managers figure it. So my friend could never get into places that met the rental amount criteria (and advertised themselves as section 8 eligible) and which also happened to have good security and tenant background checks because they wanted income 3x the actual rent, not the tenant's portion of rent. So she always ended up in places where the security entrance was always on the fritz, domestic violence situations next door, drug activity, and making friends with neighbors who did not affect her mental health in a good way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not happy that they said food stamps benefits are weekly they are monthly

Also one can’t serve their own court papers (like alex does with the move away order)

Yeah, I caught that one too. Has to be someone who is not a party to the action.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Her dad was relatively stable and offered her a clean, safe place to stay, with backup care for Maddy when she was sick. I kept waiting for there to be strings attached or for him to be a monster. But her only reason for moving out was a realization that YEARS PAST when he was an alcoholic, he hit her mother. He's now sober, a Christian, and keeps on her ex boyfriend to get him to go to AA meetings. I think she was crazy for turning down his help. She should have done almost anything to stay with him and his wife who also seemed kind and stable.

I completely agree with this. I think it’s just people and liberal shows hating on born again Christians mostly.

Why did she leave her abusive spouse and go to a person that hit her mom? Do you think sober people don’t hit people? Do you think Christians don’t abuse people?

I kept waiting for that part of the show -- where her dad who seemed kind and stable started being abusive towards his second wife -- but it never happened. The abuse happened in the past, when he was married to a woman with bipolar disorder, it seems? And when he was drinking. He seemed to have cleaned up his act and had a loving, stable home with a nice wife and two kids.

She was in a desperate situation and had a stable home available to her. She should have stayed there until she got on her feet. Her dad wasn't abusive towards his current wife, kids, or grandkids. Under the circumstances it was the best option for her.

Keep in mind she only figures out that he abused her mom during the time period of this show, plus her experience growing up had been that he was a no show. So on the one hand a sense of not feeling safe around him without necessarily consciousness of why, on the other a pattern that has been set for a long time. And doesn't he drink beer with Sean the night he brings over supper? And later rationalizes Sean's behavior to her? And thinks she has a responsibility to help Sean stay sober?

I actually like the fact that the series shows how people are not just Bad or Good.

Andie McDowell reminds me of the mom in The Glass Castle (I've read the book, didn't see the movie). At first she seemed like a caricature but as the season has gone on I don't think so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hated the 50 page form that had to be filled out EVERY MONTH for food stamps and MA. The hilarious parts were where the form asked how much you expected to work the next month or if you expected any change in your medical expenses. "I plan to have 4 days of stomach flu and will miss work the second week of next month and for my son to have an ear infection the week after that" was what I often imagined writing. This was before people could do this stuff online and they didn't even have a drop box, you had to get there before the office closed. When I had recertification meetings, my brain would go completely numb--you'd wait a long time, then you'd sit brain dead while the worker entered the info into the computer and had questions and stuff. They would have DMV records of every car you'd ever owned that died and became salvage, it was like a journey into my automotive history of used cars. Workers vary--there are people who feel (and will say out loud) that they represent the TAXPAYERS of the county, and there are others who have lived the life themselves and have great suggestion



For awhile they had this pilot program going, the idea being to screen applicants for possible service needs like addiction or mental health services. But it was sneaky. They had some kind of state mental health worker who also interviewed you but she didn't really say what her role was--I happened to find out about this project several years after the fact.

Thank you for explaining. I've been through all of this too.

The child care subsidy had two tiers, 30% and 70%, for awhile. I made $7 a month too much for the 70% tier. The tough part was weekend work--I was a graduate TA but worked as a CNA every other weekend--and juggling who could watch my kid on the weekends.

One thing that was off was they made it sound like SNAP benefits are paid weekly (when she gets $67.50 for the week)--which is not the case but I think was done to bring home what it would break down to. The first few times I used food stamps I felt uncomfortable but wasn't long before I was ok with it. I lived in a neighborhood where I lot of people also had food stamps. I've been in line when someone was arguing with the cashier over whether a particular item was permitted with the food stamps (I think it was a cold deli item? and at least at the time hot deli items weren't allowed?).

Section 8 is a lot like the TBRA program they portray. I have a friend with mental illness and alcohol issues, on SSDI, who had a section 8 voucher, but she periodically had to get new apartments after a major psych episode and long term hospital stay (yes, state hospitals still exist and some people are there for months on end). The trick is, landlords require income 3x the rent and the section 8 rate is that you pay 30% of your countable income--so really you DO have income 3x the rent you are responsible for, but this is not how property managers figure it. So my friend could never get into places that met the rental amount criteria (and advertised themselves as section 8 eligible) and which also happened to have good security and tenant background checks because they wanted income 3x the actual rent, not the tenant's portion of rent. So she always ended up in places where the security entrance was always on the fritz, domestic violence situations next door, drug activity, and making friends with neighbors who did not affect her mental health in a good way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also I Googled Stephanie Land and turns out that as she was finishing college and slowly climbing out of poverty she had ANOTHER daughter without a partner... what’s up with poor people and babies?!

You really do not understand the cycle of poverty. Her body, her choice means you butt out of the choice part, even if it’s not the choice you would make for yourself or the choice you would make if you were her.

https://time.com/6102655/maid-stephanie-land-poverty/

Lol, okay. You make no sense …

" On a photo of my youngest, who was about 5 at the time, smiling while eating ice cream, someone commented how terrible it was to get pregnant when you can’t afford your kids. I had been off government assistance for three years."

So, yes, people on assistance do get pregnant. And some people not on assistance but with marginal financial security get pregnant and then do require assistance. And some working poor have kids although they get by without, or are just over income limits to qualify for, direct assistance (although they may get EIC). Not sure how much you think a person should have to earn to be able to afford a child, but last year 67k was the median income, and if only people over that median had kids we'd have even more demographic issues with the workforce than we already do.

I was marginal but not on assistance when I got pregnant, I did end up requiring help because the father was not reliable and I didn't earn enough myself. I was also 34 and had not had a child and felt this might be my only chance. Child care and medical coverage were absolutely the biggest financial issues in my case--things which some countries simply provide to everyone. I could get by with everything else.

[Anonymous]

Yes, to clarify….that Nate DID in fact tell Alex that she had to leave, that day.

He claimed he was her friend.
And wanted to help her out with Maddie.

But ultimately on his terms only.

[Anonymous]

What was the story with the murderer who was hiding in the woods and stalking people? I expected him to turn up at some point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, to clarify….that Nate DID in fact tell Alex that she had to leave, that day.

He claimed he was her friend.
And wanted to help her out with Maddie.

But ultimately on his terms only.

Don’t forget he also gave her a car!

That’s pretty generous for a friend. Asking her to leave was about long overdue boundaries. It would have been ridiculous to keep letting her stay and drag all that chaos into his life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What was the story with the murderer who was hiding in the woods and stalking people? I expected him to turn up at some point.

Yes, that was a very weird tangent that I didn't quite get.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, to clarify….that Nate DID in fact tell Alex that she had to leave, that day.

He claimed he was her friend.
And wanted to help her out with Maddie.

But ultimately on his terms only.

Don’t forget he also gave her a car!

That’s pretty generous for a friend. Asking her to leave was about long overdue boundaries. It would have been ridiculous to keep letting her stay and drag all that chaos into his life.

+100
I think he did absolutely everything he could for Alex. And then he realized that she was just going to return to her abusive ex. So I don't blame him for asking her to leave. It was the right thing to do. And he let her keep the car.

[Anonymous]

Since this IS DCUM, I am surprised that no one on here has mentioned that Alex while a very sympathetic character, was cheating the government the entire time in this story.

She was getting social services - assistance w/her housing costs, medical care & food stamp benefits (SNAP.)
Then at the end a scholarship to attend college.
Yet during the movie > she also accepted cash jobs to avoid losing her benefits.
After being fired from Value Maids, she accepted cash paying gigs under the table.

It is unethical of her to do this and even the movie made it seem like it was her only way to survive.

[Anonymous]

Because it was the only way she could survive. Receiving “seven types” of government assistance was not enough to sustain Alex and Maddie. Alex still had to purchase minutes for her cellphone, food for her child, gas for her junky car as well as supplies to scrub toilets. She also needed to help pay Maddie’s daycare costs to ensure her daughter was being looked after properly. The Father Sean was nowhere near paying her child support and her Mother was too flighty to be relied upon. Her own dad turned out to be a disloyal lying scumbag and Alex did all she could to keep her and her child from sinking to the bottom of the sea.
Her intentions for working for cash were only to better herself for her child. It’s not like she used the supplemental cash to buy drugs or alcohol. And in the end she ventured off to college where it is presumed she would earn a B.A. degree and go on to give her and Maddie a much better life.

[Anonymous]

Hopefully Netflix will provide us with a second season so we can see how Alexis struggles in college as a single parent/mom.