UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTHERN CARIBBEAN P.O. BOX 175, PORT OF SPAIN Media Critique An Assignment Presented in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Course FMST454- FAMILY VIOLENCE ACROSS THE LIFESPAN INSTRUCTOR: Pr. Leslie Moses By Lorilee Nimblette 15 March, 2023 Approval …………………………… Netflix series: Maid Maid is a Netflix TV series that was certainly well produced and released on 1 October, 2021. It portrays a mother and her young daughter who escape a household of domestic violence perpetrated by the mother’s husband (daughter’s biological father). The struggles of the woman to become financially independent and support herself and her daughter a documented in the series. The main character Alex, the young mother faces verbal, financial and emotional abuse by Sean, her husband. Sean is an alcoholic and his abusive behaviours are most present in his drunken state. The series portrays well how Sean would get worked up over little mishaps or disagreements which starts the abuse. During the time that Alex spent with him, he called her names and often cursed at her. Along with this, Sean was the breadwinner of the home and Alex was not working during the abusive period. This is one of the factors that lead Alex to stay in the abusive relationship for as long as she did. The actors did a great job of displaying the relationship between Alex and Sean. Their arguments felt genuine and as a viewer it felt like I was in the room with them. You could clearly see all the emotions expressed through the screen and the message being portrayed was received. Some of the messages portrayed were; Alex being belittled by Sean, Sean disregarding the presence of their child and continuing with his abusive behaviour. Overt Messages: 1. Alex being affected by verbal abuse and emotional abuse 2. The child viewing and experiencing the abuse 3. The child’s everyday life and schedules being affected In the series, the child in the situation was subject to moving from various living locations (the original home, her grandmother’s house, her grandfather’s house, a friend’s house, a new apartment, the DV shelter) and along with this, being integrated into the school environment. 4. The effects of alcoholism The show made good use of Sean’s alcoholic tendencies to show just how profound its impacts are. 5. Social learning theory The social learning theory was apparent through Sean’s negative behaviour which he had also seen modelled by his own father in childhood. 6. Revictimization The Revictimization theory was also displayed in the series. Alex’s mother was also a victim of domestic violence which Alex herself would have observed in infancy and early childhood. These points were well displayed in the show. Along with this, the production did a wonderful job of highlighting the struggles that are accompanied by abusive situations. This involved finding a DV shelter, getting a job, conversations with family members and friends and quite important as well, recovering mentally from the situation. What I particularly enjoyed about the series was its ability to showcase all the events from the violence to escaping to recovering, while leaving a window for viewers to further evaluate what has taken place. For example, they displayed Alex’s upbringing with an abusive father and her mother who was able to evade that situation, without clearly stating how this impacted Alex’s future, we were able to see that through her life choices later on in the series. As mentioned before, the series was well presented and displayed real-life events in a believable manner. Along with the recovery of the victims, Sean, the perpetrator also improved his life after many failed attempts and this was depicted well. The producers also provided real resources for viewers who may be experiencing the same issues as the family portrayed. The series could have been improved by giving a more detailed view of how the child would have been affected.
