DEVIOUS Maids boasts that deliciously depraved entertainment generally attached to soaps – and it is contained to 13 addictive episodes.
Simply put, the stories are long enough to take pleasure in and, at the same time, short enough so as not to become one of those mind-numbing series. In other words, it’s Grey’s Anatomy but shorter, with maids and madams.
And it certainly has been an impressive feather in Eva Longoria’s producer cap. The former Desperate Housewives star hasn’t been resting on her laurels since that award-winning series ended.
She latched herself onto big-screen projects and also decided to explore the passionate producer within.
Devious Maids, a show created by Marc Cherry, has become her magnum opus as an executive producer. Despite the show getting flak for stereotyping Latinos, the cultural knowledge she imparted to Cherry helped him lend veracity to his storytelling.
This is a guilty pleasure of a similar ilk to Jane the Virgin. It’s not genius or pioneering storytelling, by any means. And despite believing that the melodrama tsunami would be an insult to the intelligence of viewers, it hasn’t. The fact that it is now in its third season being rather indicative of its success.
What’s not to enjoy, too? It has sex, scandal, violence, villains, deception and secrets – lots of curve-ball secrets.
In the last season, the script was flipped, in a fabulous way, on former “maid” Marisol Suarez living large after becoming engaged to a gorgeous hot man. But his maid, Opal, seems to take a strong dislike to her and makes her life hell – well, tries to. Sweet Rosie finally got her happily ever after… well, almost. Her “dead” husband gatecrashed her wedding to Spencer Westmore. Zoila found herself a delectable chef and Carmen’s singing aspirations were realised; but that was after she inadvertently slept with her married new boss. And let’s not forget about the shootout in the climax of last season, which ends up putting the kybosh in the sexual life of the newlyweds.
As I said, this series has that salacious soap-esque feel.
So what’s in store in the new season? Well, Adrian Powell is feeling adventurous but Evelyn isn’t as turned on by his S&M fantasy.
No season is ever complete without new characters to propel the story arcs forward. And that’s where Days of Our Lives actor Nathan Owens and Glee actress Naya Rivera come in. That’s not forgetting Christiàn de la Fuente as Ernesto Falto (Rosie’s first husband).
Now that she has proven herself in the producer league, Longoria is onto her next one, Go, Sebastien, Go!, the story of a young America’s Got Talent finalist who faced racist criticism after performing the national anthem in a mariachi outfit at the 2013 NBA Finals. If nothing else, that controversy will definitely bag her an audience.
And she hasn’t forsaken her acting roots – she is the lead in Hot & Bothered. That’s after her short stint on Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Talk about being the Jane of all Trades.
l Devious Maids airs on Vuzu Amp on Monday July 13 at 8pm.