SummaryThony (Elodie Yung), a Cambodian doctor, is forced to find work with a crime organization to help pay for treatment for her ill son in this adaptation of the Argentinean drama of the same name.
SummaryThony (Elodie Yung), a Cambodian doctor, is forced to find work with a crime organization to help pay for treatment for her ill son in this adaptation of the Argentinean drama of the same name.
Kwok’s script does a good job of centering this narrative without hitting us over the head with claims of diversity and representation, the balance integral to its success. It’s a unique character inhabiting a unique world: the perfect ingredients for an exciting story.
Miranda Kwok and showrunner Melissa Carter have adapted an original Argentine series into a drama with decently complex cultural politics. ... Here's a TV series that's pro-immigrant, pro-feminist, pro-stem cell research, anti-racist, and very cheesy. The Cleaning Lady mixes so many different things together, which is how you make a mess. It's also how you make a melting pot.
While much of the mob action in the series’ background lacks verve and pop, Yung sells the significant portions of the show she is asked to carry, in particular the actorly red meat of fear for a child in peril.
“The Cleaning Lady” has good intentions, but is far too derivative to form a compelling series. Yung is a star, as is Millan, but the two women are smothered by the soapy (pun intended) issues of a criminal underworld that feels like Mafia 101.
The concept here isn’t bad but the execution is another story as the writers pull out all the stops to manipulate the emotions of their viewers in ways that alternate between annoying and exploitative.