03 September 2012

DEVIOUS MAIDS: Which politician is going to protest this one?

Devious Maids was supposed to air on ABC, a TVnetwork that's quite accessible elsewhere. But after ABC passed on it when the pilot was presented to a test group, a cable channel (Lifetime) bought the show's rights. The first season of the series is set to air sometime in 2013, for 13 episodes.

Many of the cast members are made up of Latinas, given that one of the people behind the show is Eva Langoria. Devious Maids stars some of TV's most successful Latin Americans like Ana Ortiz (from Ugly Betty), Judy Reyes (from Scrubs), Dania Ramirez (from Heroes) and Roselyn Sánchez (from Without A Trace). Soap Opera veteran Susan Lucci is also in the cast.

Devious Maids is an adaptation of a Mexican telenovela and the American series is written by Marc Cherry, creator of Desperate Housewives (DH). The original series was patterned from DH, by the way. Which then means DH is adapting a show that's been inspired by their own show. Confused yet?

DH has a bad history with the Filipino audience. And because of the nature of the story on Devious Maids, I'm not going to be surprised if a protest sparks when this show airs. If and when it reaches Philippine shores.

Of late, I still don't know if there are any Filipina in the cast or if there are any slurs directed at Pinays. But I'm anticipating someone's bound to raise hell somewhere in the bowels of the World Wide Web when this does come up.

But you know what? I've learned, over the years, that slurs shouldn't be taken seriously in a TV show. I see this the same way I see religion and faith in that, regardless of how others convince you that you're going to hell for your beliefs or that you're on the wrong side of the fence, nothing and no one is going to disturb the foundation of what you stand for, just because one statement, which, normally, is used for dramatic impact on a TV show, has been said against it. (Wow, serious thoughts in the early morning. I'm getting a headache!)

Anyway, here's a short preview. And lemme just say --- I love, love, love Ana Ortiz. I'm glad she's on a new show after Ugly Betty!