‘Maid,’ ‘The Maid,’ or ‘The Housemaid’? Untangling All the Maid Stories of the 2020s

Back in October 2021, Maid premiered on Netflix. Based on Stephanie Land’s terrific memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive, the series starred Margaret Qualley as a single mother trying to raise her daughter while escaping an abusive ex-boyfriend and navigating her own dysfunctional family. It was a very good show—raw, honest, and moving—and ended up as the fourth most popular series on Netflix that year.

The Maid is a fun and cozy mystery novel by Nita Prose about Molly Gray, a neurodivergent maid who discovers the dead body of Mr. Black in his hotel room and ends up entangled in—and framed for—his murder. The novel was published in early 2022 and became a bestseller. Universal Pictures acquired the rights to the book back in 2020 and attached Florence Pugh to star, but as far as I can tell, the adaptation has been stuck in development hell for the last three years.

The Housemaid is another 2022 novel, this one by Freida McFadden. It follows a woman named Millie with a mysterious past who starts over as a maid for a wealthy family. She ends up having an affair with the husband, Andrew, who has been imprisoning and abusing his wife, Nina. The Housemaid has since become a full-fledged book series, now including four novels and a short story.

McFadden’s The Housemaid is also being adapted for the big screen, with a film directed by Paul Feig and starring Sydney Sweeney as the maid, Amanda Seyfried as the wife, and Brandon Sklenar as the husband. The movie is scheduled to be released this Christmas.

That should not be confused with Sarah A. Denzil’s novel, The Housemaid, which actually predates McFadden’s version by a year. Published in 2021, Denzil’s book centers on a woman who takes a job as a maid at an estate where her mother once worked, hoping to unravel the mystery surrounding her mother’s disappearance or death. It was a commercial success in its own right but has since been overshadowed by McFadden’s more viral series. There is currently no film adaptation in development.

Got it?

I haven’t read McFadden’s The Housemaid because when it came out, I confused it with Nita Prose’s The Maid and thought I’d already read it. Then, when I realized I hadn’t, I accidentally ended up reading Sarah Denzil’s The Housemaid instead.

The Cleaning Lady is not based on any of the above novels. It’s a mediocre Fox television drama about a Cambodian-Filipino doctor, played by Elodie Yung, who comes to the United States seeking medical treatment for her son and ends up working as a cleaner. Eventually, she’s recruited to work undercover for the feds to take down a criminal organization. The show ran for three seasons before being canceled last month.

High Potential is a popular ABC procedural adapted from a French series. Kaitlin Olson stars as a woman with super intelligence who helps the police solve crimes. She works as a cleaner in the pilot episode, which is how the police discover her talent—but that part of her character is essentially written out after episode one.