It’s not often that a character-driven action drama shifts gears during its fourth season, but Fox’s The Cleaning Lady is doing just that. As we get into the show’s new season, Thony De La Rosa suddenly finds herself in a position where she can get something out of the cartel whose heel she’s been under since the show’s first episode. How ill this power shift change the show?
THE CLEANING LADY SEASON 4: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: Thony De La Rosa (Élodie Yung) is sitting outside a US Citizenship and Immigration Services office with her son Luca (Sébastien and Valentino LaSalle), her sister-in-law Fiona (Martha Millan) and Fiona’s son Chris (Sean Lew). They’re in an upbeat mood.
The Gist: The group is being interviewed by an agent (Timothy Busfield) for a visa application that has been opened for them by FBI Special Agent In Charge Katherine Russo (Liza Weil).
Two days earlier, we see the reason why they’re being considered for a visa: cartel leader Ramona Sanchez (Kate del Castillo) is mopping and cleaning in prison, fending off advances by fellow inmates. She takes a red hair tie and ties it around a garbage bag; it’s her way of communicating something she needs done to some outside contractors, who intercept the truck hauling the garbage from the prison.
Agent Russo shows up at the cleaning business Thony and Fiona own to thank Thony for helping her bring down Ramona, and gives them the good news that she’ll be helping their via process along. Thony is especially happy about this, because once she’s documented she can find a residency for international physicians — she was a doctor in Cambodia but hasn’t been able to practice medicine since she came to the US to get Luca treatment for his autoimmune disorder.
When the instructions Ramona sent are carried out right in front of Thony, Thony decides it’s time to leave the country. But Luca persuades her to stay, and she goes to visit the cartel leader. Ramona wants to see her brother Jorge (Santiago Cabrera), who is ostensibly in charge with her imprisoned but hasn’t come to see her due to how she killed his wife and kidnapped his young daughter. Thony, thinking she might have the upper hand, wants Ramona to help her get her and her family the visas they were on track to get.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Good Girls meets Breaking Bad meets The Bridge.
Our Take: Daniel Cerone, the new showrunner of The Cleaning Lady, has essentially decided that Thony, after spending three seasons indebted to the cartel in one way or another, needs to be on top for once. The way she gets there makes for some interesting possibilities during Season 4.
After visiting Jorge and saving his bacon during a shootout, Thony decides to full-on work for the cartel as its doctor. That will get her the residency she wants, and will get an inside track to Jorge, right as he’s fighting to set up some legitimate businesses and land deals in order to provide for his daughter the “right” way.
Will she always have this upper hand? Probably not. But for now, it’s good to see her not trying to run anymore, and confronting someone as dangerous as Ramona, realizing that after all of these years doing the cartel’s bidding, she might be just as dangerous.
There are a few side stories, like Chris almost getting Fiona in trouble when he goes to a jeweler to have his mother’s necklace and earrings appraised, and it turns out that they were stolen during a huge MGM Grand heist. Also, Jorge’s attempts to go legit are definitely going to run into problems, especially as Ramona wields power from prison.
By this point in the run of The Cleaning Lady, it feels like the story is abandoning most of the pretense of it being about the country’s immigration or healthcare systems and is just shifting to a power play between Thony and Ramona. Perhaps in this country’s current immigration environment, it’s probably for the best, given how many pretty terrible things Thony has had to do to stay in the country and bring Fiona back after she got deported.
Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.
Parting Shot: After some of Ramona’s thugs trap Thony’s car so Ramona can talk to her on the phone, Thony basically tells Ramona that she doesn’t want anything from her. She is definitely in a position of power now.
Sleeper Star: It feels like Sean Lew is going to get an interesting storyline as Chris, given he wants to move to Los Angeles to be with his girlfriend.
Most Pilot-y Line: While we give Fiona gumption points for wearing that low-cut shimmering-gold outfit to her visa interview, even she knows that the outfit wasn’t the best choice.
Our Call: STREAM IT. If loyal viewers of The Cleaning Lady notice the show going in a new direction, they’re not going to be wrong; Thony’s newly-strong position is something that’s been purposely baked into Season 4 of the series. It’s a welcome change, buoyed by Yung’s lead performance making the shift feel earned.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Cleaning Lady’ Season 4 On Fox, Where Thony Gets The Upper Hand On An Imprisoned Ramona appeared first on Decider.
