"Devious Maids," Marc Cherry's confection for Lifetime shot in Atlanta but set in Beverly Hills, started slow last summer in its debut season but built momentum as the season drew to end, finishing 50 percent higher.
The show continues its snarky, conniving and often hilarious ways in its second-season debut Sunday, April 20, at 10 p.m. for 13 episodes.
If you still haven't caught the show, its feel and tenor is similar to that of Cherry's classic ABC soap "Desperate Housewives." (ABC rejected "Devious Maids," which opened the doors to Lifetime.) The dialogue is zippy, the plot twists zany, the characters rife with secrets and lies.
David Lonner, an executive producer who has been friends with Cherry for 27 years, said he enjoys how Cherry seamlessly merges comedy with drama. "If you love somebody, you can hate them literally a second later," he said. "He's a keen observer of the human condition."
Many of Cherry's best characters have hideous qualities. Carmen, for instance, is insanely self centered and egotistical. Yet last season, when Odessa fell ill with cancer, Carmen showed moments of empathy and caring.
There's a new mystery this season - of course. And several new characters pop up this season. Marisol (Ana Ortiz), the professor who became a maid to figure out who had framed her son for murder season one, is now dating a very wealthy man with a dark past and a very suspicious assistant.
Controlling maid Zoila (Judy Reyes) is on the outs with her daughter and fellow maid Valentina (Edy Ganem) after she tried to keep Edy away from her love Remy, Susan Lucci's character Genevieve's hunky son.
Rosie, the bright-eyed, busy-tailed maid who fell in love with the father of the house Spence played by Grant Snow ("Melrose Place"), was deported last season but has found a way back into town for the time being. She doesn't know, of course, that Peri (Mariana Klaveno), Spence's wife, knows about their affair and actually deported her. Peri keeps it a secret for now and has some interesting news for Spence in the first episode, too.
Carmen (Roselyn Sanchez), to advance her music career, continues the charade of a marriage with closeted gay music star Alejandro (Matt Cedeno), engendering jealousy from Odessa (Melinda Page Hamilton), his long-time servant.
Evelyn and Adrian Powell, the creepy power couple, are back, too, and will soon pick up a new maid.
From a production standpoint, the show had to move from EUE Screen Gems at Lakewood because "Hunger Games" had devoured all the stages there. So they are shooting season two in a converted beer distribution space in Stone Mountain that works really well as a sound stage. Most of the sets are clustered in a central location and there's an area where beer trucks would come in that is enclosed where the star and makeup trailers are kept. Many of the beer-related signs are still hanging on the walls.
"We have so much space," executive producer Lonner said. "It's amazing. We're able to spread out."
Most actors and others who are temporarily living in metro Atlanta are choosing places like Decatur, Virginia Highland and Midtown to reside during the four-month shoot.
"We're having a really good time," Lonner said. "It's a great cast with extremely gifted actors at the top of their game all being given this original, surprising writing."
Lonner said shooting outdoor scenes to reflect Beverly Hills while Atlanta has suffered a nasty winter has been a challenge. They had to shut production a couple of times due to storms. Once Atlanta turns green in late March, "it doubles really well," he said. "Buckhead makes a great Beverly Hills. We bring in a lot of palm trees. In the winter, we choose angles very carefully to stay away from huge swaths of dormant trees. We looks for evergreens."
Lonner said Cherry comes by on occasion but he spends most of his time in L.A. with his writing staff getting scripts to them - just in time. "Marc works well with deadlines," he said. "Nothing is done in advance. It means he's always racing but he delivers magnificently. When he apologizes for being behind, I say I'd rather get something great late then something not particularly good on time."
Here are some highlights from interviews I did with three of the cast members:
Edy Ganem (Valentina)
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
As her first big role on TV, she is thrilled to be with such a great cast, crew and producers. "I'm living the dream," she said.
She said she will try to be more independent from her mom and finds a new job at a new home. There, she meets a pool boy who is immediately interested in her. Think love triangle.
Ganem chose to live in Inman Park. Most of the other actors are older than she is so she hangs out with some of the "Vampire Diaries" actors including Nina Dobrev.
And while being on ABC would have given the show a bigger platform, they are Lifetime's baby, she said. "They're really taking care of us."
Grant Show (Spence)
Although Rosie returns, Peri works her darndest to keep his character apart from her.
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
So he says his workload is relatively light the first few episodes (though he is on set the day I visit to punch someone out, "Melrose Place" style).
Spence, he felt, was a bit of a goofy buffoon last year. This year, he's a little more serious. "He was this guy who was cruising through life, a little glib, not caring for too much," he said. "Then he fell in love with Rosie."
Show said he can't quite figure out why his character even married the shallow, self-centered Peri.
If anything, Spence cares about family and has stayed with Peri for the sake of the child. But now, he isn't quite into that as much. "He's really in a bad place," she said.
In Show's personal life, his wife Katherine Lanasa just had a baby Eloise last month (after I interviewed him.) The light workload has enabled him to spent more time iwth her during her pregnancy.
Like Ganem, he rented a home in Inman Park with his wife. He said in that neighborhood, he can easily stay under the radar. Last year, he flew in and out of New York and stayed in hotels. "Last year, I dreaded having to come here," he admitted. "Now that we're here, we're enjoying it."
He loves Cherry's work. "It's not some muddy thing that may or may not gel into something watchable," he said. "It's very specific. It's the kind of material I've never worked on. It's comedy and drama with a little tragedy. But tragedy with sparkle in it. There's a certain rhythm to it."
He said he prefers this over sitcom work. He struggled in 2009-2010 with the CBS show "Accidentally on Purpose" with Jenna Elfman. "It just wasn't my style," he said.
Dania Ramirez (Rosie)
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
She loves her character's optimism. And though she comes off a little ditsy at times, Ramirez says Rosie "is still savvy in her own way. She's got a lot of strength. She has a lot of my mother and my aunt rolled into one. Despite her struggles in life, she still sees the world in a positive way. That's what makes her so charming."
Her deportation story line, she said, is a story many Latin people in the United States can relate to. Ramirez's parents came here when she was six months old. She was raised by her grandmother and didn't get to live with her parents in the States until she was 10.
When she returns from the detention center, she finds a new job with a new family and is separated from Spence.
She looks on the bright side of a 13 episode run vs. 22 on broadcast. "Every episode seems to be charged with lots of twists and turns. Nothing gets dragged out too long."
Her husband Bev Land is from Columbus. His grandfather started AFLAC. They both have family in Atlanta. She did "American Reunion" in Atlanta a couple of years ago. She just gave birth to twins Dec. 17 and went to work in January.
TV preview
"Devious Maids," 10 p.m. Sunday, starting April 20, Lifetime
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