The Cleaning Lady Review: TNT (Season 1 Episode 1)

On The Cleaning Lady Season 1 Episode 1, “TNT,” we get a swift introduction to what may be one of FOX’s best new shows in years, with special thanks to Élodie Yung.

Élodie Yung plays Thony De La Rosa, a Cambodian woman who’s come to the United States looking for treatment for her son’s immunodeficiency disorder.

From the first glimpse we get of Thony and her son, Luca, it’s clear that though Thony works hard in general, her most important job is being a mother.

Meeting Marco, Thony’s husband, the same can’t be said for him.  

Then there’s Fiona, Marco’s sister, and Thony’s housemate/coworker. Fiona and Thony get along wonderfully, and even though we’re only one episode in, the relationship between Fiona and Thony is incredibly strong. 

Our last key character is Arman Morales, who hires Thony to be his cleaner after witnessing him and his men murdering her friend.

Both Arman and Thony are (tragically) married, but I can smell an enemies-to-lovers plot from a mile away. 

Lady Out-Of-Luck

“TNT” is a fast-paced, high-stakes episode of television, which is always a risk in a pilot episode because you want to make sure the weeks following can keep that kind of suspense. 

The Cleaning Lady, unfortunately, suffers in its B-roll. The show takes place in Las Vegas, and each additional clip is too familiar to other TV shows, which only serves to take you out of it. 

However, Thony’s cleaning sequences never feel repetitive or boring, which is a hard thing to do considering the number of crime-involved montages we’ve gotten from TV. Including the requests from Arman, Thony cleans a whopping five scenes during this episode.

Yet it never feels like it’s going too fast or out of control. It does, however, beg the question: when on earth does Thony sleep?

Thony cleans up after her poor murdered friend and then is asked to complete almost mundane jobs for Arman. In a way, he’s testing her without saying so directly. 

E Stands for Extradition

Knowing nearly nothing about Fiona, Thony offhandedly mentions that she sometimes moves too quickly with men, and this time? Sheesh. 

Fiona, wanting a better life than that of a cleaner, tells the man she’s been seeing that she’ll sell Ecstacy for him in return for giving her a job. 

Desperate times call for desperate measures and all that, but I do wish we’d gotten to know Fiona a little bit more before we immediately threw her into the “drug dealer” category.

Fiona’s lack of urgency balances well with Thony’s constant sense of urgency, and this fares well for the two of them on screen together. 

Boom

Having zero experience in explosions or criminal activity, I can’t say for sure what I’d do in Arman’s shoes, but the fact that he goes back to save Thony leaves space for him to be better.

I’m not saying there are not good criminals on TV shows, or I don’t love villains, but Arman letting Thony live and coming back to rescue her means that there’s something good inside of him. 

Or maybe, like his wife, he likes her. Same, Nadia. Fully same. 

The only serious complaint about “TNT” is that the FBI is somehow involved already. The open-ended question is, why? Are they looking into Thony because of her immigration status or her involvement with Arman?

And how did they find her so fast? They saw Thony give her friend’s daughter a gift and marked her down as a suspect? It’s a bit strange. 

The Cleaning Lady begins an interesting story with vibrant storytelling and a powerhouse cast. I can’t wait to see where this show takes us. 

Stray Thoughts:

• One of the first things Arman says to Thony is, “anyone who can’t see you is blind,” and we find out he’s married? And so is she? Criminal! 
• The scene where Arman tells Thony that his mother is a housekeeper feels like the beginning of something, whether platonic or more, but his soft spot for Thony is made obvious. 
• The Cleaning Lady successfully toes the line between a cable TV show and a streaming or premium channel show, and it makes the concept better for it. 
• I am here for the use of flip phones on TV in 2022. 
• “Ball is life.” So true, Dani Rojas. 

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The Cleaning Lady airs Monday at 9/8c on FOX.

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