These past years have been full of reboots, Fuller House, Twin Peaks, and even Roseanne, but the One Day at a Time reboot was the one we didn’t know we needed until now.
One Day at a Time focuses on the everyday life of a Cuban-American family living in Los Angeles. The five main characters have their own strong and unique characteristics that make their representation on screen that much more important.
Justina Machado plays Penelope Alvarez, the mother of Elena and Alex, and daughter of Lydia, who is an army veteran that struggles vividly through the show with PTSD, anxiety and depression all while trying to raise her children and going through a divorce.
Living legend Rita Moreno plays “abuelita” Lydia, a drama queen and extremist Catholic, who shares her stories of Cuba, which she fled from in the 60s due to its rising dictatorship. She is the perfect representation of older generation Hispanic mothers.
Then, we have Elena Alvarez, played by Isabella Gomez, who *SPOILER* comes out a gay and is a feminist and activist, always speaking out for causes that she cares passionately about.
The golden boy, Alejandro “Alex” Ruiz, is leaving behind childhood while transitioning into puberty, his adolescence stage and being the stud of his school.
Finally, every family sitcom has to have the quirky and ridiculous neighbor, in this case, that would be Schneider, played by Todd Grinnell. Schneider is your typical privileged friend, who’s father bought him what he has. Schneider identifies as part of the Alvarez family though, claiming he is Cuban and being a “father figure” to Elena and Alex, while their father is away.
The show tackles issues on so many current situations we are facing today – such as racism, immigration, alcoholism, coming out, mental illness, culture identity, deportation, and a handful of others. It is the progressive TV show that we need more of.
Recently, Netflix renewed the series for a season 3, after much petitioning from the Latino community. Organizations like Hispanic Heritage Foundation, National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, UnidosUS, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and many others wrote an open letter pleading Netflix to finally renew the show.
The letter emphasizes that “at 57.5 million, Hispanics and Latinos make up 17.8 percent of the nation’s total population and are the second-largest racial or ethnic group behind white Americans, but are grossly underrepresented in television and film.”
In our media, where Latinos today “only take up 5.8% of speaking roles on television”, most of which are about narcos and the cartel, One Day at a Time changed that status quo, being a series centered around Latino success.
Maybe it was the power of this open letter that got the show a new season or maybe Netflix finally saw how much One Day at a Time deserved a season 3; either way, there’s still time to binge watch the first 26 episodes of the show before season 3 comes out.
Be prepared to cry, laugh, relate a little bit to each character and underestimate how much you can love a TV show until seeing One Day at a Time.