Going into the second season of One Day at a Time, I was excited. I was expecting that it would be just as funny and emotional as last season. However, I was not expecting that this season would absolutely break my heart one minute (causing tears to run down my face on several occasions while I was watching this,) and then have me in stitches the next from laughing so hard. This season was not only just as good as Season 1, but it topped it.
Warning: Possible Spoilers Ahead! Read at Your Own Risk!
One Day at a Time is a modern-day reboot of a 70’s show of the same name, though the original show and new show do not have too much in common besides a few characters having the same name and a few similar plot points between both shows.
The story revolves around The Alvarez’s, a Cuban American family living in California. Penelope (Justina Machado), an army veteran and now nurse, is struggling day to day with her job, raising her family, and dealing with her mental health issues including PTSD and depression. Luckily, Penelope has her family to help her out including her progressive teenage daughter Elena (Isabella Gomez), her tween son Alex (Marcel Ruiz), and her dramatic & opinionated mother Lydia (Rita Moreno). On top of her immediate family, Penelope also has her friends, including her building’s superintendent, Schneider (Todd Grinnell) and her boss and “friend” of her mother’s, Dr. Leslie Berkowitz.
This season has so many good moments and episodes I can’t possibly go through everything. I will however, talk about a few highlights of the season that I really think need to be talked about.
First let me start with the things I really loved about this season. One of my favorite things definitely had to be Elena and Syds relationship and romance. In the third episode of this season, we are introduced to some friends of Elena’s who are all activists like she. While we first think that Elena will end up with a girl named Dani, she actually ends up with a non-binary character named Syd. Syd and Elena are so adorable together, and the show continues to be progressive by having Elena’s first real relationship (besides her sort of relationship with Josh in season one) be with someone who is non-binary and uses the pronouns they/them. Syd is adorable and awkward just like Elena. The two characters fit together so well, and honestly, I could write an entire article just about their relationship. Elena is also continuing to be a great character who cares about so many social and economic issues, and tries to be very educated on them all. One of the best scenes we see from Elena is when she confronts her father in the 8th episode of the season about how he treated her when she came out to him. He was not very understanding and even left her Quinceanera. Isabella Gomez’s performance almost had me in tears. It was so heartfelt and heartbreaking to see her stand up for herself to her father and show him how strong she really is. I really loved that scene, and it was probably one of my favorite scenes of the season.
Penelope was another MVP of this season. I really loved her budding relationship with her old army buddy Max, and I hope that we see him back next season. Something I really appreciated about this season was we get to see Penelope not only start a relationship with Max and also be studying to become a nurse practitioner, but we also really dive into Penelope’s mental health. Penelope has PTSD, anxiety, and depression. While we do see Penelope continuing to go to therapy throughout the season, we also have one of the best performances by Machado in an episode that has Penelope deciding to go off her medication. After going off of the medicine, Penelope starts feeling anxious about a presentation she gives at her kid’s school—not wanting to get out of bed, and even finding herself so upset that she ends up canceling her plans to meet her boyfriend’s parents. In one of the best scenes in the history of this show, we see Penelope go down to Schneider’s apartment to ask him to listen to a recording she made of herself, at the advice of her support group. In the recording we hear Penelope talk about her feelings of depression and hopelessness. She talks about how she knows she should be happy, but when people tell her that and how great her life is it just makes her feel worse because she’s aware of that. She just doesn’t feel good about herself and feels like she can’t help it. After listening to the recording, Schneider and Penelope talk about how it is okay if she needs to take her medicine, and Schneider opens up to her about his drug and alcohol addiction. Schneider’s father owns the building and Schneider grew up with a pretty lavish lifestyle, so sometimes the show can feel like it doesn’t take his issues all that seriously. However, this scene definitely changes all of that because we get to see Schneider open up in a way he never has before in regards to his problems with drinking and drugs. He shows Penelope that even though he can’t have those things for the rest of his life, it is still okay and better for him at the end of the day. Penelope takes this advice to heart and starts going back on her medicine, going to therapy, and has a great talk with her mother who lets her know that she wants Penelope to do whatever she can to get better. The entire last third of the episode really shows the great emotional performances of Machado, Grinnell, and Moreno. It is honestly some of their best work on the show I have seen to this date and an extremely realistic look at mental health disorders.
The last person I want to really shine a light on is Lydia. Rita Moreno has so many great performances this season. Some are extremely comedic, such as when she dances with Leslie at Elena and Alex’s homecoming dance; and some are extremely emotional, like when she is explaining to Penelope why she can’t bring herself to throw even an umbrella away. Rita Moreno has amazing comedic timing, but can also bring tears to anyone’s eyes. This season we get to see Lydia become a US citizen (she previously only had a green card,) and seeing how hard she works to do so really is inspiring. We get to see both her fear and uncertainty with becoming an American citizen due to fear of losing her connection to Cuba. In one of the most emotional scenes of the season we get to see Lydia interact with her deceased husband, and it is a very beautiful scene.
Stray Thoughts:
- Syd’s “big ask” to Elena to “We Didn’t Start the Fire” is one of the cutest things I have ever seen.
- Rita Moreno saying, “I like to be in America” was something I was waiting for ever since I found out that Rita Moreno was Anita in the movie West Side Story. Penelope’s response by saying “I know you do” made the reference even better.
- I am really sad that neither Josh nor Carmen were seen or mentioned in the show. They were both good friends to Elena, and I understand Carmen not being referenced much since she has moved away to live with her brother, Josh was really good friends with Elena last season and we hear no mention of him or see him at all. Elena even states she has no friends when Josh went to school with her. I really wish they had brought Josh back or at least referenced why he was not hanging out with Elena (maybe he moved away or went to a new school). Anything would have been nice, but that is really my only pet peeve with this season.
- The show ended up covering so many important issues and did not shy away from anything. I really loved how the first episode tackled racism and talked about it very openly and honestly. They referenced things in today’s political climate and things said to members of the Latinx community years ago. This also was a very important episode for Alex and showed a lot of emotions in his character that we have not seen much of before.
- Every performance in the season finale was perfect. While Penelope’s may have been the one that brought the most tears to my eyes (almost full on sobbing), every single character had a scene with Lydia that was emotional and special to them and their relationship with Lydia.
One Day at A Time is a fantastic, funny, emotional, and just all around amazing show that everyone should watch. It talks about a lot of important topics from mental health to immigration to racism to sexuality and so much more. The comedy in the show is also spot on with so many hilarious actors and line deliveries especially from Moreno, Gomez, and Grinnell. I can’t express the love I have for this show enough. I hope you will all check it out for yourself and be able to see how phenomenal this show really is!