One Day at a Time: Season 2

I may have said something like this a month or so ago, or whenever I posted about the first season of One Day at a Time, but it's a very specific and deliberate throwback-style sitcom. It's distinctly a "multi-cam in front a live studio audience" show that doesn't shy away from social issues or "real life" concerns at all. Back in the 1970s these shows were all over the place, but today everything is a single-cam without a laugh track, and if it isn't, it's a one-dimensional Chuck Lorre disaster.

The Alvarezes are a proudly Cuban-American family living in an apartment bulding, not their own house. Mom's a hard-working nurse, ex-military. Dad's out of the picture. Daughter's gay and a self-described social justice warrior. Son just lives it up, trying to enjoy high school. Grandma (Rita Moreno!) lives with the three of them as an undocumented immigrant who hasn't been back to Cuba in 50 years. And the landlord's a lovable failson who just drops in all the time and loves them all.

There's not a ton else going on, really! The majority of every episode takes place in the family's apartment and the show's mostly conversational in tone. Rarely truly heavy, but often political, or at least "real." Son's getting racially harassed at school, Mom's a candle burning at both ends trying to get through medical school while holding down a job. Daughter's got a tough relationship with her father, who's repulsed by her open gayness. Landlord walks in wearing a Che Guevara shirt and gets absolutely shredded by the Cuban-Americans he thought would appreciate it. Mom's struggling with PTSD. Daughter's struggling with dating. Grandma's struggling to respect her grandkids' generation while maintaining some conservative, "traditional" Cuban attitudes.

It's all... refreshing? This isn't a witty show, or even a clever one, but the Alvarezes feel so much more real and multi-dimensional and - importantly - likable than so many other 21st century TV families. It's absolute comfort food, but it's comfort food you can feel good about. Give it a shot! It's only thirteen episodes a season, and after a hearty push from TV critic Twitter, Netflix has renewed it for a third.