Hey there!
So today, I wanted to talk about something a little bit more happy because all I've been
able to think about for a while is like Trump shit and I'm just so done with it.
Like, I just wanna enjoy something.
So I wanted to share with you, a show that I've really been enjoying on Netflix, and
it's called One Day at a Time.
I think this show is brilliant, like honestly.
Like it's so good.
And I'm not sponsored or paid by them or anything -- I just really enjoyed this show, and I
watched like the whole first season in a few days because it just gave me so much joy in
a very unjoyful world at the moment.
And it's just very real, but in like a comedic and relatable way.
Like it's not like it's gritty and drama and stuff -- like it's a funny family sitcom with
like a laugh track -- or like, there's laughter going on when people tell jokes and stuff.
And it's really like just genuinely a good time.
So I want to talk about like some of the specifics of it,
and what makes it so good and intersectional and feminist.
So if you haven't seen the show, I recommend you go watch the show and then come back here.
I know that's like several hours of homework, but you'll love it, I promise -- just watch
the series, come back here, you'll love it, you'll appreciate it, I promise.
Okay, so if you're still here, I'm gonna assume you're okay with spoilers -- cause I'm definitely
gonna spoil stuff for the first season, which is the only season that's out on Netflix right now.
So basically, I am Elena.
Like, she's just such a like angry young feminist, and like just gets so worked up about stuff
and is constantly like, "Well I read a study about this."
And like, that's just me.
Like, I wish that was more like how I was as a teenager, cause I don't think I was like
the most socially aware teenager in the world, but it's kind of how I am now.
She's just so like sassy and fun and real and opinionated, and I feel like a lot of
characters in sitcoms get kind of like washed down, or watered down, and they're not allowed
to talk about politics and all that stuff because it's supposed to be like accessible
to everybody, even people on the right.
But like, this show really doesn't like pander to that.
It really is like: "Here's the stances of these characters, and here's the things they're talking about."
And it just doesn't make any excuses for that.
It doesn't try to make it acceptable to everybody in the world.
Like, it takes positions, and I really appreciate that.
And like, even while it's a comedy, it manages to talk about like some really serious stuff
because like the mom is a veteran, and like it talks about her struggles with depression
and anxiety and nightmares and PTSD.
She has to like go to therapy and struggles to get help from the VA.
And these are all like just... real things that are talked about in such a way that I
was gonna cry.
Actually, I did cry.
I cried quite a lot.
And the family is Cuban-American, and the grandma, the abuela, she came like from Cuba
as a kid, like without anyone, without her parents.
And they just full-on talked about that and how hard it must've been for her, and like
-- I feel like those are the stories that need to be told.
Like I feel like there are enough stories of just like basic white people in sitcoms,
but the stories of immigrants and people who have like really struggled to get here -- I
just think that's what we need to see more of.
And they talk about immigration in that episode in
a bunch of a different ways and with different opinions and stuff.
And I appreciated how they did it, and one of the things they did really well was bring
in a character, Elena's friend, who you sympathize with and like and enjoy, and then, it reveals
that her parents were deported and that she's stuck there without her parents -- and I think
that has a real emotional impact on people when they realize, like, "Oh, like, the children
of the people we're deporting are just children -- they're just here living their lives, going
to school, having friends."
Like it's much easier to demonize people who are just concepts, and it's much harder to
do that when you have them humanized.
When you see them as real people, and I think that's what this show does really well is
just humanize people.
Like I honestly cried during the immigration episode cause I was just like so proud of
what this show is doing and also really sad for the character whose parents were deported
-- I just -- I had a lot of emotions.
And for me, just the whole atmosphere of the show felt really familiar because my step-family
is from Colombia.
Is it weird if I say like "Colombia" instead of "Columbia"?
Like, I don't know what accent I'm supposed to put on, if it just sounds like really white
person of me, or like, if I should try to say it all Spanish-y, but like at home, growing
up, I heard a lot of Spanish in the household and like people switching between English and Spanish, and
like, I knew, like, little bits of Spanish words that my stepmom would say to me.
And so, like, their household and the way they switch between English and Spanish and
speak Spanish when they're mad and stuff like that, it just, it like felt familiar, and it felt real.
And it felt like any experience that I'm sure a lot of Latinx families like have, but they don't
see represented on TV, and it was really good to see that representation.
Because I know like as a white person, I haven't experience anything like what Latinx people
have experienced in the US, but like, if it resonates with me, having grown up in like
a semi-Latinx household, I imagine that it really resonates with actual Latinx people
who've grown up in households like that.
And like in the show, they make a lot of references to the token white person, Schneider, and
like I just feel so much like that token white person, like I was always like the awkward
white person who couldn't dance and who said Spanish words with a really gringa accent -- gringa?
Uh, a white person accent. [Laughter]
And just the jokes about race and stereotypes and like how they would joke about
being Cuban so they had to dance and they would joke about white people stereotypes,
and just, it all felt so like genuine to me, and also like something that usually isn't
joked about on TV.
I don't know, maybe it is.
It's just, it's how I felt watching it.
And like there's an episode just straight up talking about religion, like I feel like
religion's never discussed on TV because you're just not supposed to draw those divides between
people, but it was like a very real, honest look at it.
Like with the abuela being super religious and her daughter being less religious, and
like trying to find the balance inbetween that for the two of that.
That's a real struggle that people have, and it was just handled in like a funny but serious
way, and it was like joking, but it also took a lot of care with the issue.
I just appreciate how well it could talk about religion in such a nuanced way -- like in a comedic sitcom.
And they even touch on like suicide, and alcholism, and drug abuse because of Elena's dad.
Like you think everything is just all happy-go-lucky like funny times and then, uh, the mom is
talking about how the dad tried to commit suicide because he was addicted to pills and
alcohol, and like I get that, I get that that's a real thing and that life is actually like that.
Things can be funny at one moment and then really serious the next moment.
And it handled it very well -- I think I've said "handled it very well" like two hundred
times in this video, but it's so true.
And maybe the best part of the whole series is just the coming out story of Elena.
Like, how basically the whole first series is her coming out story, and like ends with
her coming out to her dad.
I was afraid that the coming out thing was going to be like one episode, because when
I initially heard about this, I heard that the daughter was gay, and I was like, "Oh,
that's really cool, I should watch this."
But I was afraid it would all be like neatly wrapped up in an episode and then they move on.
And it wasn't.
It was like there was struggles through multiple episodes, and she came out to different people
at different times and they had different reactions, and that was such a more accurate
representation of coming out then like I've ever seen in any other show.
I have like two little gripes with it, and that was like, I felt like when they were
talking about it, they kind of talked about it like bisexuality didn't exist, like they
were like, "Oh, you like girls now, so you don't like boys."
And like, that's fine, I understand that in the show she's a lesbian and she doesn't like
boys, but it felt weird to me that it just wasn't like a option, like no one was like,
"Hey, maybe you're bisexual," but that's like a little thing.
And then also the other part is that the mom, there's like a whole episode on like the mom
trying to figure out how she could accept her daughter, because like she did, but she
still weird about it, and like, I'm just not a big fan of storylines that focus on the
people who aren't doing the coming out, like the people who are reacting to the coming
out, but maybe that's just my own like personal bias, like obviously they're still going through
stuff, and I thought that her storyline was handled well, and that her like going to a
gay bar with her gay friend and like talking about it was a good way for her to learn and
like to show the audience what was going on, but I don't know.
I just wish the emphasis was less on the parent and more on the child coming out, but I still
really appreciated the way that they handled it.
Like it wasn't overly accepting, like it wasn't like, "Oh, everyone loves you! It's perfect!
Coming out is not a problem at all!"
But it also wasn't like tragic, like it wasn't like everything is terrible and nothing can
ever be good if you come out.
Like there was so much nuance to it, and everybody had different reactions, and at the end, when
she comes out to her dad, he ends up just like leaving in the middle of her quinceañera,
and I thought that was really powerful.
I cried, quite a lot.
Because like, the rest of the family loved her and accepted her, and her dad didn't.
And like, coming out stories are hard because I feel like they have to be overwhelmingly
positive or overwhelmingly negative, um, and it had both.
Like she had the good loving family, but also, some people are never going to accept you,
and like I still have friends whose parents will never accept them, and it makes me sad,
but it's real, and they did it.
Like they didn't shy away from that.
And I really hope if they get another season -- they better get another season -- but I
hope that there's no like redemption arc for the dad.
Because what he did, to me, like leaving in the middle of her quinces, that just sounded
like -- it looked like unforgivable.
Like that's awful.
And, I don't know, I'm worried that they might do the whole, "Ah, he went and thought about
it for a week and now he's suddenly okay with homosexuality."
But like there are genuinely parents who will never accept it in their children, and I think
that's how it would be.
But you know, who knows.
The show could go in like any direction, and I don't control that, obviously.
But yeah, overall, like 10/10, 11/10.
I cried a lot, I laughed a lot, I wish there was more than one season, it's a really good
season, and since you made it to the end of the video, I'm assuming you've seen it too,
so let me know in the comments what you thought about it.
Was there like any aspect of it that I didn't talk about that you found really interesting?
There was a lot going on in that show, and I didn't like discuss all of the different
things, but those are just some of the like highlights that I remembered from it.
And yeah, if you still haven't watched the show, and you just watched this whole video
without having seen it, I'm sorry for spoiling everything for you, but I hope you're really
excited to go watch the show now.
So yeah, I'm gonna leave some links in the description to like all the social media for
the show and the people who are in it, because I really think that we need to support them
and show Netflix that it really really deserves a second season.
This is the kind of sitcom that we need.
This is the kind of, like, feminist, intersectional, like real show that has to be on TV.
And the way we make sure that it continues is by watching it and sharing it and supporting
it, so I'm counting on you guys.
Anyway, thank you so much for watching this video, I love you all, and I will see you next time.
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