AdvertisementJust give Falcón, a veteran stage and film actress from Mexico — who has the chops to play women who are authoritative and sultry in both English and Spanish — something original to work with. Because the endless reboots are starting to feel like TV’s big plan for Latinos is feeding us nothing but leftovers.
Beyond that, the show’s contorted, romance-novel plot lines addressed universal themes related to love, loss, family and women’s friendships, all with a protagonist who defied the Hollywood convention of fiery Latina sexpot. Jane was an anal retentive young mom whose professional dream was to become a bestselling novelist.
If the original 1970s show was about a single mom trying to find her place in the world in the wake of a divorce, the Latino reboot smartly added more layers to the story. Like her predecessor, Penelope Alvarez is a divorced mother of two. She is also a nurse and an Army vet contending with PTSD, along with the alcoholism of her ex-husband and the sundry slings she faces as a Latina professional. Among them: being paid less than the mansplain-y white guy at work.
The original “Party of Five” centered on the white, middle-class Salingers, a family that lived in a comfortable San Francisco townhouse and operated a stylish, white-napkin restaurant. The emotional and existential adjustments the kids are forced to make in the wake of their parents’ unexpected death gave the show its drama.
The themes in “One Day at a Time” felt contemporary, broaching topics such as gentrification, racism and female sexuality at middle age. But the format — a situation comedy complete with laugh track — felt like a throwback. “Party of Five,” likewise, revealed truths about families torn apart by a hostile government. But the storytelling didn’t deviate from the conventions of U.S. prime-time television dramas, which are often dead serious and dead earnest.
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