One Day at a Time poster.
One Day At A Time is a Netflix Original comedy-drama that follows the Alvarez family through their ups and downs. The show was inspired by Norman Lear’s 1975 series with the same name. The newer version of the show features Penelope, the mother, Elena and Alex, her children, Lydia, her mother, and Schneider, their landlord. Together as a family, they try and navigate the hardships of life while also having a few laughs along the way.
One Day At A Time is not your typical sitcom though, Penelope is a newly divorced Latina Army veteran with PTSD and Elena has recently come out as lesbian and is struggling with gaining her father’s acceptance. Penelope struggles with being a single parent, but she has the help of her mother, Lydia. Living in the apartment upstairs from the Alvarez’s’, is their landlord who fights with his past addiction problem.
In season 1, one of the most important events was Elena questioning her sexuality and later coming out to her family. Due to the fact that there wasn’t only one main storyline in this season, it made the show more easy to watch and very comedic. This first season comes to an emotional end that is just the right amount of “corny.” Elena has her quinceañera, but her dad doesn’t show up for the father-daughter dance. Instead, her family steps up to save the day.
Throughout the next two seasons, the show follows storylines that involve Lydia’s quest for citizenship, Penelope trying to balance nursing school and her hectic life, and Schneider’s addiction. While the show runs through many serious issues, there is still an abundance of jokes including one where Schneider talks about his relapse.
One Day At A Time is such an important show as it combines modern comedy with political progress, in all the best ways. For example, in one of the storylines, Lydia accidentally consumes a pot lozenge, but later the “high” comes down and Penelope is forced to deal with the issue of her son experimenting with drugs. Not to mention, Elena’s relationship with her non-binary partner, Syd, is both mature and family-friendly which demonstrates how refreshing it can be to portray stories of LGBTQ+ people in television. It creates a more diverse and inclusive environment by capturing what the world we live in is really like.
Above all, One Day At A Time is the perfect comfort show. From moments like when Alex stood up for his sister to their homophobic dad, to when Schneider helped Penelope with her anxiety attack, One Day at a Time really makes you feel like you have a place in the Alvarez family.
After the ending of season 2, there was a lot of speculation on whether or not the show would be renewed for a third season. Now with the third season out, the show proved that it had the potential to go on for many more years. Unfortunately, Netflix decided that they are not going to renew One Day At A Time for a fourth season. In a statement they released on Twitter, they expressed that “the choice did not come easily” and that “in the end simply not enough people watched to justify another season.” As you can imagine, fans all across social media are not happy with this decision and are using the #SaveODAAT to try and convince another platform to pick up the show. All we can do now is wait and see. As Schneider once said, “Don’t quit before the miracle happens.”
