Feminism, less life-and-death
The Show: One Day at a Time, Season 1, Episode 2 The Moment: The raise
Single mother Penelope Alvarez (Justina Machado), a nurse in the office of Dr. Berkowitz (Stephen Tobolowsky), is sick of being mansplained to and marginalized by male nurse Scott. She learns Scott earns $5 an hour more than her and quits. Now Berkowitz is at her door.
“Come back to work,” Berkowitz pleads. “I can’t run the office without you.”
“Five bucks more an hour,” Penelope says. “That guy.”
“It wasn’t right,” Berkowitz says. “But in my defence, he did ask for more than you did.”
“I don’t know if it’s a woman thing or what, but I didn’t even think about negotiating,” Penelope admits. “I was newly separated, I needed a job. You said, ‘Do you want one?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ ”
“And Scott made me feel that I was lucky to have him,” Berkowitz says. “I even gave him my parking spot.”
The first iteration of this series, 1975-84, was co-created by Norman Lear, king of social-issues television. It showcased the struggles of a single mom trying to be a breadwinner and a second-wave feminist. Her situation felt perilous: How do you stand up for your principles if they threaten your paycheque?
This new version feels less lifeand - death — Penelope’s estranged husband sends money, her mother (Rita Moreno) lives with her — and the feminism is more second-versus-third-wave: while Penelope fights for equal pay, her daughter dissects microaggressions, racism (they’re Cuban-American), environmentalism. It kills me that we’re still parsing this stuff in 2017, but here we are. Call it One Decade at a Time. One Day at a Time streams on Netflix. Johanna Schneller is a media connoisseur who zeroes in on pop culture moments. She usually appears Monday through Thursday.