‘One Day at a Time’ Is TV’s Best Remake
Peak TV is obsessed with reboots and revivals, most not worth your time. Netflix’s One Day at a Time (Season Three premieres February 8th) is a rare exception. Here’s why.
As with so many remakes, there was no good reason to revisit One Day at a Time. The original wasn’t even a classic. Sure, it ran for nearly a decade (1975-1984), but it was loved more for its theme song and Pat Harrington’s mustachioed handyman, Schneider, than anything else. That
One Day left plenty of room for improvement — and today’s iteration fills that space beautifully.
For starters, it gives careful consideration to how times have changed. The Alvarez clan is Cuban-American, dealing with racism and other hot-button issues like immigration. Single mom Penelope (Justina Machado) is an Army vet with PTSD. Teen daughter Elena (Isabella Gomez) is an out lesbian who has started a relationship with non-binary Syd (Sheridan Pierce). Even the new Schneider (Todd Grinnell) is woke.
Yet as it modernizes, One
Day smartly looks to the past.
It’s a classic multicam sitcom, shot in front of a live studio audience. That format isn’t cool anymore, but the show proves how dynamite it can still be if done thoughtfully. While the comedy is big and broad, when each episode turns serious, the theatricality of the moment makes it feel real and not saccharine.
Then there’s Rita Moreno. As Cuban émigré Lydia, the EGOT-winning legend gives the best performance of the whole show — maybe in all of TV. She over-enunciates and dances with such verve that it’s impossible not to love her, and One Day as a whole. A.S.