32 years later, One Day at a Time reboot coming to Netflix

[Dan Druff]

This looks like it will probably be stupid.

Remember this?



"One Day at a Time" was a somewhat groundbreaking show when it arrived in 1975, as it was the first prime time program to portray a divorced, single mother in a positive light. In fact, the first season's theme song showed main character Ann Romano (Bonnie Franklin) jump in the air excited, as she is about to get in her car to leave her husband.

It was supposed to be a feminist message that a woman can be okay by herself after a divorce, and doesn't need a man to be happy. It did focus on a number of controversial topics, as well, involving Ann's attempts to raise her two teenage daughters on her own.

It was a Normal Lear show, in a similar vein to others at the time, such as All in the Family, Good Times, Maude, and The Jeffersons.

One of the most popular characters was Dwayne Schneider, the somewhat perverted building super.

The show was also the first prime time program to take place in Indianapolis (though it was filmed in the Los Angeles area).

Now Netflix is doing a reboot:




In this show, the family is Cuban, the mother is a conservative former military member, and her difficult daughter is "radical", thus causing conflict. Original, huh?

Instead of a second, younger daughter, there's a son around 12.

Rita Moreno oddly plays her mom, despite being about 40 years older than her (which is possible, but not what you'd expect, especially from a Cuban family).

Schneider is played by Todd Grinnell, who does not look old enough or creepy enough to be Schneider. He's also the only character retaining the same name.

I'll probably give it a shot, but it looks like a fail.

Should air around January.

[hongkonger]

Guaranteed fail.

Is it set in Indy again?

[mulva]

one day at a time was awful the 1st time around. can't imagine it being any worse, but considering the shit people watch on network tv it won't matter, donkeys gonna watch. although the cast looks like bad community theater. maybe if they dress the hot girl in tight clothes it will be a winner

[Dan Druff]

Don't ask me why, but I watched a few episodes of this tonight while grinding on Bovada.

I have mixed feelings about it.

The characters portrayed by Rita Moreno and Justina Machado, as grandmother and mother of the family, are interesting and well-played. The grandmother is an old-school, hyperfeminine traditional Cuban. The mother is a more modern, down-to-earth, competent-but-sometimes-flustered nurse, and in fact reminds me a lot of many Hispanic nurses I've seen in LA doctors' offices.

So far, so good, but the rest of the characters basically suck.

The teenage daughter is a really annoying caricature of a social justice warrior, drawn to be an obnoxious (and often irrational) fanatic, yet we are supposed to like her. This character is very unlikable, no matter what your political bent. I don't even think the writers understand that they've written a character which mirrors everything people (including many liberals) hate about modern SJWs. I think they believe they wrote the 2017 equivalent of Mike and Gloria from "All in the Family", which they haven't.

The young teen son is pretty much a one-note metrosexual type who contributes little else to the series' plots (at least from what I've seen so far).

The Schneider character is a clueless, buffoonish chump from a rich family, who fits into the "dumb white guy you laugh at" trope. He's supposed to be well-meaning, yet awkward in his attempt to relate to issues surrounding racism, feminism, etc, but he just comes off as a lonely loser that the family feels sorry for. The writers actually drew him to be a representation of white privilege (lol), even though the character is liberal and tries hard to be tolerant. This is a far cry from the lecherously confident Dwayne Schneider we met in the previous series.

Stephen Tobolowsky, the character actor who did a great job portraying Jack Barker in "Silicon Valley", is given little to do in this series. He's plays the employer of the mom character, and is supposed to be a doctor who is socially clueless and afraid of confrontation. Yawn.

Here is a dumb article on vulture.com which praises the new, harmless-and-clueless Schneider, claiming that the old one was too perverted and creepy for today's television. Say what? http://www.vulture.com/2017/01/schne...e-old-one.html