Genre: Drama
Cast: Melissa Barrera, Mishel Prada, Ser Anzoategui, Chelsea Rendon, Carlos Miranda, Maria Elena Laas, Ramses Jimenez, Elizabeth De Razzo, Elena Campbell-Martinez, Erika Soto, Luis Bordonada, Renee Victor
Starz’s new drama centers on Emma (Michel Prada) and Lyn (Melissa Barrera), two Mexican-American sisters who considered leaving their hometown in East Los Angeles a badge of honor. Their mother’s sudden death forces them to reconsider that stance and themselves.
At first, it seems like neither has much attachment to the bar, the neighborhood, or even their mother (whose name was Vidalia, “Vida” for short). Emma wants nothing more than to bury her mom and get back to her job in Chicago, but when she and Lyn learn the truth about their mother’s roommate Eddy (Ser Anzoategui), it becomes clear that selling the family business and getting on with their lives will be complicated.
The “secret” forces the two young women to examine their upbringing, while they also reunite with people from their past and confront their neighborhood’s changing cultural landscape, a climate of gentrification that blogger Marisol (Chelsea Rendon) is fighting against. The sisters open themselves up to the possibility that there might be more for them here than they first thought.
The series focuses on a latino (Mexican) neighborhood in East LA as well as LGBT women, and it represents its characters, servicing those respective communities. The characters are constantly switching from English to Spanish, representing the Spanglish that so many Latino families regularly use. Everything from the dialogue, to the interpersonal struggles, to the food, are Latino and proud and helps further immerse you in the world created by Tanya Saracho (Girls, Looking, How to get away with murder).
Vida is a queer series, and features a few different same-sex relationships. While there have been several shows on TV that focus on lesbian characters, they very rarely also feature women of color. But Starz’s new drama shows same sex relationships with a variety of Latinas. The series shows the vulnerability of this community from without and the fractures from within, and how different generations respond to gay and queer issues and to female independence.
>Mar Martínez
Vida- Review
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