Mi Vida Television

Look, I know we’re all behind on the shows we want to watch, let alone the shows we’re thinking about watching. And I know I recommend a lot of things (but, seriously, you’ve started watching “Killing Eve” – right?). But if I may squeeze one more show into your busy schedule let it be the Starz show “Vida.” Why “Vida?”

Before you take a deep breath and say, “Ugh, I can’t possibly add another show – UGGGGHHHHHHHHHH,” let me tell you this. This is a half-hour drama with a six-episode first season. So we’re taking, quite literally, a three-hour commitment to watch this series. Hell, I spend three hours flipping through the free movies On Demand sometimes – so, yeah, it’s not hard to fit in.

But why fit it in? Well, first off it’s a well-written drama about two estranged Mexican-American sisters who return to the East Los Angeles neighborhood where they grew up to take care of family affairs after their mother, Vida, dies suddenly. Yet in its short half hour frame it brings up issues of cultural appropriation and white gentrification while also weaving in themes of sexuality, ethnicity and family. And, again, have I mentioned it’s only a half an hour?

It’s also queer as fuck. Vida leaves behind a secret (well, at least to her daughters) wife, played by non-binary actor Ser Anzoategui.



And her eldest daughter, the above-it-all cosmopolitan professional Emma (played by Mishel Prada, left in the below photo), is also not-so-secretly queer.



The fluency in both gender and sexual fluidity comes directly from the source. The show is created by out queer writer/producer/showrunner/playwright Tanya Saracho. Her past credits include “How To Get Away With Murder,” “Looking,” and “Devious Maids.” The show itself is the first series in television history to have an all Latinx writer’s room, which also has many queer writers as well. That writing advice of “know your subject,” well, it shows.

I don’t know where “Vida” is taking its stories, we’re half way though the short six-episode season right now. But I know I’m excited to see where we all end up.