Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

One Day at a Time: “Pitching Pennies”

Geez. It used to be the one thing one could expect from a Norman Lear show was a bit of sympathy for working class folk, if not a bit of understanding for the way they are. But apparently all that went out with the twentieth century.

Thus we get a lot of fuss made over the fact that a hard-working nurse like Penelope (the lead character, played by Justina Machado) refused to spend money unnecessarily -- hardly an unheard thing among the Hispanics I knew growing up. But we see little -- if any -- effort put into explaining what made her that way. Indeed, the very idea that Penelope needed to be "fixed" because she did not believe in spending extra money seemed offensive.

I suppose I should take heart and see my reaction to this episode as yet more proof that I'm not as Americanized as I think I am. And yet I suspect this reaction more accurately means that I have more in common -- philosophically, at least -- with the average white American-born senior citizen than I do with the "woke" individuals who worked on this episode.

Oh, well. As much as I like the idea of a Hispanic sitcom based on what was once one of my favorite TV shows, it seemed fairly obvious that this show was not made with people like me in mind.