By Karla Perez
Last Friday, Netflix released a statement that announced to all “One Day At a Time” fans that the show would be cancelled. Immediately after the news, the supporters did not hesitate to take their anger, sadness, and disbelief to Twitter, Instagram, and all other social media platforms with the hashtag “#saveodaat.”
One Day At a Time was a show that focused around a Cuban-American family, the Alvarez family. The main character, Penelope Alvarez, was a veteran who has now come home and is trying to adapt, all while studying for a new career, raising two teenagers, and dealing with all kinds of situations. Every episode, the Alvarez family would touch on a different topic—mental illnesses, racism, consent, LGBTQ-related problems, immigration, addiction, religion, and many more. But now, after Netflix’s announcement, it seems like the show won’t be able to go on.
The platform’s statement claimed that, “We’ve made the very difficult decision not to renew One Day At A Time for a fourth season. The choice did not come easily — we spent several weeks trying to find a way to make another season work but in the end simply not enough people watched to justify another season.”
Fans were outraged when they heard this; for example, Monica Castillo, film writer for the New York Times, directed a twitter post at Netflix saying that, “You go not get to play the diversity card when you spent $100 million to keep “Friends” but cancel shows like One Day At a Time. Do you know how many diverse shows that [money] could have launched? How many POC show runners, actors, writers, etc., could get their break?”
The main reason why so many people are so angry over this is that the show was one of the few that actually, seriously, talked about and taught their audience about so many global issues that we see everywhere today. One Day At a Time offered a sense of familiarity, representation and warmth to their viewers, but now it’s being taken away from them.
On an article by Ric Sanchez for the Washington Post, he talked about how actually seeing “his story” on film felt much closer and dear to her than “the flood of beige-colored prestige dramedies we’re encouraged to binge.”
This goes as far as to show how much One Day At a Time fans cherished it. But this abrupt news has also affected the stars of the show.
Justina Machado, the actress who plays Penelope, went on Twitter and said that she was really grateful to have played her character, and that although the story was based on a Latinx family, “it was a universal story about family and love.”
Other actors like Mike Roice also voiced their feelings in regards to the cancellation of their show. He said, “we had the time of our lives making this show. We worked with the best, most giving and talented cast, writers and crew ever, as well as the incomparable Norman Lear. So while our hearts are very heavy, they are also bursting with appreciation for this amazing experience.
‘Along with our studio Sony, we will be exploring other places One Day At a Time can live, and with any luck we’ll find one. Either way our three seasons will always exist and be there for you and for us.”
So, although some bad news were received on Friday, maybe there’s some hope. Maybe One Day At a Time can actually find a home where they can continue to flourish and educate and entertain their wide audience despite the difficulties it has faced.