Vida Review: Starz' New Drama Is An Intimate Snapshot Into A Community

[Archiee]

Over the past few years, the call for proper inclusion and diversity onscreen has become a major talking point in the entertainment business. Following the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, both film and TV have seen a concentrated effort on telling more diverse stories, and allowing for characters and settings that aren't exclusively caucasian male focused. While Netflix has become a hub for projects based around people of color, Starz' new drama Vida is one for the record books. Set in modern east LA, Vida follows the denizens of a latino neighborhood, and mixes both the traditional and contemporary feminist values for a quirky and emotional ride.

Created by TV writer Tanya Saracho (Girls, Looking, How to Get Way With Murder), Vida largely focuses on estranged siblings Lyn (Melissa Barrera) and Emma (Mishel Prada). They return to their neighborhood in East LA after their mother suddenly dies, and are uprooted by the emotional and fiscal issues related to their loss. Their mother owned a bar and apartment building above-- allowing for the full neighborhood to become characters in the larger narrative.

While the various neighbors begin as annoyances who are bringing endless amounts of flan, the supporting characters soon begin to take just as much life as the sisters. Lyn and Emma are surprised to find out that their mother was actually secretly married, and to a woman named Eddy (Karen Ser Anzoategui). This secret love in many ways mirrors Lyn's own issues regarding her sexuality, and the shame that her mother caused her. Eddy is perhaps the biggest scene stealer of the cast, and her somewhat manic love and grief is hypnotizing.

Eddy at the bar
There are plenty of other colorful characters from the neighborhood, including Emma's childhood love Johnny (Carlos Miranda) and Lyn's former mentor and love interest Cruz (Maria Elena Laas). These love stories are some of Vida's more obvious plot lines, but what's a good drama without a love story? Weeds fans will also be happy to see Renée Victor aka Lupita pop up as a resident of the apartment building.

While the apartment building serves as a macguffin to keep the sisters in the hood and to introduce new characters, it's also part of an overarching narrative regarding Vida's setting. The series makes a particular note to focus on the problem of gentrification in the neighborhood, which is occurring at the time Lyn and Emma are trying to sell their mother's building. Supporting character Marisol (Chelsea Rendon) is a teenage activist desperately trying to keep families in their neighborhood, as corporate greed ascends and begins to kick the community's original members out.

Vida focuses on a latino (largely Mexican) neighborhood in East LA as well as a handful of LGBT women, and shines best because it unapologetically 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.