Imagine a Netflix show about a divorced Latina veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Her ex-husband has rejected their lesbian teenage daughter. Her best friend is in recovery and active in Alcoholics Anonymous. Her mother, who can be overbearing, has secretly stashed a gun in their shared apartment.
The series sounds like a gritty drama — or maybe a sour-smart single-camera auteurish dramedy.
Instead it’s the beautiful, improbable “One Day at a Time,” a multicamera family comedy.
The show made its debut last year to positive reviews but displayed some freshman awkwardness. In its second season, which is available for streaming, it’s closer to its ideal state of flow, putting character ahead of plot and trusting itself a little more.
Justina Machado stars as Penelope — sometimes Lupe, sometimes Lupita — a single mom, nurse and veteran raising two children with the help from her widowed immigrant mother, Lydia (Rita Moreno).
In season two, Penelope has a viable love interest, Max (Ed Quinn), a veteran himself and an emergency medical technician.
There isn’t a central storyline in the second season — both a blessing and a curse. The show is looser and funnier than before, but it also sputters some toward the end of the season, before an emotional finale.
The trade-off is worth it. The season includes stories about Lydia pursuing citizenship, Penelope struggling with the demands of studying for a new certification, and daughter Elena (Isabella Gomez) taking over building fix-it duties.
Schneider (Todd Grinnell), the quintessential sitcom neighbor, is more grounded; in one terrific scene, he talks with Penelope about her PTSD and his addiction crises. After a stretch of sobriety, he says, he relapsed.
“Woke up three days later in an alley. Then the bowling ball hit me.” The audience laughs for a beat. “I was in the gutter for a long time.”
Such lines work only in a multicamera format, which relies on present laughter as part of its punctuation. Studio audiences make shows feel bigger, and “One Day at a Time” is a big show, with its line deliveries, its staging, even its sad moments.
The CBS series “Mom,” about a formerly estranged mother-daughter duo, is another multicamera show with edge and depth (and that network’s “The Big Bang Theory” remains wildly popular). But otherwise, the style is something that comedy nerds sneer at, with “laugh track” being shorthand “worthy of scorn.”
If any show could re-establish the format as a place for innovative, modern comedy, it’s “One Day at a Time,” which is energetically political and progressive.
The show hails from executive producer Norman Lear, alongside creators Gloria Calderon Kellett and Mike Royce. With “All in the Family,” “The Jeffersons” and other shows, Lear popularized the modern incarnation of the multicam comedy.
More than anything, though, “One Day at a Time” radiates delight.
We’re all looking for comedy that numbs the pain, but this series cultivates an intimacy and sense of belonging that go a step further, introducing a level of genuine human happiness into the experience.