Vida is smarter, sexier and more vital in Season 2

The A.V. Club

In Season 2, the Starz Latinx drama makes great use of its expanded order from six to 10 episodes--"each half-hour is full of laughter, tears, music, booze, and of course, sex," says Danette Chavez, adding: "Identity remains one of the show’s most significant themes: how it’s defined and claimed, only to be redefined and/or reclaimed. Vida views its characters through multiple lenses—Mexican, Mexican-American, Latinx, Chicanx, gentrifier, displaced person, lesbian, pansexual, heterosexual, nonbinary, and more. It then questions the creation of those constructs, all while taking its two leads through their grieving processes and attempts at reconnection. That’s a lot for any show, especially a half-hour comedy-drama hybrid, to tackle, but Vida and its all-Latinx writers room make it look easy. Although the show occasionally gets tripped up in its world-building, the story it’s telling remains one of the most vital, heartwarming, and fraught on TV."

ALSO:

• Vida's Latinx, female and queer perspective is more distinctive in Season 2
• The characters on Vida often behave stupidly, but this is a smart, smart show, one that looks at culture on high and low levels
• Season 2 may begin with an orgy, but sex scenes are not the primary driver of the series: "They are emphatically erotic, woman-centered and appropriate to the title, crackle with life"
• The sex scenes are some of the best on television: "Hot, carefully shot, free from the male gaze and queer as hell, whether it’s someone pausing to put a condom on a vibrator or an episode opening with a pegging scene"
• Mishel Prada sees Vida as "taking that baton and moving a little bit further" when it comes to representation of women
• Creator Tanya Saracho says she encountered what she calls the "authenticity police" during Season 1: "You’re not brown enough, you’re not light enough, you’re not Mexican enough. Your Spanish is not good enough," she says. But on the flip side, she adds, "we are steeped in the dominant culture. It reminds us of our otherness every day.”