One Day At A Time Ratings (Season 4, Fall 2020)

 

Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Tuesday Cable Ratings 6/16/20: One Day At a Time Animated Special and Dirty John: Betty Hit New Lows, Tirdy Works Steady, Tucker Carlson Leads Cable News Again

Below are the top 25 programs on cable on Tuesday, 6/16/20. Items of note include the One Day At a Time animated special on Pop and TV Land, Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story on USA, and Tirdy Works on TruTV.
(Note: Click any show with its name in green or blue to be taken to its page in the TV Ratings Guide Cable Ratings Database.)

One Day at a Time: Season 4 Episode 2 Review (Penny Pinching)

Is it hard to guess what was addressed in this week's entry in ODAAT by glancing at the title?  Penny Pinching may sound like a run-of-the-mill sitcom plot regarding the cast's money woes, but One Day at a Time has always achieved an artful balance bouncing between simplicity and complexity.  As an example, plot focuses came from pot stickers, a couch, crabs and a laptop in this episode.  How did these abstract elements meld together?  In a one sentence summary, the episode was catalyzed by an embarrassing happy hour bill for Penelope (Justina Machado), forcing her to let loose on her spending for both needs, as well as others' disasters that come her way.

The polarizing element of Penny Pinching is not a topical one, but rather a simple episode debuted against a complex time with COVID19 paralyzing the nation with plague and depression.  The episode was evidently (and thankfully) filmed long before the shutdowns and featured two touchy topics: restaurants, and money.  Penny Pinchers opens like a typical ODAAT episode with the family out to dinner/happy hour and a conflict arises over the bill.  Penelope's family remains embarrassed at her loud theatrics over a $13 pricing difference, thus setting off the remaining plotlines.  A luxury and a throwback to simpler times, as of April 2020, most if not all restaurants in America have shut down dine-in eating due to COVID19.  ODAAT helped distract its homebound audiences with fantasy as they cannot wait to get back to their beloved eateries rather than acknowledge a bleak, ongoing situation.

Deeper into Penny Pinching (which perhaps would have been more comically titled "Penelope Pinching."), Schneider (Todd Grinnell) delivers simplistic and sage advice as he advises Penelope she's always believing scarcity will happen.  Again, this was (thankfully) filmed prior to COVID19 when panicking asshats gouged supermarket shelves and suddenly toilet paper was no longer part of a middle schooler's prank but a prized status symbol.  These stark oversites perhaps aid the audience as it will help them realize simpler times will be back after these complicated ones.  Ergo, Schneider eventually (and more forcefully) pushes Penelope to purchase a new couch and relinquish her fear and control.

The coup de grace of COVID 19-oblivious storytelling is Penelope's epiphany is she realizes she has always had a stormy relationship with money.  A poignant, moving discussion came when she told Elena (Isabella Gomez) after their father left, they were [living with Lydia] instead of Lydia (Rita Moreno) living with them.  Financial troubles are a tale as old as time, yet many in the last six weeks have had them become a devastating reality.  ODAAT's timing may be rubbing salt in the wounds, but it also stands as a testament that several have faced financial hardships and somehow survived.

Penny Pinching almost surpassed the S4 premiere "Checking Boxes" as it towed a finer balance between simplicity and complexity.  In these dire times, we need Lydia oblivious as to why a bus driver refused service as she had "a case of crabs" (that was actually a G-rated intention, as pictured in the box), or a strong heroine such as teenage Elena showing even hapless teenagers can be planners and demonstrate responsibility.  The episode was a near masterpiece, with the greatest criticism paid to none of the males had relevant material besides one-line punches in the episode.

Grade: A-

One Day at a Time: Season 4 Episode 1 Review

"Checking Boxes" or we live in a new box?  That is the question for the One Day at a Time revival after it rotated from Netflix to broadcast cable sensation Pop TV.

It has been over a year since Netflix released season 3 of ODAAT, and around the same time since they shamefully axed the beloved and energetic series.  Continuing the energy and bite the series possessed, they managed to bitchslap their former platform inside 20 seconds by stating "It's like there's nothing good on Netflix anymore."  After digesting that angst, the series throttled into 4th gear directly into controversy and handled the census vs. a Latino household.  Fittingly, Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond) filled the cameo as a sensible data checker who encounters the brunt of the cast.

First offenses are Penelope Alvarez (Justina Machado), refusing to answer the door as census and Latinex do not mix in her mindset.  A whirl of overwhelming energy continues as the ensemble of energy manages to offend the opposition.  The victims are less likely as Romano and Stephen Tobolowsky's Dr. Leslie Berkowitz endure belittlement and confusion to the awkwardest of stances.  Where they manage to level the playing field in this overdone (yet appropriate opening) is when the census (victim) mentions in ten years he will return when it is president Kardashian.  The entire room gags at the thought, flicking over to the opening card.  Speaking of the opening card, it squished enough flavor of the former, flavorful opening title and won't offend Ms. Gloria Estefan chopping her 50 second masterpiece to three seconds as fans are ablaze over the title song being missing from the revival.

Where the energy levels to promising territory is the remains of the episode, where it resembled the breezy, energetic pace of a prior ODAAT episode.  Lydia (Rita Moreno) passive aggressively places noise in her daughter's head about needing a man.  Elena (Isabella Gomez) contemplates a life without Syd (Sheridan Pierce).  And Alex (Marcel Ruiz) remains the irritated side fiddle to the tales.  Checking Boxes glamorized the female front yet sidelined the minority male cast.  Schneider (Todd Grinnell) was reduced to the paternal, nonchalant advisory role in the episodes' remains, only enjoying a punch as his girlfriend Avery was coming into the building.

ODAAT's return episode held a common strength and weakness as the series is doing too much at once.  It attempted social relevance, flair, character development, controversy, ageism and everything but the kitchen sink in one episode.  And is this a negative factor for a series which survived a mid-platform jump?  The series still possesses energy, which it will need to navigate the cable jungles vs the streaming pleasure dome.

The ensemble still crackles and possesses the same chemistry.  Character development continues for the female front, whilst the males need a little more spice and love.  Alex (Ruiz) merely stitched the scenes together in the current episode, and perhaps it would fit if he'd pick up his vape pen and return to exciting teenage storylines.  Leslie existed in the opening as the butt of the ladies' rejections, while Schneider also languished as the bookend of the episode.  Save for these nuances, Season 4's premiere crackled and perhaps may ignite enough ash to develop a Nielsen base to survive for future episodes.

Grade: B+

Something is Missing from One Day at a Time

It has been over one year since Netflix belted out the 3rd season of reboot One Day at a Time, followed by a dramatic cancellation.  And now a heralded revival on Pop TV, the network airing many favorites on cable.  The only drawback: a significant presence is gone from the online version fans are certain to notice.  Fans of the ensemble best not fret, as all of the principles are intact.  The opening credits featuring Gloria Estefan, however, have been squashed to a title card.  Estefan updated the prior series' title theme "This is It" (sang by Polly Cutter) with Cuban flare to popular demands.

Due to television constraints of needing to condense episodes to 21 minutes of air time (to ram in as many irritating commercials as possible), showrunners needed to make a cut somewhere.  Rather than trimming story and air time, they are foregoing the opening, which is 50 seconds.  Artistically this is a blow to the character of the series and its roots, but an economical decision at best.  In the 1970's and 80's when the original graced our screens, every show had opening, mid-bumper ad closing credits.  This was indeed a different era than today as broadcast networks struggle to appease advertisers able to pay lower ad rates.

Online platforms such as Netflix are granted an ode of luxury of features such as opening and closing title songs, airing over standardized 21 (or even 30) minute episode constraints.  Having subscriptions forgoes the needs for commercials, which is not the case for Pop TV.  And if disheartened fans miss the opening title, go look it up on YouTube and enjoy the fact that the show isn't loss into the abyss of 2019 casualties.  Unlike fellow cancelled series Santa Clarita Diet and others, One Day at a Time was outsourced from Sony, the parent company of several networks such as CBS, MTV, Paramount and Pop.  Netflix's contract was stringent and left few outlets for survival, and yet One Day at a Time managed to locate a hub on Pop! 

Revivals and network/streaming jumps are growing rare as unicorns with succeeding, so count the blessings One Day at a Time is able to grace viewers for another 13 episodes (and hopefully dozens more if the show jells).  To follow up on ODAAT's ratings, tune in Wednesdays for this site's broadcast cable ratings.  Writer Rebecca Bunch has a fond spot for this series, so mentions and reports are guaranteed.