Common Sense Media Review
By Joyce Slaton
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Sex, language in tender Mexican American drama.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 16+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Vida
What's the Story?
When they get the call that their mom has suddenly died, VIDA's daughters Emma (Mishel Prada) and Lyn (Melissa Barrera) return to East L.A.'s Boyle Heights to wrap up what's left of her life. But instead of a tidy estate, they find Vidalia's secret wife, Eddy (Ser Anzoategui), operating the rundown bar inside the building they just inherited. The whole neighborhood is in flux—hipsters film food reviews in front of Mexican restaurants, and a scammy real estate fixer quickly offers a deal with developers to take the building off their hands. But that would mean kicking the undocumented tenants out of their homes and going against everything their mother built up. Suddenly, the sisters realize that their dream to cash out and leave might not be as strong as their desire to reconnect with their roots.
Is It Any Good?
Engrossing and very cool, this drama's Boyle Heights setting—a rapidly gentrifying lower-income Latino neighborhood in East L.A.—gives it a unique sense of place. Not that Emma and Lyn appreciate it, at least in the first few episodes of Vida. Emma, whose always-in-place carmine-red lipstick is an emblem for her put-together life, has a heavy job with a demanding boss in Chicago; Lyn's been chasing a bohemian life in San Francisco, with a gringo boyfriend who likes her enough to invest in her line of Aztec lotions. Both of them are surprised to find themselves back home again, quickly embroiled in the neighborhood politics they became a part of as soon as they inherited their mom's building.
But while in lesser shows the people in the neighborhood would be stereotypes mouthing slogans, these residents quickly emerge as real, complex people: hot-tempered young Mari (Chelsea Rendon), who's fighting her neighborhood's gentrification in YouTube videos and on the streets, and Vidalia's widow (played sympathetically by Anzoategui), so bereft at her wife's passing that she screams silently in the bathtub in one scene. Emma and Lyn may have tried to escape their pasts. But their lives are woven into the neighborhood—there's no escape. And that sense of community and investment they feel is also what keeps viewers watching this fascinating, complex, warm, and ultimately uplifting show.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how family relationships are depicted in Vida. How does family—and chosen family—have an affect on Lyn and Emma's lives? How does family help you cope with ups and downs? Does our need for family change as our life situations change?
The show's creator, Tanya Saracho, is Mexican American. How important do you think it is for the creators, cast, and crew to reflect the people being portrayed on-screen? How does our background influence the subjects we take on and the stories we tell? Is it important that different types of people get to tell their stories on television? Why?
How do the characters grow during the series? What do Emma, Lyn, and Eddy learn about themselves through their relationships with each other? In what ways do they change from season 1 to season 3?
How do the characters show courage, perseverance, empathy, and teamwork? Why are these important character strengths? Can you think of times you've shown these qualities in your own life?
TV Details
- Premiere date : May 6, 2018
- Cast : Melissa Barrera , Mishel Prada , Chelsea Rendon
- Network : Starz
- Genre : Drama
- Topics : Family Stories ( Siblings )
- Character Strengths : Courage , Empathy , Perseverance , Teamwork
- TV rating :
- Last updated : February 25, 2026
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