Where to start?
Theoretically, I should have never started watching this program. And, I should have never "liked" this program. And certainly I should have never cared about any of the characters in this program. After all, I am NOT female. I am NOT Mexican-American. And I am NOT homosexual, etc.. I am NOT by any stretch considered the target audience for this light, yet gritty, tale about some of the harsh actualities of real life.
This 22 episode binger checked a lot of boxes for me. I found the main story arc compelling from the jump, as well as the secondary arcs, and this was a well cast group of actors who acted their asses off to bring these characters to life for the 3 seasons they had to work with. I mean, the actors were FREAKING GREAT! I honestly cared about these characters from the very beginning, and it intensified as the story progressed.
The first season laid a good foundation, and the story and characters were developed very well.
In the second season, a few more characters were introduced who had important roles and were acted well, but Roberta Colindrez's portrayal of the multifaceted "Nico" was simply brilliant. Her character alone lifted the whole show to a new height IMO, and the rest of the characters were rapidly developing as well.
Especially the main characters, who had to go from being selfish, self-centered *bleeps* to having to grow up faster than they would have liked and make some adult-sized decisions, while also learning how to respect their community around them.
I gave this a 9 because I simply DO NOT give 10's except in the rarest of rare occasions -- (like "Boardwalk Empire," "Breaking Bad" and only a few others) - but had this show gone on a bit longer then who knows? This had enough going on for it to last AT LEAST a couple more seasons IMO, if not more, and was doing nothing less than getting progressively better.
This old, straight, white guy is very sad "Vida" was never given a chance to play itself out, and shame on Starz for chopping "Vida" down at the knees when it was just fully hitting it's stride 8/
All in all this drama was a really, really good 12.5 hour spin :)
I would be willing to take a chance on anything else Tanya Saracho were to get involved in, and her whole crew did a great job making this breathe life for the short period it had.
