美国国家公共电台 NPR Cuban-Americans Take Spotlight In Netflix Reboot Of 'One Day At A Time'

 

 AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: 

Another classic TV show has been retooled¹ for Netflix. Today the streaming channel released "One Day At A Time", a new version of the sitcom² from the '70s and '80s. It's focused on a Cuban-American family, and as NPR TV critic Eric Deggans tells us, the show highlights how far TV still has to go in authentically³ depicting⁴ Latino lives.

ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE⁵: Penelope is a former Army nurse back from tours in Afghanistan, raising her two kids in an apartment with her mother. She's separated from their father, a former soldier now working in private security overseas. And when the nightmares come, recalling Penelope's life in a war zone, her mother, played with over-the-top perfection by Rita Moreno, is there to console her.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "ONE DAY AT A TIME")

RITA MORENO: (As Lydia) Oh no. Oh no, no, no. You were just having a nightmare. You are not at war. Everything is OK.

JUSTINA MACHADO: (As Penelope) OK, except I'm 38 years old sleeping with my mom.

(LAUGHTER)

DEGGANS: This is the new face of Netflix's "One Day At A Time", featuring three generations of Latinas living under one roof and a theme song sung by Gloria Estefan.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ONE DAY AT A TIME")

GLORIA ESTEFAN: (Singing) This is it. This is life, the one you get, so go and have a ball. This is it.

DEGGANS: The original "One Day At A Time" was the first TV sitcom starring a divorced single mother. Netflix's version centers on Hispanic characters, who are seriously under-represented on television. The new show explores issues like religion and sexism through three very different perspectives.

Here, the apartment building superintendent⁶, also named Schneider like in the original show, interrupts Penelope's daughter Elena as she tries explaining modern sexism to her mother.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "ONE DAY AT A TIME")

ISABELLA GOMEZ: (As Elena) I'm not talking about old people sexism. It's much more subtle now. Men assert their power through micro-aggressions and mansplaining.

MACHADO: (As Penelope) Oh, mansplaining. Is that like man-scaping?

(LAUGHTER)

GOMEZ: (As Elena) No. Mansplaining is when...

TODD GRINNELL: (As Schneider) It's when a man explains something to a woman...

(LAUGHTER)

GRINNELL: ...That she already knows, but he acts like he's teaching her. Does that make sense?

(LAUGHTER)

DEGGANS: Legendary⁷ TV producer Norman Lear who developed the original series also serves as an executive producer on the new version. In an interview with NPR last year, he said the Netflix show actually doesn't have much in common with the classic series.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

NORMAN LEAR: What we're doing with "One Day At A Time" here - it doesn't even seem but for the title to be based on it because this is three generations. It was only two generations on the original. And we're not looking at the old scripts. This is all fresh stuff. And as I said, one of the huge differences is we're dealing⁸ with veterans.

DEGGANS: But even though it touches on hot-button social issues the way classic Norman Lear sitcoms⁹ always have, Netflix's "One Day At A Time" too often falls short at its main mission - to be funny. The broadly-acted, laugh-track-filled sitcom-style that seemed bold in the 1970s feels a bit dated now, and the characters wear their Cuban culture on their sleeve in ways that can deal heavy-handed and close to stereotypes¹⁰.

These days, TV seems to treat Latino characters and stories the way black characters were handled in the 1970s and 1980s - featured well on a few specific television shows but largely under-represented and stereotyped¹¹ elsewhere. Netflix's "One Day At A Time" is a small step towards rectifying¹² that situation, especially when Moreno cuts loose in dramatic moments, explaining to Penelope why she believes in God.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "ONE DAY AT A TIME")

MORENO: (As Lydia) When you were deployed¹³, I went to church every day. And I prayed that he would keep you safe, and he did. So don't you tell me about God.

DEGGANS: If "One Day At A Time" can elevate its comedy to match the more serious moments, it just might become the kind of groundbreaking television show the original was. I'm Eric Deggans.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE KNUX SONG, "CAPPUCCINO")

1 retooled   

v.（给…）更换工具， （给…）更换机械设备( retool的过去式和过去分词 )；改组，革新

参考例句：

• The company will be retooled after the incorporation. 合并之后的公司要进行重组。 来自辞典例句
• Each time the product changes, the machines have to be retooled. 每次更换产品，就得重新装备机器。 来自辞典例句

2 sitcom   

n.情景喜剧，（广播、电视的）系列幽默剧

参考例句：

• This sitcom is produced in cooperation with Hong Kong TV.这部连续剧是同香港电视台联合制作的。
• I heard that a new sitcom is coming out next season.我听说下一季会推出一个新的情境喜剧。

3 authentically   

ad.sincerely真诚地

参考例句：

• Gina: And we should give him something 2 authentically Taiwanese. 吉娜：而且我们应该送他有纯正台湾味的东西。
• A loser is one who fails to correspond authentically. 失败者则指那些未能做到诚实可靠的人。

4 depicting   

描绘，描画( depict的现在分词 )； 描述

参考例句：

• a painting depicting the Virgin and Child 一幅描绘童贞马利亚和圣子耶稣的画
• The movie depicting the battles and bloodshed is bound to strike home. 这部描写战斗和流血牺牲的影片一定会取得预期效果。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 superintendent   

n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长

参考例句：

• He was soon promoted to the post of superintendent of Foreign Trade.他很快就被擢升为对外贸易总监。
• He decided to call the superintendent of the building.他决定给楼房管理员打电话。

7 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

8 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

9 sitcoms   

n.情景喜剧( sitcom的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This is the stuff most stadard TV sitcoms are made of. 这是大多数标注的电视幽默剧所采用的题材。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• In most countries, prime-time Monday night television is dominated by sitcoms. 在大多数国家，周一晚上的电视黄金时段都由连续剧所占据。 来自互联网

10 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

11 stereotyped   

adj.(指形象、思想、人物等)模式化的

参考例句：

• There is a sameness about all these tales. They're so stereotyped -- all about talented scholars and lovely ladies. 这些书就是一套子，左不过是些才子佳人，最没趣儿。
• He is the stereotyped monster of the horror films and the adventure books, and an obvious (though not perhaps strictly scientific) link with our ancestral past. 它们是恐怖电影和惊险小说中的老一套的怪物，并且与我们的祖先有着明显的（虽然可能没有科学的）联系。

12 rectifying   

改正，矫正( rectify的现在分词 )； 精馏； 蒸流； 整流

参考例句：

• James Gregory gave in in his "Geometriae Pars Universalis" a method of rectifying curves. James Gregory在他的《几何的通用部分》中给出了计算曲线长度的方法。
• Significant progress was made in rectifying and standardizing nonbank financial institutions. 整顿和规范非银行金融机构取得重要进展。

13 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。