Emma, Lyn, Mari, Eddy, and the rest of the “Vida” gang are sticking around for a while. Deadline confirms Starz’s groundbreaking half-hour drama has been renewed for a second season. The first season concluded this past Sunday.
Created by showrunner Tanya Saracho, “Vida” takes place in a predominantly Latinx neighborhood in East Los Angeles. It sees two somewhat estranged sisters, the uptight Emma (Mishel Prada) and the bohemian Lyn (Melissa Barrera), return home after their mother, Vida, dies. They soon meet the stepmother, Eddy (Ser Anzoategui), they never knew about, and try to decide what to do with the building and bar their mother left them. Emma and Lyn also clash with anti-gentrification activist Mari (Chelsea Rendon) and reconnect with past flames.
As the source points out, “Vida’s” renewal comes as no surprise. The series is a critical darling, and has received praise for its inclusive talent on-screen and behind the scenes, and its powerful depiction of an underrepresented community.
Saracho previously wrote for and produced series “Looking” and “How to Get Away with Murder.” She’s currently under a three-year deal at Starz. Up next for the “Mala Hierba” playwright is “Brujas,” a series following four Chicago-based Afro-Caribbean/Latinx women and their growing relationship with the Bruja movement. Saracho will write, showrun, and exec produce.
“I had to say yes because it was [an] exciting concept about upwardly-mobile Latinx [people] and Latinx [people] coming back to their neighborhoods and starting these businesses that affect the [community] like they’re gentrifiers,” Saracho has said of signing on to “Vida.” “It’s really complicated, and I was trying to figure it out.” She explained, “I wanted to hold on to the things I know, which are women, queerness, and Latinas, so I anchored myself in these two sisters. The more I got to know these sisters and excavated and uncovered their characters, the more I fell in love with the world and the possibilities of the world that I was being allowed to create.”
