One Day at a Time Review: The Politics Episode (Season 4 Episode 7)

The comedy that refuses to let any obstacle stand in its way, One Day at a Time has found a way to bring a new, timely, and important episode even in the midst of a production shutdown. How? By going animated.

One Day at a Time Season 4 Episode 7, “The Politics Episode,” is an entirely animated special that sets out to spark a discussion about how to discuss politics with family members when the stakes are particularly high.

It’s an episode that had already been planned, though not as an animated special. Showrunner Gloria Calderón Kellet said in a virtual panel hosted by the ATX Television Festival that this episode, because of the timely discussion it offers, needed to air before the November election. Using animation has made that possible.

“The Politics Episode” does feel surreal and even a little unsettling at first. Suddenly, the members of the Alvarez family are cartoons, and it feels a bit like a dream. That’s to be expected — it’s going to be jolting to see that change.

But what the episode accomplishes is that after just a few short moments, everything feels familiar. We’re right back in the Alvarez home, and these are the same characters we know and love. 

Also, the animation itself is largely beside the point. This episode does precisely what it sets out to do by having Penelope struggle to figure out how to have difficult conversations about politics with family members she loves.

Her cousin Estrellita (Melissa Fumero) is coming to visit with her family, and as we found out in Season 3, they all have some drastically different political views from Penelope and her family. In brainstorming scenarios and how to handle them, the Alvarezes wind up having some productive discussions themselves. 

It could go a lot of ways, and not all of them could be pretty. The realization that you can’t just change someone’s mind in the course of a not-that-short visit is helpful to Penelope, and the idea of focusing on finding common ground is a piece of a advice we could probably all use right now. 

It’s worth noting, too, that the audience gets the chance to hear impassioned arguments from Penelope as well as from Estrellita. I wouldn’t have imagined that an animated version of Penelope could get me choked up, but she does.

She also makes a nod that lets us all understanding why this episode is animated, which comes with perfect timing.  

Penelope: Now imagine something happening on a global scale. Something so huge, it completely shuts everything down. And we’re stuck waiting for someone to lead us, while we watch episodes of our favorite TV shows, but now they have to be animated!

That nod is just enough, by the way, to justify the story being animated to begin with. Not to mention, it’s a tiny bit of comic relief in the middle of a speech that punches you right in the gut. 

There are some other bits that work well with this being animated. The imaginary scenarios get to be a bit more outlandish than they would in the show’s traditional format, from a bloody fight scene to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Juanito spewing money from his mouth and Estrellita literally having her head in her ass.

Those kinds of details go just far enough without going overboard. The animation also lends itself to a nice moment with Gloria Estefan and the character she plays being on screen together.

It’s a solid episode all around, and it’s one that really feels like a gift. It’s impressive that the show managed to adapt in this way, and even more so that it did so with such an important episode. 

What did you think of this episode of One Day at a Time? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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One Day at a Time airs on Pop TV.

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