American Family

It’s probably no surprise that CBS passed on turning the pilot of this Latino dramedy into a full series, since the networks are still stuck in the thought patterns of twenty years ago, that Latinos and blacks and Asians are delivery men – not leads. But credit PBS for stepping up and snapping up the rights to this series when CBS faltered. For not only is it well-shot (it was nominated for an Emmy for it’s camera work), well acted (Edward James Olmos, Sonia Braga and Raquel Welch are all very established screen names), and well written, but it’s also got quite a good little following amongst audiences of all demographics. Set in East LA, American Family follows the lives of the Gonzalez family, including conservative dad (Olmos) and a leftist politically active daughter (Constance Marie). The young son (A.J. Lamas – yes, he’s Lorenzo’s son) secretly videotapes the family going about their business and posts the footage on the Internet. Though the show has been criticized for being a little too harsh on Latino’s who have assimilated into white society, there’s surely been enough shows around that have been hard on Latino’s who haven’t assimilated, so turnabout is surely fair play. Muy bueno.