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Summary
“Based on the digital series of the same title, Gentefied centers on three cousins who band together to keep their Grandfather’s popular Boyle Heights taco shop in business as the neighborhood becomes more gentrified. Throughout the show’s first season the cousins confront their differences in their connections to their community, their heritage, and their commitment to the family business, all while navigating larger themes of gentrification and the marginalization of Latinx’s in America.”
-From IMDB.com
Review
Now and then Netflix recommends something to me at the top that I immediately stop everything for to watch. This one started auto-playing at the top and after that I clicked play. I am not disappointed.
Similar to In The Heights
This show kind of had a similar feeling to In The Heights with the wanting to get a better life, having a dream, Latino/Latina’s fighting for acceptance, queer acceptance and whites coming in and thinking they know best. It really had a mix of everything as well – love, comedy, pain, small political statements and more.
Powerful and moving.
This was a simple show. About a family, a family Taco shop, and then the secondary story of the queer love and acceptance in an already marginalized group of people. But my god, did it have you hooked, really connected with the characters and at certain moments got super angry at people you wouldn’t think you would. There were subtle political statements which were very pertinent to the story and just made it a little more serious. Much of the show was in Spanish or some mix of Spanglish which I personally loved. It made it so much more authentic. I don’t love shows that are based in a community and/or country that don’t utilize the language or only utilize it a tiny bit now and then.
Colorful and a beautiful representation.
This was a very colorful show and represented these communities quite well – however one must remember that while this show did show struggles certain things got resolved a little too perfectly. It’s not a documentary but just a show about these communities so they make it as real as possible without it maybe becoming too depressing (unless that’s the point of this show). So while it was a beautiful representation it wasn’t 100% accurate on all of it. That certainly doesn’t detract from the story at all because it had this kind of story-like quality but was real enough that you were able to connect that these people were human.
And the ending. OMG, you’ll have to watch it but the ending absolutely killed me and I need a Season 2 as soon as possible. I just sat there like, “NO! WHAT?!” because it was one of those endings. I also really wanted Tacos while watching it….makes you super hungry.
Happy Watching!
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