With a tagline like “Operating on chingona level,” the second season of Vida is not messing around. The critically acclaimed Starz show returns later this month and picks up right where season one left off: sisters Lyn (upcoming In the Heights star Melissa Barrera) and Emma (Mishel Prada) are working on making the Eastside LA building their mother left them, including a bar, profitable again. That means working with their mother’s partner, Eddy (played by nonbinary actor Ser Anzoategui) who’s still recovering from the assault that left them in the hospital at the end of last season.
As it’s first full trailer suggests, the unabashedly queer and brown show is intent on continuing to set the standard for on-screen conversations the Latinx community needs to have. Everything from colorism, gentefication, and fluid sexuality are on the table in the Tanya Saracho-created show. And yes, this first look has everything we loved about season one: Emma’s withering stares, Lyn’s dreamy plans, Mari’s signature eyebrows and dark lip, and out-and-proud lesbians of both the femme and butch variety. More exciting, perhaps, is the fact that this trailer gives us a first look at two new additions to the show’s Latinx cast: donning some tats, a stache-and-soul-patch combo, and looking the part of a salt of the earth handy man from the Eastside, Raúl Castillo is seen briefly sparring with Emma: “Mexicans, we don’t usually do things like that,” he tells her. And when she replies that she herself is Mexican he’s quick to quip back: “Could’ve fooled me.” Then there’s Roberta Colindrez who gets the heartwarming quote of the trailer: “When you find the right person,” she says while wearing a cowboy hat, in full butch Mexicana mode at a fun-looking wedding, “you realize you don’t have to change anything about yourself.”
Both new characters hint at the bigger world Vida is building in season two. With its signature indie aesthetic and banging soundtrack intact, the show is channeling that chingona energy for all it’s worth. You can take a look at the trailer below which will immediately make you want to binge-watch season one all over again and make you eager to binge all of season two once it drops in full at the end of the month.
Vida season two premieres May 26, 2019, on Starz and will air weekly at 8 p.m. The entire second season will be available to stream on the Starz app beginning May 23.