Netflix successfully reimagines Lear's 'One Day at a Time'

Well, they only had to remake a jillion TV shows from yesteryear to finally get one perfectly right. Not only is Netflix's reimagined “One Day at a Time” a joy to watch, it's also the first time in many years that a multicamera sitcom has seemed so instinctively comfortable in its own skin.

At least some of this success is directly attributable to Norman Lear, the 94-year-old sitcom genius who counts the original “One Day at a Time” (which ran on CBS from 1975 to 1984) among his many successes, and lends his advice to this new version as an executive producer.

This “One Day at a Time,” which streams Friday with a 13-episode season, is much more than another nostalgia trip, yet it's worth noting how much of the original story has traveled the decades intact. The premise is still about a recently separated working mom with two kids — only this time, the lead character is a 38-year-old Cuban American nurse and Afghanistan war vet named Penelope Alvarez (Justina Machado). Penelope left her husband, also a veteran, because of his issues with drugs and alcohol and his unwillingness to seek counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Penelope works for a daffy general practitioner (Stephen Tobolowsky); her 14-year-old daughter, Elena (Isabella Gomez), and 12-year-old son, Alex (Marcel Ruiz), attend Catholic school. Penelope's mother, Lydia (Rita Moreno), lives with them and meddles in every aspect of their lives.

In a nice touch, the floor plan of the Alvarez apartment is the same as the one inhabited by Ann Romano and her daughters all those years ago. And yes, this “One Day at a Time” comes with its own take on Schneider, the boundary-challenged superintendent first played by the late Pat Harrington Jr. This 2017 Schneider (Todd Grinnell) is ingeniously reconceived as a Gen-X trust-fund hipster who owns and maintains the building. In Schneiderly tradition, he's in the Alvarez apartment more than his own.

As it was long ago, “One Day at a Time” leans heavily on Lear's knack for fearlessly blending controversial topicality with comedy — with a sometimes challenging additional layer of identity politics.

Moreno, the living legend, excels at her role, luxuriating in abuela's opportunities to convey a rich sense of culture and faith to those around her, while getting most of the big laughs. But Machado, playing the role that the late Bonnie Franklin made so memorable, is a worthy equal.

I knew that this “One Day at a Time” was working by the second episode, when I felt the same sense of investment that I used to feel as a child who faithfully watched the original. For years, critics lamented the disappearance of the way Lear and his collaborators gave their sitcoms an edgy point of view. They certainly had that, but what they were also good at was inviting a viewer in and making you feel at home — even if that home belonged to Archie Bunker or George Jefferson. This show feels like home.