Don't Forget to Watch Cristela Tonight

Tonight’s the debut of the sitcom Cristela, the first-ever primetime show created, written, produced by and starring a Latina—Tejas-born, Mexican-American comedian Cristela Alonzo. Cristela is about an aspiring lawyer on her hustle who lives with her family, who seem from the trailer to be both loving and disapproving. It’s also the second of ABC’s new triad of shows created by, and featuring, casts of color, including Kenya Barris’ Black-ish and Eddie Huang’s Fresh Off the Boat, which starts in 2015 (and looks awesome).

I will watch this show and reserve judgment until I’ve seen it—there’s a moment in the trailer when she’s interacting with her mom that I can recognize and relate to, but it’s generally best to approach these things a healthy wariness. There have just been too many stereotypes and early reviews are worrisome, plus ABC is the channel that canceled Ugly Betty. (SIDE-EYE.) At least it looks a little different than the Sofia Vergara-style SABOR LATINO AY AY AY fantasy that Hollywood has created and has so much fun buying into.

Still, reading quotes like this one make me want to cry with hope a little bit:

“In the Christmas episode I’m writing, there’s this thing my family does where we wake up at three in the morning to make tamales,” Alonzo says. “We get everything ready and we make tamales and we do it out of tradition. It’s the thing we do and what other show can do that for a Christmas show but ours?”