"Primo" and the Unrelenting Charm of a Chaotic Family

Rafa's family is the foundation of all the heart and humor of this show. Through the eight episodes that were released last spring on Amazon FreeVee, we see the bond between Drea (Rafa's mother, played by Christina Vidal) and her brothers who she raised herself from a young age and who have, in turn, helped her raise Rafa. We also watch the seven of them settle major disputes by aggressively playing hybridized board games and see all the uncles eat food that was cooked for Rafa before he has a chance to come down from his room. Primo's understanding of family is complex. Family is joyful and protective but can also mislead or confuse you. The show doesn't shy away from any of this.

There is real charm to the way that Rafa's uncles are portrayed. Each has a unique, extreme personality which makes him hilarious, but more than that, many of the show's storylines come from these five adult men behaving like children. There is an entire episode in which Uncle Jay (Jonathan Medina) is trapped on the roof of Rafa and Drea's home as retaliation for a similar prank he pulled on Uncle Mike (Henri Esteve) years ago and another in which Uncles Mike and Rollie (Johnny Rey-Diaz) have to brave a day on a military training course by themselves. Throughout, we get the sense that the people who are raising Rafa are, in the most amusing way, barely adults themselves.

Ignacio Rey-Silvero's performance of Rafa is highly understated. Primo is not a character with a big personality who demands a lot of attention. Rather, he acts more often as a blank slate on which all the uncles can impress their very pronounced attitudes without meeting any resistance from him. As a result, Rey-Silvero's character often comes across as unbelievably naive for a character his age. There are moments when Rafa will be trying to process something his uncles have told him, and you wonder as the viewer whether his mother's acumen as a cook or details of romantic intimacy are really questions he has never considered at the age of seventeen. Rafa's aloofness does help us root for him in his pursuit of a relationship with Mya (Stakiah Lynn Washington), the new girl in town who takes no issue with Rafa's complete lack of game.

The show is inspired by creator Shea Serrano's own adolescence growing up in San Antonio, Texas with his mother and uncles. Like Primo, Serrano learned in high school that he might have the chance to be the first in his family to go to college. Serrano's degree led him to be a teacher and a journalist before he partnered with acclaimed television writer and producer Michael Schur (best known for his work on Parks and Recreationand The Good Place) to produce the show.

These roots of the show are apparent throughout; the tone is extremely similar to those network family sitcoms we rarely see anymore. Full Housecomes to mind, as does much of Schur's other work. The first season of Primo is light, hilarious and entirely too short. At only eight half-hour episodes, viewers are left feeling somewhat jilted at the end of the season that we didn't get to spend more time with these characters.

Posted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership self-publishing platform.

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