Justina Machado stars as Penelope — sometimes Lupe, sometimes Lupita — a single mom, nurse and veteran raising two children with the help of her widowed, immigrant mother, Lydia (Rita Moreno, the brightest star in our solar system). This season Penelope gets a viable love interest, the almost unbearably hunky Max (Ed Quinn), a veteran himself and an EMT. He towers over the rest of the cast, and the moment he’s on screen opposite Lydia, it’s impossible not to think “I hope that giant man picks up Rita Moreno.” He does — it takes a few episodes, but it is worth the wait.

Season 1 had a more urgent through-line about the teenage daughter Elena (Isabella Gomez) eventually coming out to her family in the lead-up to her quinceañera. This season doesn’t have one central story, and that lack of a to-do list is a blessing and a curse: The show is looser and funnier than before, but it also sputters a little toward the end of the season, before an emotional finale that walks right up to but does not cross the corniness barrier.

But the trade-off is worth it, adding in room for stories about Lydia pursuing citizenship (“these colores don’t run”), Penelope struggling with the demands of studying for a new certification, and Elena taking over fix-it duties for the building. Schneider (Todd Grinnell), the quintessential sitcom neighbor, is more grounded, and in one terrific scene talks with Penelope about her PTSD and his addiction crises. After a stretch of sobriety, he says, he relapsed. “Woke up three days later in an alley. Then the bowling ball hit me.” The audience laughs for a beat. “I was in the gutter for a long time.”