Stars: 3.5/5
The insight on motherhood that is “Workin’ Moms” sheds a light on the insurmountable quantity of work that mothers do to provide for their children.
Originally a television series exclusive to Canada, “Workin’ Moms” found new life and a new American audience through revitalization as a Netflix original. The series revolves around four mothers making their way back to the real world after — and in the midst of — pregnancy, and how to cope with the occupation of being a working mother in the city of Toronto.
The most prominent of the four women is Kate, a stately lady who works for an advertising agency who attempts to make the frustratingly-transitive movement of easing back into her job following an extended maternity leave. In a transparent and sexist working environment, Kate has to adjust from being a corporate legend to a corporate legend with child.
The show is much larger than just Kate’s experience as a newfound mother. The primary focus is on the quartet of moms struggling to make ends meet with a young one at the table.
Kate’s friend Anne is the most surprised out of all the women, as the pilot shows her shock in receiving an unexpected pregnancy confirmation from the doctor. Already a mother of two, the third child creates a series of anxiety for Anne. In one hilarious scene, Kate and Anne are eating burritos when a mom is dragging her unwilling child down the street. Anne voices the very notion all mothers are willing to think but not say.
“Shut it, you monster! Your mother’s a g*****n angel!” Anne exclaims.
And the rest of the show co-aligns with this belief of showing the complete experience of maternity, warts and all. Frankie and Jenny, the two other featured females that hold down respectable jobs just like Kate and Anne, add to the blunt realism of the show through their daily triumphs and travesties they face.
From the first minute of the show, the take on mommies can seem a little jarring. The first scene depicts all four women at a maternity group — topless, comparing the age of their bodies and the different aspects of breastfeeding a child. Mind you, everyone else at this group has their shirts on. The stark contrast between the two sides of the group adds to the immediate hilarity of the scene.
This could be seen as completely out of place for a show of its caliber, but in reality it is an iota of the emotional value that this show could bring the female demographic. Rarely has a show been so vulnerably honest in its depiction of a woman with a job and a mouth to feed.
As someone who is genetically incapable of bearing a child, I must say that “Workin’ Moms” did lose a little of its initial luster as it went on because I cannot grasp the connection that a mother can purely have with her child.
However, I can say that there are moms. And they work.
