If this picture is the extent of your exposure to the new sitcom Work It, consider yourself one of the lucky ones.
When Merriam-Webster puts out a new edition of the dictionary, this picture will be right next to the word "offensive" followed by a frowny-face emoticon. Who exactly is it offensive to? Let's see: anyone with taste, anyone with a sense of humor, anyone with ears, with eyeballs, with actual balls, gay, straight, cross-dressers, transgendered folks, Americans, Puerto Ricans, fat people, skinny people, smart people, dumb people, human resources employees, people with common sense, and anyone with a pulse. So to sum up, people. All people. And some animals, to be sure.
The show is about two men who, because they cannot find steady employment, resort to dressing as women to land jobs as pharmaceutical reps. Their argument is that men cannot get jobs, partly because of the economy, but mostly because only women are being hired. Puhhhleaseeee. I'd like to see that study. It must be the same one that says for every dollar a man makes, women get 10. This show belongs on Syfy.
Aside from the fact that even a quick glance at a driver's license would debunk the whole show, why would a pharmaceutical company only need women? This gem of a program tells me it's because doctors buy drugs from female reps because they want to sleep with them. I guess in this version of reality, there aren't any female doctors. Duh, everyone knows women can't be doctors, or lawyers, or sitcom writers. All the female doctors must be off hiding, probably in the same place as Work Its endearing qualities and sense of reality.
Am I seriously being asked to ignore the ridiculousness of the premise the way their new boss ignores their wigs (which are visible from outer space) and their whispery-breathy attempts at effeminate voices? Yes, all women sound like you just dialed a 900 number. They must have a crack research team. Have these people ever met a woman? It's like they've only read about them in books (here's hoping it wasn't Twilight). They managed to hit every stereotype there has ever been, like a never ending game of whack-a-mole. How many times can we possibly emphasize the same points that make women the clearly inferior gender? Women only eat salads for lunch, they're all in book clubs, they're all bitches to each other, and bras are inscrutable and complicated machinery. At one point the male lead (no, I don't think I need to learn his name) curtsied. Thank god the laugh track was there to remind me where the jokes were, otherwise my natural instinct to cry would have taken over.
This show, which I presume not to have any female writers (or at least not any with self-respect) is the kind of misogynistic outdated and unwelcome comedy I thought we had disposed of, in exchange for the more layered, relatable, clever, edgy yet heartwarming comedies of the last few years. I'm talking about How I Met Your Mother, Parks and Recreation, Modern Family, The Middle, Cougar Town. Heck, even Raising Hope, where in the first episode not one, but TWO people vomited on the baby, has more heart than this "sitcom."
I thought our senses of humor had been elevated. Then a show like Cavemen came out, and my faith was shaken. An early cancellation helped me recover. Then they told me about a show called Outsourced, and once again I questioned who I am, and where I belong. It held on for longer than expected, but then NBC performed what can only be considered an act of mercy, and pulled the plug. Next, I heard about a show called How To Be A Gentleman (which sort of sounds like the opposite of this show) and I wised up. I placed bets on its cancellation, and let's just say I had steak for dinner that night. Once again my faith was shaken, but eventually restored by the continued existence of shows like Community and 30 Rock.
Now ABC, which has a special place in my heart because of both the quality of the comedy block (Cougar Town, when will you return?) and the dramas it produces, has now unleashed upon the world a show called Work It. A show that, hard as I might try, I cannot un-see. It brings up so many poignant questions. Whose idea was this? How did the show make it so far? Did they use focus groups? Is it actually permissible to allow people with extensive head injuries to participate collectively in those focus groups? What should I have for lunch?
There are enough fake doctors wandering the halls at ABC, perhaps one of them could check the vitals on the development executives over there. It might just be time for another mercy killing.
As an aspiring television writer, I am offended that, knowing how much effort it takes to get a single episode off the ground, they chose to back a loser like this. Not only did they pitch it, not only did they develop it, not only did they order the pilot, not only did they pick up the pilot, they actually AIRED it, thus proving that there is no god.
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