A Man. And His Blog.

Season 1, Episode 3 (3)
Date of airing: Jan 17, 2012
Watched for review: Jan 20, 2012
Number of review in January/2012: 96/105

Muahahaha. This show is so fucking bad, I totally love it. No sense of a good comedy, instead just one crazy and stupid scene after another. No realism at all, instead just part of an alternate universe. You really need to accept that before starting to love the show. And I only love it, because it’s so damn stupid.

The episode was good (shocker). Lee (Benjamin Koldyke) and Angel (Amaury Nolasco) bitching it out was hilarious to see, and it’s great to see that Amaury Nolasco slowly found his way into the drag. He’s more comfortable now than he was in the pilot, which is a great improvement in acting. Only the other girls are still pretty much blank, and are only plot points to make the story for Angel and Lee, which could be tiring after a short while (but damn it, the show doesn’t have much episodes, so who cares about the other girls). This episode did some good work with at least bringing the (rare) audience closer to Kristin (Kirstin Eggers). But how great would the episode have been, if her story actually meant something? After all, her troubles were only used to make a BFF break between Angel and Lee, as well as preparing the girl-slapping in the office (which was hilarious).

The BFF theme was good though, despite not having delivered something about the past of Angel and Lee. The episode could have been a perfect moment to show how the two became best friends, how they were living through the days and bar nights, how they would talk to each other, when listening to each other’s problems. Like real girl-BFFs do every now and then (I think). Instead, Lee just listens to Kristin, and Angel gets jealous, not seeing a chance to develop his friendship with lee even more. Silly writing here – so that this review also has some criticism everybody wants to read (seriously, who wants to read positive words about WORK IT?)

The quiz game in the bar was boring though. I liked two quotes from it thoug: “You child left behind” as an insult to somebody (I’ll remember that), as well as PLANET OF THE APES being a deadly plant. Sure, those jokes had nothing to do with the story and don’t make sense, but that’s the whole show. That’s why I love it. Also: “Stitch time’s over, let’s bitch” Obviously the writers are trying to to make the show super-funny. And even though I laugh, I still laugh about the stupidity of it all. I hope the rest of the show makes it also online, because I’m watching this motherfucker until the end. Somebody has to, ha! 7/10

Q&A in a magazine

If Lee would have real tits...

Season 1, Episode 2 (2)
Date of Airing: Jan 10, 2012 (ABC)
Watched for review: Jan 11, 2012
Number of review in January/2012: 51/51

I don’t know. I think you have to accept this show to be shitty and ridiculous as hell. If you can manage to do that, the show is pretty hilarious. I was laughing. I don’t know though if I was laughing because of the jokes, or because it’s so bad and ridiculous, it’s funny as hell again. But seriously, when the writers would do more of the obvious plot of the obvious (Lee [Benjamin Koldyke] mentioned in the beginning that the obvious is unnoticed), making it a running gag, WORK IT could actually be a show, which makes something out of its own ridiculous comedy.

Okay, the story was ridiculous. Of course the writers play the cards of (non-)believability. Seriously, who would not see that the two women are men there? First Lee’s efforts to seduce Dr. Sorenson (Sam Anderson) and let everybody realize that his panties are probably attached to the body suit he was wearing, and then Angel’s (Amaury Nolasco) successful effort to make Dr. Deutsch (Stephen Tobolowsky) believe he has a hot woman on his side. Not even the blind man of this world would consider either Lee or Angel good-looking woman, which is why I was missing more crazy jokes from the writers. They were making fun of themselves in the teaser, when Lee made that comment about the obvious, and then they don’t even manage that to play it in the actual story. What a shame. And letting me realize that the writers are probably just trying to make a simple sitcom out of it.

Well, at least it was funny at some points. The panties scene with Lee and Sorensen was really hilarious (and I wasn’t even ashamed of laughing, because Sorenson’s expression was the shit – as if he just read through the script and the camera was rolling), and I was laughing during the date scene. Amaury Nolasco is still the wrong guy to play a woman, but his face, when Deutsch’s finger came into his direction, was just awesome. And again, I was not in shame of laughing. I just laughed. Fuck, even those kind of comedies work, when you know what you get and don’t get.

Unfortunately, all the back stories weren’t working. Lee’s family moments were a waste of time, because not funny, and not showing anything. They are just the backdrop for Lee to talk to somebody. And Angel having a crush on Vanessa (Rochelle Aytes) doesn’t bring anything so far, instead it’s repeating. Not even the internal duel between Grace (Rebecca Mader) and Angel was leading to anything. Instead of playing on the fact that Grace wants to destroy Angel, the story just got a mention, and that was it. Maybe the writers were preparing it here – who knows.

Don’t be shocked about the ranking, but that’s how WORK IT works, when you know how WORK IT works as a TV show. But I still would be glad, when ABC cancels it real fast, and makes me forget all about it. Not that I don’t need those kind of shows, but if you write a crossdressing comedy, play out the obvious, and not play around it. Only then you can be truly funny. 6.5/10

Shaking dat ass!

Lick it, baby!

Season 1, Episode 1
Date of airing: Jan 3, 2012 (ABC)
Watched for review: Jan 4, 2012
Number of review in January/2012: 30/30

2012 hasn’t even started and the TV critics have found their “worst TV show of the year” already: WORK IT, a kind of changed-for-TV model of WHITE CHICKS, a move from the Wayans bros, which got some slapping back in 2004, when it tried to show the feminist side from a male point of view. WHITE CHICKS was all about two black FBI agents (the Wayans bros), doing their job in a world full of white trash girls in danger. In drags, in a white-painted face and all. Because it’s obviously hilarious for two black guys to come off as two white girls. WORK IT doesn’t work as complicated like WHITE CHICKS though, and instead copies the story right off another ABC show from the past: BOSOM BUDDIES, where Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari tried to drag up as women, to make their apartment rent while working women’s jobs … as women. At least the idea was fresh back then, and BOSOM BUDDIES made it possible for the two main actors to improvise their roles and make the comedy more fluently. Today, WORK IT shows that the men-in-drags story is not just old, but also totally unfunny.

Lee Standish (Benjamin Koldyke) and Angel Ortiz (Amaury Nolasco, from PRISON BREAK to SOUTHLAND to this?!?) are BFFs with the thirst of beer from their favorite bar and talking trash and bitching about their women in life) and life in general together with Brian (John Caparulo). Lee is looking for a job, while Angel gets humiliated in his own way in the Taco restaurant he is working at the moment. After Lee listened to a talk between women in a doctor’s office about jobs being open for women only (bummer!), Lee decides to drag up and have an interview. Because it’s so easy to dress up and work as a woman than doing anything against it. Or working as a TV critic (bummer!). Lee is lucky enough to be married and takes the clothes from his wife Connie (Beth Lacke) (who doesn’t seem to notice he’s taking them for a walk in the office), and gets a job as a pharmaceutical rep in a female-only office. And because it’s so much fun to work around in a drag, Lee takes Angel with him to the office – also in drag clothes, also having a boner while looking at his new boss Vanessa (Rochelle Aytes), who might be a lesbian. Hilarity ensued? Well…

It’s not difficult to see the worst TV show in TV history in WORK IT, when you read the last paragraph. The show will never be political correct, and it will never be a star vehicle for cast and crew. Even the writers involved in this “pathetic effort” of a sitcom can see it as an exercise or a way to get into the business of television (just to be booh-ed out, when people see WORK IT on their resumes). With WORK IT, questions come,a nd they need to be answered: How is it possible that ABC got this show through the development phase and on the air? Why is it possible for ABC to show with SUBURGATORY and HAPPY ENDINGS, that comedy doesn’t always have to be all about MODERN FAMILY, and now comes around the corner with WORK IT? And why is this sorry excuse so goddamn shameless that it hurts while even writing about it?

Anybody who is expecting something from WORK IT, they are going to be disappointed of course. And disgusted by it. People, who don’t like racism against women and the depiction of a feminine world from a male point of view (all jokes included), and criticize everybody and everything, who don’t take women seriously, will truly hate this show. Every second of it. Anybody who can’t believe that two muscular guys with five-o-clock shadows, with wigs and dresses straight from the last Century, make it through as a woman in today’s times, can prepare themselves for multiple crucifixions. When the watching TV audience develops better ideas than the show is giving them, then something must be wrong with the writing. And if you laugh at quotes like “It’s not a recession, it’s a mancession”, then you should probably think about visiting a good doctor near you. But beware, female TV watchers: Given the show’s “believability”, doctors are just sex-mad men, who want to screw every women in town, because.. they’re men. So, judging from WORK IT, all men are sexists with a boner in their pants, and women are the only ones able to fix the financial problems of this world. Did somebody just slept through the trends of past years and finds himself back in the 90s?

But for the people, who don’t expect anything from WORK IT and instead prepare for it to be the worst TV show of all time, you’re probably going to be entertained by its silliness. You will come back with a light smile on your face after the half hour, and you will probably wish to see more (just to see if it can get worse). After all, WORK IT is proof for “bad and horrible” also meaning “so bad and horrible, it’s actually funny”. Some of the bad jokes actually finds its way through the silliness and to the audience, and somehow it’s fun to see the ridiculous badness of the show, figuring out what’s all bad and worse and idiotic. Beginning with the aforementioned five-o-clock shadows of Lee, and how a sudden facial hair could jump into the eye of one of his new colleagues, and the fact that two men, obviously dressed as drags for Halloween, still behave like men in a women-laden world, even though they want to be seen as women, and even though the whole female world feels like homoerotic people. Of course it’s the comedy part of this sitcom, and of course one sex joke after another gets delivered through it, but people (especially TV critics) have to realize that this is most likely the only reason why this show was conceived in the first place. Despite the complete disappearance of the critical side of feminism and how men can survive in this kind of world, WORK IT is a network comedy, and not an HBO drama. So, some people should scale back their expectations, when it comes to shows like this. Especially when they know it’s going to be a multi-camera sitcom. Why not going flat-out and bringing all the worst sex jokes writers have to offer? Because in WORK IT, it’s actually working!

But I’m honest here: WORK IT is still a bad show, which lives in a wrong time, trying to tell a wrong tale. If you can laugh about the gags, and feel miserable because you laughed, you have enough brains to stamp this show as “nice try” and forget about it real fast. But if you still look for believability here, then you probably should look a bit deeper in the believability of TV sitcoms. After all, WORK IT is not the first show to deliver humor (cough) in an unbelievable manner. MARRIED WITH CHILDREN worked because of it, and when looking at the dramas, SHAMELESS is the last example why it works to be completely over the top with its title-giving shameless approach, when you actually just want to slap the kids and their father. (Please don’t start to complain why I compare WORK IT with SHAMELESS, I have my reasons). And the favorites for being the “worst idea in television history” are still PAST LIFE and CAVEMEN. Remember them? You seem to completely forget them while trash-talking about WORK IT, critics. And WORK IT is nothing but a (miserable) effort to bring a dusty TV sitcom into modern times, only written more filthy and more bad. And I have the feeling the show gets universally bad press, because it’s controversial, and people actually have to agree for once (in addition, what’s a show without controversies from different groups of people? In this case, from the LGBT community, or transgender groups). And whoever realizes the fun of WORK IT during the 21 minutes, you don’t get away with a very bad feeling. Even though “fun” is described here as finding and counting out all the bad things about the show then following the newest career moves of Lee and Angel. 4/10

That's how Lee sees himself as a woman

That's how Angel sees himself as a woman