Workin' Moms is a Canadian Sitcom that premiered in 2017. It airs on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, but also on Netflix. The show is a Dramedy created by Catherine Reitman, who is the sister of director Jason Reitman and the daughter of director Ivan Reitman.
The show centres around four women who all have children, but have recently given birth. Kate (Catherine Reitman) works as a PR executive and has just returned from maternity leave. Her best friend is Anne (Dani Kind), a psychiatrist with a tween daughter who has also just returned from maternity leave. The third protagonist is Frankie (Juno Rinaldi), who is gay and engages with New Age practices. She had a baby created from her partner's eggs. Another character who frequently appears (although not consistently after season one) is Jenny (Jessalyn Wanlim), who works at an office and takes her boyfriend for granted. Each character sees eachother at a "mommy-and-me" group, where they gossip, bicker and debate about parenting methods.
Various issues are addressed in the show, such as expectations for women, workplace sexism, infidelity, abortion and post-partum depression. Anne also has to deal with issues relating to her eldest daughter, who becomes increasingly rebellious and disrespectful.
The show has been met with immense success. As of June 2021, it has been renewed for a sixth season which is intended to air early 2022. In 2018 and 2019 it was nominated for an International Emmy Award for best comedy series. In 2019 it also received 9 Canadian Screen Awards. The show is praised for its honest depiction of motherhood and its relatable humour.
Tropes related to the show.
- Age-Gap Romance:
- Frankie has a fling with Juniper after meeting her at the pool. The two have an age gap of over twenty years.
- Kate has a fling with her boss's son, an intern at her company who routinely flirts with her. They have an age gap of at least ten years.
- Alcoholic Parent: Although not to an extreme amount, Kate begins to day-drink to tolerate the boredom of being a stay-at-home-mother.
- Ambiguously Bi: Frankie's girlfriend Bianca flirts with another man, but it's never specified whether she is bi or not.
- Babysitter from Hell: Anne's babysitter is nicknamed "Mean Nanny". Although she is depicted as villainous at first, the audience sympathises with her after it's revealed Kate's husband had an affair with her. In one scene we see him try to kiss her but she expresses guilt.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: After trying to turn her life into a soap opera, having an affair with her boss and getting a Shotgun Wedding, Jenny gets a wakeup call to her toxic behavior in the form of a miscarriage.
- Benevolent Boss: Richard, Kate's boss and later employee, is friendly, respectful, and always encourages Kate to be the business badass he knows she is.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Anne's daughter Alice repeatedly disrespects her and doesn't pay attention to her studies. She only receives further gratification by Anne's annoyance. In one episode, her behaviour goes way too far and she posts selfies on Instagram of herself holding a gun.
- Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Jenny was taught by her mother to look out only for herself and use people. Watching her young daughter drive other kids away by following her example makes Jenny realize that, if both of them don't fix their attitudes, they will both end up friendless.
- Caught with Your Pants Down: In season one, one of Jenny's co-workers walks in on her pumping her breasts while masturbating. He reports it to their boss, but she gets away with it because the room was designated to her for breastfeeding, so he was technically in the wrong.
- Con Man: Someone approaches Bianca and Frankie and says he's the sperm donor for their child. They believe him and let him into their lives. He even creates a joint bank account for the baby, to which he's put in a significant sum of money. Bianca puts in money as well. They later find out the account has been emptied, and realise he was scamming them.
- Convenient Miscarriage: Anne attempts this trope by riding a horse after suffering minor haemorraging while pregnant. She's recommended against it, but seeks out a horse-riding ranch so she can risk a miscarriage. She later decides to get a clinical abortion with her husband and Kate's support.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: The executive in season 4 pays female workers less than men. Jenny finds out and confronts him, but he's condescending and rude. She meets him at the park where he's watching his toddler play, and she sparks a flirtation with him.
- Creepy Child: Kate's son Charlie, after learning about death from his half-brother, becomes fascinated with the subject and pretends to talk to ghosts.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Alice's go-to form of rebellion. Her stunts tend to spiral out of control, making the result much worse.
- Dumbass Teenage Son: Val's two boys are, put simply, immature shitheads with no respect for their mother. Fortunately, her Scary Black Man boyfriend manages to scare some respect into them.
- Family Versus Career: This is a major theme throughout the show. Characters have to make sacrifices for both their family and their professional lives, which have both negative and positive effects for them.
- First Period Panic: Alice has her period unexpectedly and freaks out. Luckily, Kate is there to comfort her.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Jenny is this to the moms, who know how self-absorbed and catty she can be.
- Freudian Excuse: Season 7 reveals Jenny was raised by a cutthroat business woman who sees her as a failure for not being self-made. Small wonder she turned out the way she did.
- Good Stepmother: Nathan Jr., Nathan's recently orphaned long-lost teenage son, enters the Fosters' lives in season six. Although he torments Kate with pranks at first, she bonds with the boy faster than his dad, and is even willing to fight his aunt for custody.
- Has a Type: Jenny finds powerful men very attractive. She even jumps Ian's bones when he speaks with authority.
- Henpecked Husband: Anne's (common-law) husband Lionel is gentle and open with his feelings, and usually bows to his wife's dominant personality.
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: When Anne was little, her mother would vent to her about the horrific things she saw working at a hospital. This is played for dark humor.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Kate visits her boss Richard's son Forrest to have sex. While drinking from her breasts, Forrest's dad comes home. Kate hides on the balcony in her underwear with large wet patches on her bra, when Richard comes into the room. He goes onto the balcony and sees Kate, who is humiliated.
- It's All About Me: Jenny's Fatal Flaw. She's constantly looking to feel important and glamorous, even at the expense of others.
- Jobless Parent Drama: Ian is a stay-at-home Dad in season one as he writes a TV pitch and a screenplay. This causes friction with Jenny, who thinks he is wasting his time and should be working at a job.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Kate has rough sex with a guy named Julien in a closet during which Kate is taking business calls, after meeting at Anne's first wedding.
- Mama Bear: Kate definitely evokes this trope, as do several other characters in the show.
- Maternally Challenged: Jenny struggles to be a mother at first and even has regrets about having a baby. In one episode she leaves her toddler in the car and the police are called. Furthermore, she mistreats her partner and makes him out to be a bad father.
- My Beloved Smother:
- Several mothers in the protagonists' mother-child group evoke this trope. Characters often argue about various parenting techniques. Protective mothers of the group critique those with lenient attitudes to their children. Sometimes they're even sceptical about vaccines and certain methods of breastfeeding.
- Kate's mother becomes overbearing when she starts babysitting Charlie. This leads to arguments about ways to raise a child.
- Papa Wolf: A B-plot of season 5 follows Lionel punching Alice's ex twice after he speaks badly of her, and dealing with legal backlash.
- Psycho Psychologist: Anne's ex-fiance uses hypnotherapy on her to ask inappropriate questions and probe into her sexual life.
- Quirky Curls: Frankie is rather eccentric and awkward. She has a "mane" of wild blonde curls that complement her oddball personality.
- Real Life: The actors who play husband and wife Kate and Nathan are married IRL.
- Reckless Gun Usage: Anne's daughter Alice finds her gun (which actually belongs to a patient) and take selfies holding it. She almost uses it at one point too.
- Screaming Birth: Flashbacks in season four reveal Kate had a particularly intense birth, as we see her screaming while covered in sweat.
- Sex at Work: After her non-stop flirting, Marvin tries to make a move on Jenny in the storage room, but she plays-hard-to-get and leaves.
- Sex for Services: Deconstructed; Jenny starts using her martial arts instructor and ex coworker as a booty call, and thinks she can do this instead of paying for the classes because sex with her is such a privilege. When the instructor learns she thinks so much of herself and so little of him, he's disgusted and ends the "transaction" immediately.
- Sleeping with the Boss: Jenny pines for her sexy boss throughout season one. They eventually begin dating.
- Standard Office Setting: Jenny's work fits this criteria. It's complete with half-wall cubicles, a cramped staff kitchen and dull lighting.
- Surprise Pregnancy:
- Anne becomes pregnant in season one, despite just returning from maternity leave. She accepts it at first, until she realises having two kids is already a handful and decides to get an abortion.
- After trying for a second child, Kate falls pregnant again... after finding out her husband was cheating on her. Needless to say, it's an inconvenience. She has the baby anyway, and the two eventually get back together.
- Thrill Seeker: In Season 7, Anne starts seeking out danger after a patient runs her over. She snaps out of it after a fellow adrenaline junkie she's attracted to turns out to be Alice's boyfriend.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Kate competes for a job with the charming, handsome Mike from another company. They have a fling and Kate speculates taking it further, but she gets back together with her husband who cheated on her. In the next season, Mike returns to work at her company and tries to sabotage her projects. He even supplies teens with alcohol and encourages them to vandalise the company office.
- Uncool Undies: Somewhat subverted; Kate makes fun of her husband Nate's tighty-whities, to which he defends them, saying he switched from his boxer-briefs for more support. She teases him and makes fun of the briefs as old man underwear and even slips on a pair - and ends getting hot and bothered and jumps his bones.
- Wedding Episode: The episode "2005" is about Anne's first wedding.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: The premise of "It's All Gone". The moms and Alice wake up after a party and need to piece events together. The amnesia turns out to be from experimental meds Kate is promoting.
- Whole Episode Flashback: In the episode "2005", we see Anne's wedding that she didn't follow through with and Kate's courtship with her husband.
- Wild Teen Party: Alice throws a party one night at Kate's office. Mike comes in and supplies alcohol to them, worsening the situation. Alice is forced to clean up the mess the next day as punishment.
- Woman Scorned: Inverted; Scorned men are seen more than scorned women.
