''Work in Progress'' is an American

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

television series produced by

Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...

that premiered on December 8, 2019. The series was created by Abby McEnany and Tim Mason, written and executive produced by McEnany, Mason, and

Lilly Wachowski Lana Wachowski (born June 21, 1965, formerly known as Larry Wachowski) and Lilly Wachowski (born December 29, 1967, formerly known as Andy Wachowski) are American film and television directors, writers and producers. The sisters are both trans ...

, and directed by Mason. ''Work in Progress'' stars McEnany in a semi-autobiographical role alongside Karin Anglin, Celeste Pechous,

Julia Sweeney Julia Anne Sweeney (born October 10, 1959) is an American actress, comedian, and author, who gained fame as a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1990 to 1994. She played Mrs. Keeper in the film ''Stuart Little'' and voiced Brittany in ' ...

(as a fictionalized version of herself), and

Theo Germaine Theo Germaine is an American actor, best known for playing James Sullivan on the Netflix television series ''The Politician''. Personal life Germaine is originally from Illinois; they worked at a coffee shop in Chicago before temporarily reloca ...

. The entire series was written, filmed, and post-produced in Chicago. The pilot episode was shown at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

.Rose, Michelle (December 8, 2019).
Abby McEnany is a Witty 'Work In Progress' on Showtime
. ''Standard-Speaker'' (Hazleton, Pennsylvania). p. T7. The first season of ''Work in Progress'', consisting of eight episodes, premiered on Showtime on December 8, 2019. It received positive critical reception. On January 13, 2020, Showtime renewed the series for a 10-episode second season, to be filmed in Chicago later in the year. The second season premiered on August 22, 2021. On January 27, 2022, Showtime canceled the series after two seasons.

Synopsis

A self-identified "fat, queer dyke" enters into a transformative relationship during a time of crisis.

Cast

Main

* Abby McEnany as Abby, a 45-year-old self-identifying "fat, queer dyke" who lives with depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. * Karin Anglin as Alison, Abby's sister. * Celeste Pechous as Campbell, Abby's friend. *

as a fictionalized version of herself. A recurring plot point is the discomfort Julia's ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...

'' character Pat has caused to Abby, for which Julia attempts to make amends. *

as Chris, a 22-year-old

barista A barista (; ; from the Italian/Spanish for "bartender") is a person, usually a coffeehouse employee, who prepares and serves espresso-based coffee drinks. Etymology and inflection The word ''barista'' comes from Italian where it means a male ...

who enters a relationship with Abby. Chris is a

trans man A trans man is a man who was assigned female at birth. The label of transgender man is not always interchangeable with that of transsexual man, although the two labels are often used in this way. ''Transgender'' is an umbrella term that incl ...

. Germaine appears in all episodes of the first season but is credited as a special guest star.

Recurring

* Gerard Neugent as Mike, Alison's husband. * Echaka Agba as Melanie, Abby's ex. * Armand Fields as King, Chris's friend and co-worker. * Mary Sohn as Susan, Abby's boss

Special guests

"Weird Al" Yankovic Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, actor and author. He is best known for creating comedy songs that make light of pop culture and often parody specifi ...

as a fictionalized version of himself, playing Julia's husband.

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (2019–20)

Season 2 (2021)

Production

According to Germaine, Lilly Wachowski was frequently on the set as an advisor and helped direct the sex scene of the third episode among others. Michael Ognisanti served as the series

cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...

. Because the series is inspired by McEnany's life, the challenge for Ognisanti was to capture the authenticity of the story in the look of the show. For this reason, filming took place in real locations, mostly night interiors, and for lighting they used practical light sources augmented with small

LEDs A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (cor ...

, to avoid making it look artificial. Because of the

improvisational Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

style of acting, Ognisanti used two

Arri Alexa The Arri Alexa (stylised as ΛLEXΛ) is a digital motion picture camera system developed by Arri. First introduced in April 2010, the camera was Arri's first major transition into digital cinematography after previous efforts such as the Arr ...

Mini cameras, for a higher chance to capture unscripted moments that could not be recreated after the fact. The cameras were fitted with Zeiss Super Speed lenses. Ognisanti storyboarded the whole series based on input by Mason in

Cinema 4D Cinema 4D is a 3D software suite developed by the German company Maxon. Overview As of R21, only one version of Cinema 4D is available. It replaces all previous variants, including BodyPaint 3D, and includes all features of the past 'Studio' ...

before they went to shoot on location. Inspired by her participation in Netflix's

Disclosure Disclosure may refer to: Arts and media * ''Disclosure'' (The Gathering album), 2012 *Disclosure (band), a UK-based garage/electronic duo * ''Disclosure'' (novel), 1994 novel written by Michael Crichton ** ''Disclosure'' (1994 film), an American ...

, Executive Producer Lilly Wachowski made an emphatic push for trans representation throughout the cast and crew including the soundtrack. Transgender musicians in the show's soundtrack include

Backxwash Ashanti Mutinta, known professionally as Backxwash, is a Zambian-Canadian rapper and producer based in Montreal, Quebec. She is most noted for her 2020 album ''God Has Nothing to Do with This Leave Him Out of It'', which won the 2020 Polaris Music ...

, Quay Dash, Sateen,

SuperKnova Ellie Kim, artist name SuperKnova, is a singer, activist, physician and musician. She has released two studio albums, ''American Queers'' and, most recently, ''superuniverse''. As a physician, she is noted for speaking out publicly against non-con ...

, and Mel Stone.

Reception

Critical reception of ''Work in Progress'' has been mostly positive.

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, a

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website, reported a 100% critical approval rating with an average rating of 8.00/10 based on 28 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "As radically hilarious as it is relatably uncomfortable, ''Work in Progress'' is a stunning debut from co-creator and star Abby McEnany." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which uses a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

, the season is assigned a score of 78 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Accolades

References

External links

''Work in Progress''
on sho.com * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Work in Progress 2019 American television series debuts 2021 American television series endings 2010s American LGBT-related comedy television series 2010s American LGBT-related drama television series 2010s American romance television series 2020s American LGBT-related comedy television series 2020s American LGBT-related drama television series 2020s American romance television series English-language television shows Lesbian-related television shows Showtime (TV network) original programming Transgender-related television shows Television shows set in Chicago Television shows filmed in Illinois Television about mental health