Workin' Moms Returns Tonight

Sometimes you go down the Netflix rabbit hole scouring the platform for something to watch and then you come across something great.

That's what happened with Workin’ Moms. I paused for a second to let the trailer play and decided to give it a shot.

I was so glad I did.

The first scene alone had me laughing. And it just kept getting better.

Spoilers for the first three seasons of Workin' Moms.

The show has three predominant stories centered on three moms, Kate, Anne, and Frankie.

Kate is the main story which is fitting since she’s played by Katherine Reitman the show’s creator. She is a new mom and a career woman and she struggles to balance the two, hence the title. She’s married to Nathan and there’s a constant tension between them for the first two seasons.

At first, the show focuses on Kate trying to balance work and motherhood. Nathan makes no secret that he wants her to stay home and he wants to have a second kid.

This conflicts with the fact that Kate is a hotshot at a PR firm and is up for a promotion that would take her to Montreal for three months.

Sidenote: It took me a while to realize that this took place in Canada.

She is forced to choose between her job and her child when her son ends up in the hospital. She then loses her job and next season she struggles as a stay at home mom.

The show deals with a deft hand with all of this, which makes sense as Katherine Reitman is herself a working mom. It showcases the fact that Kate wants to work but isn’t vilified for doing so. But she’s also flawed as she takes the promotion without telling her husband. In fact, her making decisions on her own is a constant source of tension between the two of them.

But, the shocker of the second season is that Nathan is having an affair with her friend’s nanny, and to top things off she’s pregnant. So the third season shows her separated and raising two kids while dealing with new suitors and starting her own company.

Anne is Kate’s best friend and the second lead. Her story is a little different. She already has one child who is a handful and at the beginning of her show is on her second child. She also finds out in the first season that she’s pregnant again. She ultimately decides to terminate the pregnancy. It’s a poignant moment and they handle it well.

Anne’s story follows a couple throughlines. One is that she has anger issues and constantly goes into rages and often threatens violence. She also struggles to connect with her oldest daughter who as the show progresses becomes more and more of a handful. It starts out harmless but by the end of the third season, Anne realizes that she’s dealing with a deeply troubled child.

Part of it is that Anne had to fire the nanny who her daughter loved after the affair. It’s after this point where things start to get worse. In the last episode, we see Anne realizes that her daughter has been lying since the beginning.

The third main character Frankie is by far the most bizarre storyline. First, she struggles with postpartum depression (which is not the bizarre part I’m getting there). She ultimately decides to get divorced and momentarily give up seeing her baby get treatment so she checks into a treatment center.

That’s when things start to get weird. First, she starts dating a college student, the very strange and drug-addled Juniper. Then she also becomes involved with a rich woman who is very strange and treats Frankie more like a pet than a lover.

Then, out of nowhere really, Frankie becomes a successful real estate agent again overnight and is living in a large house. All of Frankie’s world comes together when she realizes she’s in love with her best friend and they start a family using Juniper Frankie’s previous girlfriend’s eggs. To top it off her new girlfriend is deeply religious and it creates tension with Frankie's ex-wife when she doesn’t want her daughter around anything religious.

It is to say complicated.

There are also some great minor characters. There’s Jenny who was one of the main characters in the first season. However, she realizes she doesn’t want to be a mother and leaves her daughter with her husband Ian. She also becomes one of the most despicable characters. First, she leaves her daughter in the car while she goes into the store. And she starts becoming a tyrant at work.

Ian becomes a member of the mom group for a while and it’s funny watching him try to fit in.

There’s also Val who leads the mom group and has two of the worst children I’ve seen on television.

There is one episode where they get high on acid at Val’s cabin and Val is hilarious. It’s one of my favorite episodes.

And now, we get ready for season 4.

Season 4 left off on a cliffhanger. Kate is deciding on whether to get back with her husband or to keep seeing Mike her new romantic partner and colleague.

I think for a while she won’t make a decision and try to be with Nathan or Mike.

For some reason, Mike seems like a potential antagonist. I think he’ll end up being trouble before the season is over.

And so, we begin another season.

Workin’ Moms returns tonight on CBC.