RECAP: Pandora Boxx On 'Work It'
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Could They Have At Least Tried To Work It?
Let’s just clear the air and start off by saying that both the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) have lambasted ABC’s Work It saying it is offensive to the transgender community. I have to disagree. I think Work It is offensive to anyone remotely intelligent.
The premise is basically a rip off of the 80’s sitcom Bosom Buddies starring a young Tom Hanks. In this new version, Lee Standish (Benjamin Koldyke) has been unemployed for a year and gets a lead on a job after a prostate exam. Yes, insert lame prostate jokes here. And they did. The problem is that the pharmaceutical company isn’t hiring men because, “The doctor’s seem to want to nail them less.” I might add that was a woman who had to say that line (Kelly played by Kate Reinders).
To say this show is sexist is quite an understatement. When Lee and his pals Angel (Amaury Nolasco) and Brian (John Caparulo) are at their local bar, Brian, the most annoying character in the show, starts whining about how women have taken over the workforce. While it’s true there are more women working today than every before, they are still getting about .77 to every dollar earned by a man. So quit your bitching.
The real meat (pardon the pun) of the show is the fact that Lee has to dress up like a woman to get this job. Despite the fact that Lee looks about as soft as tree bark when all dolled up, everyone believes he’s a woman. I might add that Lee got hired for the job despite referring to his breasts as “teets” and claiming he played “Lingerie Football” because he forgot to take that off his resume. The reason these cross dressing antics worked in the 80’s was because it was, well, the 80’s. Even though Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari made ugly women, in Bosom Buddies, they still looked mostly like women. The modern day counterparts Koldyke and Nolasco do not.
The only bright spot in a really awful show is Grace Hudson (played by Rebecca Mader who I loved on Lost), the stereotypical office bitch. She has a great presence about her, which makes her stand out from the rest of the cast. The first office scene where the real ladies meet the fake lady is almost as painful as watching the new Celebrity Wife Swap. You know that embarrassed-for-someone feeling you can get? It’s like you can almost see the actresses struggling to make the scene work. I felt sorry for them. To make this cringe-worthy television worse the office gals took Lee and Angel out dancing, and I covered my eyes like I was watching a horror flick.
On a drag queen note, they can’t cover their 5 o’clock shadow but these straight dudes can find pretty decent looking human hair wigs? Girl, please. I know them looking like busted, horse-face banshees and passing is part of the joke but come on. Perhaps people in Middle America who have no exposure to drag queens might find this crud funny but not me.
They really hit it home with this one line, “We still have our pride.” Nope. Sorry I don’t think you really do. Stock characters, stock sets, overused jokes and I could go on probably longer than this show will last. I will say I have seen worse crap on television. Don’t the Kardashians have like ten shows or something like that?
The bottom line is that in today’s world where shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race are so wildly popular, no remotely intelligent woman is going to believe these are real woman. Lee and Angel, sashay away.
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