Work in Progress (TV series)
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| German title | Work in progress |
| Original title | Work in progress |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Year (s) | since 2019 |
| Production company |
Monday, Squirrel Soup, Circle of Confusion, Jax Media |
| length | 23-30 minutes |
| Episodes | 8+ in 1+ seasons |
| genre | Comedy |
| idea | Abby McEnany, Tim Mason |
| production | John Skidmore |
| music | Ethan Stoller |
| Initial release | December 8, 2019 on Showtime |
First publication in German |
February 18, 2020 on Sky Atlantic HD |
| occupation | |
Work in Progress is an American television series that premiered on Showtime on December 8, 2019 . It is based in part on the life of comedian Abby McEnany , who also created and produced the series together with director Tim Mason , McEnany also plays the main role, who bears her first name.
On January 13, 2020 Showtime extended the series for another season, which should consist of ten episodes. In Germany, Work in Progress has been on Sky Atlantic HD since February 18 of the same year .
action
45-year-old Abby, who describes herself as a “fat, queer fighting lesbian ”, suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder , depression and various anxieties . She regularly goes to a therapist to whom she can share all of her worries and problems, has a loving family and actually gets along quite well in everyday life despite her problems. Since she is still unhappy, also because her therapist dies unexpectedly during one of her sessions, she decides to count an almond every day . If after 180 days she has still not become happier and her life has not changed for the better, she wants to leave it.
Since her ambitious sister Alison can't allow this, she introduces Abby to Chris, 22, who is transgender and works as a barista . With Chris, who, in contrast to her, is full of self-confidence and open-mindedness, Abby gains new courage to face life. She enters into a relationship with him even though he is a man. But because Chris has nothing against an open connection , Abby decides to finally have successful dates with other women with the help of her best friend Campbell despite her deficits. Another goal of hers is to confront the woman who, in her opinion, has destroyed her life: actress Julia Sweeney . She embodied the character Pat in Saturday Night Live . Since Pat 's androgynous always an identity running joke was, Abby believes that Sweeney is responsible for the scorn and derision they and other individuals who do not present themselves gendered endured since then.
production
According to Theo Germaine, Lilly Wachowski , who also co-wrote seven of the eight scripts, was often present on the set as a consultant because she is transgender and could therefore give Germaine advice because Germaine plays a trans man, but is non-binary herself . In addition, Wachowski also acted as the director of a love scene between McEnany and Germaine in the first season.
Michael Ognisanti, the cameraman of the production, should make the scenes look as authentic as possible, as they are inspired by the life of the main actress Abby McEnany. Because of this, the series was shot in real locations in McEnany's hometown of Chicago rather than in a film studio, especially at night. Since the production team wanted to avoid artificial light, they used available light , i.e. light sources that were already available, for example candles, stars or street lamps, only small LED lamps were used to make the natural lighting conditions a little brighter. Ognisanti also used cameras with image sensors and Zeiss lenses with a very high light intensity for turning , which is rather unusual in television productions. However, he wanted to capture appropriate scenes that were not in the script and therefore could not be played in the same way during re-shoots because the actors improvised a lot during the shooting . Ognisanti also created storyboards for the entire series using the Cinema 4D software on the instructions of director Tim Mason .
occupation
The synchronization of the series is done at Cinephon under the dialogue direction of Stefan Ludwig.
main characters
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Abby | Abby McEnany | |
| Alison | Karin Anglin | Christin Marquitan |
| Campbell | Celeste Pechous | Julia Biedermann |
| herself | Julia Sweeney | |
| Chris | Theo Germaine |
Minor characters
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Mike | Gerard Neugent | |
| Melanie | Echaka Agba | |
| King | Armand Fields | |
| he himself | Weird Al Yankovic | Uwe Büschken |
Episode list
season 1
| No. ( total ) |
No. ( St. ) |
German title | Original title | First broadcast in the USA | German language first publication (D) | Director | script |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 180 almonds | 180 almonds | Dec 8, 2019 | Feb. 18, 2020 | Tim Mason | Abby McEnany & Tim Mason |
| 2 | 2 | 176, 172, 171 | 176, 172, 171 | Dec 15, 2019 | Feb. 18, 2020 | Tim Mason | Abby McEnany & Tim Mason & Lilly Wachowski |
| 3 | 3 | 162 | 162 | Dec 22, 2019 | Feb 25, 2020 | Tim Mason | Abby McEnany & Tim Mason & Lilly Wachowski |
| 4th | 4th | 161, 153, 137, 122, 106, 104, 102 (We are still counting almonds.) | 161, 153, 137, 122, 106, 104, 102 (We're Still Counting Almonds.) | 29 Dec 2019 | Feb 25, 2020 | Tim Mason | Abby McEnany & Tim Mason & Lilly Wachowski |
| 5 | 5 | 66, 65, 64, 62 | 66, 65, 64, 62 | Jan. 5, 2020 | 3rd Mar 2020 | Tim Mason | Abby McEnany & Tim Mason & Lilly Wachowski |
| 6th | 6th | 15, 14 (only part) | 15, 14 (pt. 1) | Jan. 12, 2020 | 3rd Mar 2020 | Tim Mason | Abby McEnany & Tim Mason & Lilly Wachowski |
| 7th | 7th | 14 (the rest), 12, 11, 10 | 14 (pt. 2), 12, 11, 10 | Jan. 19, 2020 | 10 Mar 2020 | Tim Mason | Abby McEnany & Tim Mason & Lilly Wachowski |
| 8th | 8th | 3, 2, 1 | 3, 2, 1 | Jan. 26, 2020 | 10 Mar 2020 | Tim Mason | Abby McEnany & Tim Mason & Lilly Wachowski |
reception
In the Internet Movie Database, the series achieved a rating of 6.5 out of ten stars. On Rotten Tomatoes , the critic rating is 100 percent and the audience rating is 59 percent. At Metacritic , a rating of 78 yielded 100 points.
nomination
In 2020, Work in Progress was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award in the Best Comedy Series category.
Web links
- Work in Progress in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Official website of the series at Showtime
- Work in Progress at Fernsehserien.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Denise Petski: Showtime Sets Premiere Dates For 'Work In Progress' & 'Couples Therapy' - TCA. In: Deadline.com . August 2, 2019, accessed January 15, 2020 .
- ↑ Denise Petski: 'Work In Progress' Renewed For Season 2 By Showtime - TCA. In: Deadline.com. January 13, 2020, accessed on January 15, 2020 .
- ↑ Adam Arndt: Work in Progress: German premiere in February on Sky Atlantic. In: Serienjunkies.de . January 3, 2020, accessed January 16, 2020 .
- ^ David Reddish: Theo Germaine went from barista to 'The Politician' & 'Work in Progress'. In: Queerty. December 8, 2019, accessed February 19, 2020 .
- ^ David Geffner: Race to the Finish. In: ICG Magazine. January 14, 2019, accessed January 15, 2020 .
- ↑ German synchronous index | Series | Work in progress. In: German synchronous card index . Retrieved May 25, 2020 .
- ↑ Work in Progress: Season 1. In: Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved January 15, 2020 .
- ↑ Work in Progress. In: Metacritic . Retrieved January 15, 2020 .
- ^ The Nominees for the 31st Annual GLAAD Media Awards. In: GLAAD.org. January 8, 2020, accessed on January 15, 2020 .