'Workin' Moms' Season 4 Review: Show offers nothing new, but it's the women's friendship that'll win your heart
Spoilers for 'Workin' Moms' Season 4
'Workin' Moms' is originally a Canadian series that premiered on CBC. However, for the rest of the world, the fourth season of the comedy-drama was released on Netflix on May 6. The show — created by Catherine Reitman who also stars as Kate Foster — follows a group of (as the title suggests) working mothers, as they try to juggle their families, their romance lives, and more importantly, their careers.
In the first season, we got to know Kate, Anne Carlson (Dani Kind), Frankie Coyne (Juno Rinaldi) and Jenny Matthews (Jessalyn Wanlim) as they met for their "Mommy and Me" classes. Over the past three seasons, viewers have grown to love these four women, who could be unlikeable when the stories demand it.
In the last season, Kate had established her PR business which is still going strong in Season 4. Of course, her partner at the firm is Mike Bolinski (Victor Webster), with whom she had an affair in the last season when she realized that her husband Nathan (Philip Sternberg) cheated on her with Anne's mean nanny.
However, while Season 3 ended on a cliffhanger on whether Kate would choose Nathan or Mike, we quickly learn in Season 4 that she choses Nathan. In the course of Season 4, Mike is painted as a selfish snob and we cannot see why Kate ever got attracted to him in the first place. He is sexist, lazy and manipulative. But all this makes us wonder, was he written this way because the writers did not know what to do with him? Would it have been easier to write off Mike completely instead of turning him into the pseudo-villain he became?
Kate and Nathan are meanwhile going as strong as ever. They are so adorable, on the verge of being cringey. Sure, Kate tries to focus on her career and perhaps as most working mothers, it's hard to get that combination right, but she tries her best.
Meanwhile, Anne's 13-year-old daughter Alice is driving her up the wall. At the end of the last season, Anne found out that the teenager is also a pathological liar. In this season, Anne is focused on signing Alice up for as many activities as possible, while she writes a book on parenting.
By the end of the season, Anne realizes that parenting is not about punishing her adolescent child, but rather about letting them work their own issues out. Certainly, when Season 4 starts out, it feels like Anne almost considers Alice her enemy, when the truth is that it is the lack of communication that's the enemy to both of them.
Then there's Jenny who is as much a career-minded mom as there is. Jenny comes across information that the women in her office are paid much lesser than men. At first, she tries to start a revolution (#MeTime) but ends up backing out when she's paid hush money. However, when she is called out on it, she gets back on the side of her female co-workers and gets the company to start a daycare at work. The frustrating bit about Jenny's story was her eventual makeout session with her boss, Malcolm Cody Patrick (Alex Mallari Jr). We're not sure how that will end, but it sure will be messy.
Frankie's story was quite here and there. She celebrates her newfound family with Bianca (Tennille Read), who ends up asking Frankie to be her baby's "other mom" by the end of the season.
Last season, fans had issues that 'Workin' Moms' did not reflect on the leading women's white privilege, and it still doesn't. At the end of the day, 'Workin' Moms' is mostly about three white women — and one Asian women who acts mostly white — juggling their extremely comfortable lives.
Season 4 of 'Workin' Moms' is now streaming on Netflix.
