Abby McEnany's Work in Progress already feels like one of 2020's best shows

The Hollywood Reporter

 "It's only January, but I already feel like Work in Progress has a healthy shot at making my top 10 list for 2020," says Inkoo Kang of McEnany's semi-auto-biographical Showtime comedy that finished its first season on Sunday. "A lot of that, I think, is due to the show's unobtrusive but clever advancements in representation. I love how Abby, whose circle of friends are fellow forty-something lesbians, is destabilized by her first relationship with a trans man. I love that she works as a temp instead of as a comedian (the case with so many semi-autobiographical shows by and about comedians). And while I think Crazy Ex-Girlfriend's Rebecca Bunch is a genius creation, I love that Abby’s depression, anxiety, OCD and all-around low self-esteem don't make her some sort of hyper-focused savant (as in so many Hollywood productions)." Robyn Bahr adds: "Work in Progress already feels like one of the great surprises of 2020, despite the fact that it technically debuted in 2019. Like Abby's signature primal screams — we need more women screaming on TV that has nothing to do with them being murdered! — the comedy at first comes off as a novelty. The tiny, funny, quirky half-hour could merely have been a queer Curb Your Enthusiasm for a therapy-seeking audience." ALSO: Abby McEnany is happy to be renewed for Season 2 after spending years trying to break into TV: "There aren’t … tons of roles for someone like me, I would say?"