Work Out: Buff and Tough
After enduring an unrelenting assault of those obnoxious commercials touting elite trainer Jackie Warner’s 3% body fat, I was so miffed anyone could achieve such an impossible feat while still actually alive that I was 100% prepared to hate her new six-episode Bravo series Work Out, which premiered July 19 as the alleged first-ever fitness reality show on television.
And that’s exactly what I did, too, during the initial 20 or so minutes it took to introduce the basics of the series’ premise revolving around the accomplished team of trainers (Erika, Brian, Andre, Zen, Jesse, Rebecca, and Doug) who assist clients at Warner’s acclaimed Beverly Hills gym, Sky Sport & Spa. Long story short, Warner, 37, is undeniably dedicated to both her profession and the people in her life, from the gym’s employees—who she insists must understand that Sky Sport & Spa is “my place, my rules, and that’s how it has to be”—to her fellow trainer and 11-years-younger girlfriend of four years, Mimi, to the select clients who view her gym as a place to change “their lives for the better.”
Although immediately providing viewers with maximum exposure to the most integral aspects of Warner’s high-class fitness world—the seven trainers and the clients in search of a body makeover—grounds the series, it also sets the audience up for disappointment when the action inevitably turns away from the bravura of the gym to the extraordinary ordinariness of Warner’s personal life.
Yes, she’s an unabashed lesbian, and we get numerous close-ups of her and Mimi in assorted intimate situations to make sure we don’t forget. But if these transparent scenes (you can actually catch Warner glancing sideways at the camera in one shot, as if to make sure the camera was rolling before kissing Mimi) were meant to deliver shock value or even demonstrate how progressive Work Out is, someone sorely misjudged the mindset of people who would watch a reality show about Beverly Hills fitness trainers … on Bravo, the home of Queer Eye, no less.
However, just as it begins to seem that Work Out might lose whatever momentum it previously achieved by disintegrating into yet another superficial reality show filled with young, pretty people over-discussing silly things (such as flirtatious, boundary-challenged Rebecca mooning the boss while her significant other is visiting), the spotlight shifts to Warner the businesswoman, an intelligent, no-nonsense, driven individual who aims for the highest standards in everything she does.
As long as Bravo’s latest venture into reality programming carefully balances its degree of focus on the forced melodrama of the trainers’ on-camera personal lives (less is best) versus the more captivating personal quests of various clients and the professional predicaments tackled by Warner (more, please), Work Out should work out just fine.
The Verdict: B-
Work Out currently airs Tuesdays at 9pm EST on Bravo
Work Out photo courtesy of Bravo
