Catherine Reitman, Workin' Moms, and comfort in the chaos

Several years ago, Catherine Reitman came up with the idea for Workin' Moms because of an identity crisis. 

She didn't know it at the time, but she'd been suffering from postpartum depression after the birth of her first-born child. From this experience, she created something to help not only herself but other women — mothers or not — laugh through the chaos of life. 

Now, this perspective is more important than ever. 

The series has always tackled seemingly taboo concepts around womanhood and motherhood head-on. Fearless in their commitment to unfiltered honesty, Reitman and her team of writers have been challenging expectations from the beginning, and season five is no exception. 

• WATCH SEASON FIVE OF WORKIN' MOMS HERE ON CBC GEM

We've watched Anne (Dani Kind), a character Reitman herself describes as "so sure-footed," stumble in isolation as she and her family moved to the other side of the country. Loving Frankie (Juno Rinaldi) is wrestling with her inability to connect with or feel love for her adopted son, Solomon. Jenny enters a relationship that, by her standards and limited world-view, is profoundly non-traditional, forcing her to confront her own prejudice.

And Kate experiences a pseudo-Sliding Doors moment as her new client gives her a glimpse at what life could have been like had she not gotten married and had kids. On top of all this, we're getting to know Anne's daughter, Alice, a little more as she learns to redefine herself in a new town, for better or worse. 

"We're so lucky to be working with Sadie Munroe," Reitman told me of the young, talented actress who plays Anne's eldest daughter. 

"In season four, the character of Alice was essentially slut-shamed, and it was really painful, but I don't even think we realized until we were in post [production] watching it, how potent the story was. And so, in season five, she gets this opportunity to go and start fresh. Go to a new school, go to a new town, a different side of the country. And it's so easy for both Alice and Anne in Calgary to get caught up with the wrong crowd, and how that informs their character, and how that interferes with what their real dreams are and who they are."

For those who have been watching thus far, Alice was welcomed with open arms by the head of her school's conservative club, the Cochrane Conservative Committee. 

Unfortunately, this leads her to more destructive and rebellious behaviour with a side of climate change denial. Meanwhile, Anne gets completely lost in a sea of chardonnay, charm bracelets, and Xanax with the Cutie Committee, a group of stay-at-home moms who relish mixing benzos with their afternoon tipple.  

"There was nothing more liberating," Reitman said of the decision to isolate Anne "than going 'What if we just did an Anne bottle?' An episode exclusively that follows Anne to Calgary? And what that voyage looks like to put a character that's so no-nonsense, so no BS, [...] in a small town, where manners, politeness [are] paramount over expressing how you're really feeling. 

"Putting her in that environment was really exciting for us," she continued. "and [...] it's absolutely isolating. I think in a moment where we're all feeling really isolated, it's a louder episode than I ever could have imagined." 

For over a year now, millions of Canadians have spent the majority of their time isolated and away from most of their friends and family, whether they live in the same city or on opposite ends of the country. 

This is a large part of what makes Anne's identity crisis at the start of the season so compelling despite taking place in an alternate, more ideal reality where we've blown past the pandemic and exist in a COVID-free Canada. The decision to do this, to look at a world beyond the Coronavirus, wasn't an easy one, but it was one Reitman felt she owed the fans.

"The [writers] room this year for season five commenced in February, before we knew about the pandemic," Reitman explained, "and then the world shut down in March[...]. At the moment, we were just writing the show we knew and loved, and when we came back together virtually to read the scripts together, we realized that we were [...] at the precipice of something. That we were some of the few who were going to be creating content during this really wild, unusual period, and was it our responsibility to address it? Especially as a show about motherhood, this felt like there was so much relatable and rich story to tell from this place. We flushed out a few different versions of the season, and to me, it just kept coming back to I didn't want to watch a season of our characters wearing masks."

"I didn't want to go into a world where people were socially distant," she explained. 

"So we address the pandemic briefly at the top of the season. But the season really kicks off months after the world opens up. [...] And I just want to say for the record that I support mask-wearing, I am a mask wearer. But in the world of Workin' Moms season five, characters aren't wearing masks. It's a different planet. And I think that we address it, and then we move on and then the audience can laugh at the things that they used to deem problems as opposed to what are now of course problems."

Considering the often serious and frightening issues plaguing each and every Canadian these days, getting to watch Kate's adventures with Rat Girl is a deeply appreciated release. The show gives us permission to laugh after feeling like we've been holding our breath for months, but this isn't new. It's been the backbone of the series since its inception. 

"It still exists for me, as someone with a seven and a four year old, that your pain as a working mother doesn't disappear when they start walking and talking," Reitman explained. 

"If anything, it gets far more complicated. They're asking questions. My kids watched some of the show and had a lot of follow up questions for me. [K]ids as they grow up and start to form personalities will question and challenge your state of being and the state of affairs that you thought were humming along just fine."

"[W]hile it's called Workin' Moms, and of course it's about mothers, it's really about women," she continues. "It's women who are trying to have it all." 

Part of having it all on a production like this meant adapting to safety guidelines as a result of COVID, a feat Reitman said was incredibly difficult, but deeply rewarding. 

"This season was really, really challenging. We shot this past fall [...] for two and a half months [...] in sort of the 'school's back in session', September peak," she explained. "We had to trust each other and rely on each other in a way we never had before. And there were a few weeks of everyone looking around wondering if they can trust the other people? Or what are they doing on the weekends? Or do they know that we are in their hands as much as they're in our hands?"

Despite the apprehensions, everything worked out for the best. "I don't think I've ever trusted a crew more than I have this season," Reitman said, "because we had to. Especially for the actors who are mask free all the time, every time they say 'rolling'. We had to embrace and connect and put trust in each other in a way we never had before.

Reitman went on to describe an extraordinary moment from the second half of their shooting schedule that changed everything and coloured the rest of the production. 

"When we wrapped that final moment on the last night, I remember looking around and seeing the similar look in everyone's eyes, which was of course relief, but also, how are we supposed to go back to the way we were before the shoot?"

Reitman's retelling of this moment reflects a larger trust Canadians have had to place in each other throughout the chaos of the last year, desperate to find joy in the moments between fear and uncertainty.

"We had become a family in a way we had never had before."

Reitman continues to talk about Kate's arc this season with excited zeal. 

As mentioned previously, in this season Kate has a mentor who Reitman describes as "this mirror image of who she could have been if she hadn't gotten married and had kids, if she could just unabashedly go after what she wanted." 

It's this part of the season that has nothing to do with kids that was one of her favourites.

And it's also what fans may find the most compelling while stuck in a state of fluctuating quarantine. 

The show gives us permission to daydream and fantasize about what may be when things have calmed down into a new normal. When we can safely go back to movie theatres, have date nights at restaurants, or even just get back to work. 

So many have lost so much over the past year that it's important to be given a window of escape, permission to breathe, and the space to hope for a brighter tomorrow.