Diamond Cut^®

As I get ready to watch my first episode of “Workout” tonight, I thought it might be interesting to post some excerpts from reviews.  Here are three…

Arizona Star / Boston Globe

If the trick of a docu-reality show is finding a good character, Jackie’s a gold mine; she’s attractive in a curious, non-Barbie way and even her platitudes come across as biker-Zen deep.

Her supporting cast isn’t quite as distinctive. The show purports to show the inner workings of a gym, but these trainers are no less cliquey than high school kids. Rebecca — who did a turn on “Amazing Race 6″ — is a pathological flirt. Brian (nickname: Peeler) is a would-be ladies’ man who’s jealous of Jesse, the slightly smarmy teacher’s pet.

The plot points follow unimaginatively. Things get interesting when they return to Jackie: We get to revel in her vaguely Machiavellian style of management and gawk at her fights with girlfriend Mimi, a stormy and jealous Brazilian who, because of some quirk of underexplored psychology, likes to bite.

Warner is a bit stiff at first, and the premiere episode is unfortunately the most lackluster. As Erika, the only seemingly normal trainer, points out, you have to keep things interesting to stick with a workout. The same holds true for TV

Reality shows and docudramas routinely feature stereotypically good-looking participants and depict them with hair and makeup intact even when engaged in an activity (hiking up a mountain, building a house) anyone else would look, at best, disheveled while doing. Work Out doesn’t have to worry about such incongruities, since it’s expected that employees at such a place would have toned (and in L.A., tan) bodies. In addition, though, this series films the trainers and clients as they sweat, grunt, and strain for those bodies. Yes, it really does take work, on and off the camera.