• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, April 10, 2015

Don’t expect this new Discovery series called “New Girls on the Block” about transgender women to be a walk on the wild side. 

If this show proves anything, it’s that the lives of transgender women can be as boring as anybody else’s.

These women are just like you and me, this show seems to be saying -- except that they have had these life-changing (or more to the point, gender-changing) experiences and are just trying to live their lives.

In the show, premiering Saturday night (April 11) at 10 Eastern on Discovery Life Channel, a group of women who used to be men are seen as they go about their lives in Kansas City, Mo.

Contrary to the title, they don’t really live on the same block. But they are “new girls” whose transitions are recent enough that they are still making various adjustments. And as they do so, they are supported by each other.

Some of the “adjustments” make for dramatic, or at least interesting, TV. At other times, not so much. For example, one of the best parts of the one-hour premiere (which I watched the other day on a preview DVD) is when one of the women reveals herself for the first time to her wife’s family.

The wife, a woman named Sharon, is married to a transgender woman named Macy (formerly named Ken). Married for nine years, Sharon says she’s sticking around to support “Ken” in his ongoing transition to “Macy.” But for the most part, Sharon just seems bewildered. They’re the couple seen in the photo accompanying this blog (Macy’s the one on the left).

In the premiere of “New Girls on the Block,” Sharon is seen breaking the news of her husband’s transition to family members who she has summoned to her home. They don’t know why they’ve been summoned until Sharon awkwardly calls “Macy” to come into the room. The reactions of Sharon’s relatives -- with head shakes and open mouths -- are just priceless as Macy sashays into the living room.

“When someone first gets hit with that, that can be a hard thing to deal with,” Macy says matter-of-factly at one point in the show.

Ya think?

At other times, however, when the girls are seen getting together for dinner at a Kansas City rib joint, or shuffling monotonously through the process of shopping for groceries, you can be forgiven for wondering why anyone would expect you to watch a TV show like this. Hey, if I want to watch people grocery shop, I can do that at any time on my own, and I don’t need a TV show to do it. 

One subject that seemed to be under-played in the premiere episode of “New Girls” is the reaction of people other than family members to this group of transgender women. In the premiere, you don’t really learn if these women have jobs or otherwise find themselves in situations where they might struggle for acceptance. 

One exception: The woman named Jaime faces a crisis when the organizers of a triathlon she’s training for are thinking about barring her from competing with the women triathletes. This storyline gets started in the premiere and will likely continue in subsequent episodes.

For those who are eager to learn more about transgender issues and lifestyles, then I suppose this “New Girls” show can be seen as a primer of sorts on this somewhat perplexing subject.

For everyone else, it’s doubtful that “New Girls on the Block” will become regular appointment viewing on Saturday night.

“New Girls on the Block” premieres Saturday (April 11) at 10 p.m. Eastern on Discovery Life Channel.