Back in 2003, when Bravo announced that five fabulous gay men would work together to transform shlubby straight guys for their new reality makeover show actually called Queer Eye For The Straight Guy, the move was revolutionary.
In a time when it was still illegal for gay couples to marry and most states failed to have basic homosexual discrimination laws, Queer Eye tried to normalize gay culture for Americans at an unprecedented level — and it worked. Somehow overnight, millions of people were tuning in every episode to watch as five openly gay and flamboyant men tried to teach unsuspecting heterosexual guys about fashion, grooming, food, design, and culture.
Now, 15 years later, we can view the show through a clearer and more progressive lens. Despite being radical at the time, there are convincing arguments that it fostered negative stereotypes about both gay and straight men, featured mostly white people, and made a mockery of gay culture at the expense of its own progress. Yet, here we are in 2018. Netflix is backing another revival and rebooting the series – now simply called Queer Eye – and prompting the obvious question: do we really need a show like Queer Eye right now?
The short answer is yes; the longer answer is abso-freaking-lutely yes.
Netflix’s Queer Eye repeats the premise of the original, but, perhaps intentionally, addresses its shortcomings by now including a pointedly youthful and diverse cast making over both straight and gay men in and around the Atlanta, Georgia area. The Southern backdrop paints Atlanta as a rising and bustling town for techies and artists, as well as a breeding ground for messy dads with rifles in their pickups and beer in their fridge. Either way, the new Fab Five always seem in their element, and are therefore endlessly charming.
Over eight episodes, we become intimately acquainted with the cast of characters guiding both the show’s helpless subjects and enthralled audiences at home. The wholesome Bobby Berk focuses on design and re-decorating homes. The suave Karamo Brown – who was the first openly gay African-American male on MTV’s The Real World – fosters culture and lifestyle. The hysterical and unforgettable Jonathan Van Ness tosses his beautiful mane of hair while, fittingly, promoting good grooming. The sharp-witted and even sharper dressed Tan France educates on fashion through a beautiful British-Pakistani accent. The painfully adorable Antoni Porowski masters food and drink, and perpetually dressed in cool Strokes band tees. Together, they make an unstoppable force, and an even more watchable show.
While the original series was more preoccupied with showing off the wonders that gay culture could do for traditional, straight people, this version of Queer Eye now crafts elevated living from a practical perspective. This time, instead of promoting a super-involved hour-long grooming regimen for a working father of six kids in Episode 5, Jonathan gives him three bare bone products for his hair and face: mousse, pomade, and sunscreen. All of which he bought from Target. There’s less time for looking fabulous and showing up fashionably late, and more time for crafting a respectable look for the Working Southern Man.
While Tan curates a closet of fashionable yet affordable clothing items from local boutiques (paying particular attention to what’s flattering on the men with weight issues), Antoni does anything he can to make contestants unafraid of their own kitchens. He doesn’t try to make anyone an Iron Chef in just one week, but creates simple dishes like guacamole and chili, so the men can contribute to entertaining and even get their kids involved. Karamo takes practical culture to a whole new level in Episode 7 when he builds a website and social media presence for one struggling, aspiring comedian who can’t figure out how to make a career out of being funny. In the most obvious sense, this rendition of Queer Eye doesn’t show you the life you could have if only you had fabulously gay friends, but reveals that the lives we already have are worth living with small, manageable changes.
Another unique quality to the show comes in its ability to face obvious political tension with reverence and delicacy. In Episode 3, the Fab Five are tasked with making over a NASCAR-loving, former Marine, and self-proclaimed “redneck” cop who has Trump and Pence signs in his garage leftover from the 2016 election.
To make matters more uncomfortable, the episode begins with the Fab Five getting pulled over on the highway by a policeman who turns out to be the contestant’s co-worker and best friend. Except they don’t realize the cop is connected to the show at first, and Karamo, a black man, is the one behind the wheel. His obvious discomfort isn’t dismissed by the lighthearted narrative, but ends up becoming the crux of the episode. When they’re later alone together, Karamo and the former Marine openly discuss police brutality and the preconceived notions they had of one another prior to meeting. Somehow, their forthright discussion brings peace and healing to both parties.
In Episode 5, Bobby voices hesitance in making over a devoutly Christian man after admitting that he himself was raised Christian but left the Church when decades of homophobia kept him in the closet. And so, while on his knees in the man’s yard, in the process of redesigning his living room and planting vegetables in his garden, Bobby directly asks him what he thinks of homosexuality. He admits that, growing up, he was taught that “gays were crazy, gays were wrong,” but doesn’t prescribe to that belief anymore. “God told me to love my neighbor,” he tells Bobby, and the moment feels more meaningful and poignant than contrived or shallow.
When speaking to GQ recently, Jonathan remarked on the show’s desire to tackle overly political moments and embrace them. “People who fundamentally disagree with you politically or socially are not bad people,” he said. “I can’t expect that other side to have compassion for me if I can’t put myself in their shoes, too.”
And as often as Queer Eye has opportunities for opposing viewpoints to come head-to-head, the moments when different people unexpectedly connect are that much more beautiful. In the second episode, we meet a Hindu-practicing Indian man with slightly overbearing parents in need of revamping his life on several levels.
Tan, born in England to Pakistani Muslim parents, deeply connects with him; the two openly discuss their disapproving mothers, struggles living within the Indian and Pakistani cultural norms, and the heavy emotional baggage that comes with a dowry suitcase.
In Episode 4, the Fab Five work with the season’s only gay man – a black guy who’s spent years in the closet hiding from his own stepmother after his father’s death – and the episode’s conclusion is by far the show’s most memorable. The young man struggles with his sexuality, but even more so with his own masculinity; it takes a frank conversation between him, Tan (who can come across a bit flamboyant), and Antoni (who’s a bit more “conservatively” gay and more masculine) for audiences to see how heteronormative societal standards and toxic masculinity even affects gay culture. He lives in fear of being portrayed as a “certain type of gay man,” and it isn’t until he recognizes how every member of the Fab Five is gay in his own way that he fully becomes himself.
The truly moving moments of Queer Eye aren’t necessarily in the transformations or hokey, fish-out-of-water situations, but when it’s so clear that the audience watching at home can learn from what’s happening on screen. The beautiful openness between southern family men and progressive gay men from New York City is downright cathartic to witness. Queer Eye is thoughtful when it needs to be, lighthearted when it wants to me, and invites everyone watching at home to realize that – regardless of circumstance, political party, or sexual orientation – everyone can be a little fabulous if they just try.
-Kat Manos
Best Episodes: 1, 2, 4, and 6
