Queer Eye

After finishing up Umbrella Academy (which I am still angry about, by the way), daughter Randie and I were joined by mom/wife Andrea to turn our attention to elsewhere on Netflix to burn through 8 episodes of season 3 of Queer Eye.

 

The premise of Queer Eye is 5 gay guys (the Fab Five) come into the life of some hapless schmuck and de-schmuck him. Better clothes, a better haircut, better food, better place to live and a better way to live await our no longer hapless person at the end of a week.

 

A few things that strike me about Queer Eye.

 

The first two seasons saw the Fab Five frequent the environs of rural Georgia; this seasons, our gang of gay is hanging out in Kansas. The upshot is that these decidedly cosmopolitan gay gents are helping people in areas that you might not expect to take kindly to cosmopolitan gay gents.  For the most part, this has not been an issue. No southern or mid-western country folk have yet fired up their torches to run these interloping gays out of their God fearing towns.  The arrival of the Fab Five is usually cause for uproarious hellos and bear hugs all around.  Still, the Fab Five have not always known such warm greetings. They have their respective stories of coming out and facing rejection and it still haunts them a bit when they enter the latest small town. 

 

It's not like the people in these small towns don’t realize the Fab Five is gay. Particularly when Jonathan comes flouncing into a room to meet their latest new friend and the way he flounces out the door when their work is done. While Jonathan’s flamboyant take is often on display, the Fab Five tend to dial the “gayness” up and down the dial depending on the mood.  They are who they are and they don’t hide from anyone.  

 

The Fab Five make significant changes in the lives of their charges but what’s interesting to me is how dramatic these changes are not… dramatic that is. Often makeovers turn clueless schlubs into some kind of impossibly glamourous models.  The people the Fab Five help will by the end of an episode look much better but not completely different. The person at the start of the episode is recognizably the same person at the end. Just better.  

 

A lot of that improvement comes not just from a better wardrobe and a nicer hairstyle but an infusion of confidence. The Fab Five’s target for the episode may start out as a total mess but the five will greet this person with boundless enthusiasm and energy. Before the first old ratty t-shirt is thrown out, before the first scraggly follicle of unruly hair is trimmed, the Fab Five instantly and completely embrace this person for who they are at that moment. The Fab Five are not so much about fixing what’s wrong with a person but rather finding what’s right with that person and bringing that out. Much of the episode tracks how the Fab Five, individually and collectively work with their charge to slowly bring this person to the realization that they deserve to feel good about themselves.   

 

Queer Eye is a reboot of the old Bravo cable series Queer Eye For the Straight Guy which was predicated on the premise that straight men have no clue how to dress themselves. In the current Queer Eye, most of the people the Fab Five help are straight men have no clue how to dress themselves. But this is not an exclusive demographic for our team.  One of the people helped by the Fab Five in season 3 is Jess, a young African American woman and an out lesbian. Her race and her sexual orientation has frequently left her feeling cut off from the rest of the world and bereft of ever having a family. When the episode is over, Jess has a fresh new look and a cool looking apartment but the most important improvement in her life is the knowledge she has a family.

 

The sad part about Queer Eye is the Fab Five goes away. They sweep in and deliver a whirlwind week of new experiences and then they go.

 

I need five gay guys in my life to make me a better me. But I would hate to see them go.