Queer Eye: Updated noughties fun delights
A new Fab Five dish out life advice for blokes with grace, gusto and plenty of great gags, writes James Croot.
The Fab Five are back – and better than ever. Just over a decade after the original Bravo show disappeared off the air, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy has returned, this time to Netflix (all eight episodes drop on February 7).
As with the first Queer Eye, it’s a reality show where five gay ‘‘experts’’ assist in helping a heterosexual bloke makeover their lives.
That it was one of the most entertaining and engaging programmes of its ilk in the noughties was down to the charm, chutzpah and genial good nature of the quintet as they zhushed, cajoled and generally jazzed-up sad-plaid, unkempt or social socially gauche men, to the delight of the significant women in their lives.
Ted, Carson, Kyan, Thom and Jai became household names around the globe as they sashayed their way through New York and its surrounds one borderline schlub at a time.
For the 2018 edition, the action has shifted to the southern state of Georgia, with Atlanta the base for interior designer Bobby Berk, culture maven Karamo Brown, food and wine expert Antoni Porowski, grooming guru Jonathan van Ness and fashion guide Tan France (a Pakistani-Scot who’s a dead-ringer for actor Alan Cumming).
After a quick intro where they point out how the world has changed in the past decade – ‘‘the original Fab Five were fighting for tolerance, now we’re fighting for acceptance’’ – they’re off to rural Dallas.
Their first target? Fifty-seven-yearold country boy from Kentucky Tom Jackson.
A jorts-loving, redneck margaritaguzzling (it’s Mountain Dew and tequila), 1937 Plymouth-owning truck driver, he’s been stuck in the same ‘‘style’’ for 27 years.
Divorced three times, he still has a good relationship with his most recent wife, but his basement apartment screams ‘‘bachelor-pad-forone’’.
With a scraggly half-ZZTop beard and low self-esteem (‘‘You can’t fix ugly,’’ he repeats during his initial encounter with the Fab Five), he’s the perfect candidate for their special treatment.
And so with grace, gusto and plenty of great gags, they’re off, turning this admirer of Mexican food and sappy movies (‘‘He’s a softie with gas,’’ quips Tan) into a modern’’ish’’ man-about-town.
While the constant candle burning seems a little too contrived, their three-day transformation feels natural, with viewers clearly able to see Tom’s confidence grow as he rocks a flat cap and learns the finer points of guacamole-making.
Naturally, each of the experts are given their moment to shine, with Tan coming across as the most empathetic and Jonathan the most-likely to emulate Carson’s breakout status.
Indeed, he threatens to steal the whole show with one-liners like, ‘‘I can smell the cigarette smoke coming off your beard – it’s hot’’, wild enthusiasm at everything and, as the second-episode demonstrates, ability to pull of a ‘‘safari onesie’’.
Yes, the show still overuses the word ‘‘fierce’’, boasts an ‘‘inspirational soundtrack’’ and hasn’t found a stereotype it doesn’t embrace, but this Queer Eye is still the same show that took the world by storm in 2003, updated to embrace a world where, as one of the Fab Five puts it, ‘‘gay marriage is a thing’’.