Things just keep getting better
Queer Eye returns with a heartwarming season
Everyone’s favorite Fab Five made a comeback on March 15 with season three of Queer Eye on Netflix. After 10 years, Netflix brought a new cast for “Queer Eye”: a reboot of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” a makeover show that aired on Bravo from 2003-2007.
The Fab Five consists of Tan France (stylist), Antoni Porowski (food & wine expert), Karamo Brown (psychologist), Bobby Berk (interior designer) and Jonathan Van Ness (grooming). The Fab Five’s way of helping people, different areas of expertise, fun personalities and their favorite saying “yas queen” is what really makes this a feel-good, binge-worthy and love-filled show that leaves you wanting to see more.
The Fab Five helps a diverse group of people reinvent themselves, their surroundings and everyday choices. For the past two seasons, the show took place in Georgia, but for season three it was a new beginning and a new loft in Kansas City.
There is also a new little addition to this season, their neighbor’s french bulldog, Bruley, who comes around every episode just to get pet and lurk around for some leftovers made by Porowski. He is truly a very good boy to me.
This season is far more diverse as there are more female subjects than ever before — which is to say, three episodes featuring a prison guard, a young gay woman, and two sisters who run a barbecue joint. I thought it was great that they put in more females because it was easier for me and other women to relate to them than the male subjects.
This season mainly focuses on self-love and pushing down gender norms which eliminates a slightly problematic aspect from the last two seasons, which was the Fab Five putting quite an emphasis on the person’s love life and looking good for their partner.
Season three opens with a montage of Ness’s terrible driving skills and forgetting Porowski at the gas station during the Fab Five’s road trip from Georgia to their new loft in Kansas City. I thought it was a good transition from season two if someone was binging the show season-to-season.
In every episode, naturally, each person who gets a makeover finds common ground with the Fab Five, proving that, as Antoni puts it at one point, “People are people are people,” which was kind of cheesy but it held so much love to it.
As always, emotions run high — there are at least two episodes in particular that, if you are coping with the recent loss of a parent, might be triggering and/or healing for you.
The most emotional moment was in the third episode that focuses on the Jones sisters. These women sweat it out in a cramped, humid kitchen to make barbeque food for a living and to raise money for their niece/daughter to get through college. Shorty and Little Jones spend so much time working that they forget to spend some time working on themselves. The most emotional scene of this episode was when Shorty got her tooth fixed after the Fab Five noticed that she wouldn’t smile longer than 0.5 seconds. The first huge smile she gives to the mirror after her surgery is bound to make anyone cry.
When I first watched the show, I thought to myself how organized and confident I could be if the Fab Five showed up and helped me. But the real message of this show is that even without Berk’s budget for rebuilding the living space and France’s ability to fill a huge closet with new clothes, Ness’s emotional talks during groomings, Porowski’s health advices and Brown’s therapeutic activities, change is possible for everyone.
The Fab Five are the actual five divine spirits of humanity. I look forward to each new episode’s story not only to see their impact on others but to learn more about each one of them and their own personal journeys that led them to be where they are now. This show beams so much emotion that it makes me want to work on myself and become a better person.
Sophomore Rija Waqar is a reporter and this is her first year on staff. She enjoys making art, reading and writing.