Season two of Netflix’s “Queer Eye” reboot has recently come out. Thankfully, because of my late start watching the first season, I didn’t have to wait long for the second.
I started watching “Queer Eye” at the beginning of summer break and finished all episodes within two days. I instantly fell in love with all the guys who make up the Fab 5 because every word they said had meaning. The premise is to take people, mostly men, and give them makeovers. These makeovers don’t just focus on style and grooming, but a space of their choice is redesigned, they learn different ways to prep meals and participants even learn how to present themselves.
The “style guy,” and unfortunate love of my life Tan France, will immediately go through the wardrobe of the makeover victim. A few things France touches on is picking pops of patterns and simple colors in almost every wardrobe.
One of my favorite episodes was the first ever episode of the show’s reboot. The episode dealt with an older man, Tom, who is a truck driver and is still in love with his most recent ex. His goal, with this process, was to win her back and be with only her for the rest of his life. When France picks clothing out for Tom, he tries to focus most on what Tom feels confident in. While still sticking with the comfort and feel of his old clothing, Tom receives outfits that are familiar but also new. The episode ends with Tom adorably picking out an outfit to wear on his date with the love of his life, his ex. Just through the clothing and excitement of having new outfits, Tom already seems more confident in himself and can comfortably interact with everyone around him.
Jonathan Van Ness, “the groomer,” has an eccentric and very out-there personality. His enthusiasm is contagious and always seems excited for change. One of the biggest things I like about Van Ness is his constant self-love and body positivity attitude. There have been men that he just trimmed their hair and shaped their facial hair and Van Ness made it feel like they became a brand-new person.
In the second episode of season one, the group works with a man named Neal. When first seeing Neal, you are greeted by a man with a long, thick beard and hair that goes down to his lower back. Van Ness notices how great of a facial structure Neal has and decides to trim his beard down to almost the skin of his face. His hair is cut super short, ending at the top of his ears, but he still has room to style it in specific ways. After the changes made, Neal ends up acting more confident than before. His attitude and look is attractive and his confidence while interacting with other people has skyrocketed.
While France and Van Ness are running around outside the house, design and food coaches are mostly inside. Bobby Berk, designer, is always hard at work recreating an area of the participants choice.
One of my favorite makeovers of Berk’s was in the final episode of season one. A firefighter, Jeremy, asks for Berk to redo the fire station where he works. The station is old and worn down and doesn’t suit the needs of all employees. Berk gives the station an entirely new look by redesigning the kitchen and dining area, the main concern of all firefighters staying there. In this episode, Jeremy is getting ready for a big event that he is hosting to raise money for firefighter training. In order to create food worth selling, Antoni Porowski, food expert, shows Jeremy ways to make basic grilling foods into fun and delicious entrees that all customers will enjoy. Thanks to the fire station’s hard work, and the Fab 5’s help, the station raised enough money to train new firefighters.
Finally, the culture man of the group, Karamo Brown. Brown is the guy who the participants talk to about why they aren’t confident or how they got to where they are now. He is the level-headed on of the group and ends up being somewhat of a therapist.
The most touching episode to me what when the guys worked with a middle-aged police officer Cory. Every episode opens with the group driving to meet the makeover-ee and this episode in particular opened with a cop pulling them over within three minutes. Brown happened to be driving and, as a man of color, he was worried that the reason wasn’t for something they did, but because of his color. His panic is quickly turned around to relief, as was mine, when the cop who pulled him over reveals that he is the friend that nominated Cory for a makeover.
While this seemed like a set-up to me, this incident led to a conversation between Cory and Brown that allowed them both to open up about police violence. Cory was very understanding and explained to Brown his side which then opened Brown’s eyes up to a good-guy cop’s perspective. Brown was also able to open up about his feelings and in the end, the two bonded more than anyone else on the show.
While the description, or understanding, of this show is to makeover a guy with not so great style, I’ve viewed it as much more than that. The group pushes for confidence and body positivity while allowing the comfort of old habits for the makeover-ee. Not only has this show motivated me to love myself and who I am, but it has inspired me to try new things.
I’ve realized that in order to find and fall in love with who you are, you need to go through steps to get there. While the steps may be small at first, they are steps and the changes to your attitude don’t go unnoticed. This group of five men do more than just make someone over, they change how people think of themselves and teach how to take care of small, but valuable, parts of yourself.
