Antoni Porowski
In the second season of the “Queer Eye” reboot, which begins streaming on June 15 on Netflix, the new Fab Five advocates acceptance and respect more than mere tolerance, not just for issues involving the LGBTQ community, but also over other polarizing matters netizens often find themselves crossing swords with.
To get this message across, Antoni Porowski (food and wine), Bobby Berk (interior design), Karamo Brown (culture), Jonathan Van Ness (grooming) and Tan France (fashion) turn on the charm as they take turns transforming “beasts” into “brawny masculine beauties.”
Eight-episode season
The eight-episode latest season isn’t just about sloppy slobs and straight but sartorially challenged men getting the makeover treatment as five well-meaning gay men help them transmogrify into better, more “actualized” versions of themselves.
This time, the Fab Five’s “beneficiaries” aren’t just scruffy men with low self-esteem hiding behind scruffy beards, a disheveled appearance and ill-fitting clothes.
For instance, the first episode sees the quintet working their magic on Tammye, an overweight female black church leader who’s having difficulty accepting her gay son Myles’ unraveling sexuality.
She feels guilty for not loving her son “unconditionally,” belatedly realizing that she can’t “evangelize and antagonize” at the same time.
Jonathan Van Ness
But, Tammye isn’t the only one feeling awkward about the situation: Bobby can’t even bring himself to enter the church premises because “it’s a place that has not been welcoming of the LGBT community.” Gay people, he says, have always been judged harshly by organized religion.
For his part, Karamo identifies with Myles’ dilemma because he grew up getting bullied as much for his “swishy ways” as it is for the color of his skin.
But, as Tammye eventually realizes, “We all pray to a God who loves, not condemns. Everything is made beautiful in His time.”
In another episode, Antoni and his pals come to the rescue of a reclusive bartender with body image issues who refuses to attend parent-teacher get-togethers because he worries about getting maligned for his heft and Latino roots.
Episode Five zeroes in on the “trans experience,” as the fabulous fivesome crosses paths with 30-year-old trans man Skyler six weeks after he had his female breasts removed.
The surgery provides catharsis for Skyler, but for the quintet, it underscores the importance of education in situations that are “out of the ordinary.”
In fact, it takes even the gay quintet some time to get used to “interacting” with a bearded and tattoo-clad former female as he talks about how he misses his mother, who has refused to speak to him in six years!
Just as fascinating is the story of how 24-year-old Arian goes from mediocre to magnificent. Arian, who migrated from Iran to the United States when he was only 12, is a “serial liar” who has taken failure as an easy option after learning that he hasn’t actually graduated from college. He unexpectedly flunked one of his “easy” subjects because he didn’t attend his classes—problem is, he’s too embarrassed to retake it.
Arian coasts along in life by accepting odd jobs he can’t keep while he waits for an opportunity to tell his “proud” mother about his peculiar dilemma.
Karamo Brown
Lie detector test
Having had enough of Arian’s fibs and tall tales, the Fab Five hires a polygraph examiner and subjects Arian to a lie detector test to make him realize how his situation has degenerated into something pathological!
In another episode, Antoni and his feisty BFFs inadvertently find themselves playing Cupid while they help 48-year-old handyman Jason prepare for a moving-away party.
As they make Jason realize that his longtime best friend Beth has the hots for him, the quintet ends up turning the talented hipster’s underutilized passion for antiques into career-boosting profit.
“Queer Eye’s” final two episodes are made more binge-worthy by the makeover challenge’s degree of difficulty, because they don’t involve “regular Joes” the Fab Five can easily boss around—like 18-year-old singer-songwriter Sean VanMeter, a former child prodigy who has already released two albums.
Sean has been touring the state of Georgia, singing and playing “old-fashioned” music to mostly geriatrics. Asked to name a “contemporary” singer he most relates to, he quickly singles out Elton John.
Tan France
Cause for concern
The homeschooled teenage singer doesn’t know how to act around people his age. This becomes his doting adoptive mom’s cause for concern because Sean is about to embark on a bigger and more age-appropriate adventure: college life. She’s worried that with limited social skills, Sean would stick out like a sore thumb or be the odd-man-out on the campus.
The Fab Five’s indefatigable members have their work cut out for them when they meet good-looking Ted Terry, the youngest mayor in Clarkson, Georgia’s 135-year history.
But, there’s more to the 34-year-old mayor than his shaggy beard, casual clothes and bohemian ways—he’s known for decriminalizing marijuana possession in the city described by Time magazine as “the most ethnically diverse square mile in America.”
Mayor Ted lives by the mantra, “You can’t change the world if you can’t change yourself”—and, with the Fab Five’s help, he intends to practice what he preaches.
As he rallies against the current US government’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, he looks to expand his city’s international relations by hosting a special dinner for delegates from Sierra Leone and, hold your breath, the Philippines!
Bobby Berk