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Making America Fabulous Again Why Netflix’s reboot of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is more important than ever in the age of fashion fluidity—and the evolution of straight and gay friendships By Nelson Branco
The cast of Netflix’s Queer Eye, from left to right: Karamo Brown, Jonathan Van Ness, Tan France, Antoni Porowski and Bobby Berk (Photo courtesy of Netflix)
Is Madonna helming the TV and streaming world? These days, almost every hit series is being reinvented just like the Queen of Pop has done with her venerable career. And not to be outdone, the groundbreaking reality TV series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy—which revolutionized not only the tube but also gay and straight culture (who can forget that full-image Entertainment Weekly cover after the show exploded?)—returned last month with a new look, cast, location and attitude.
March / April 2018
Replacing the original “Fab Five”—Ted Allen, Kyan Douglas, Thom Filicia, Carson Kressley and Jai Rodriguez—are newbies Antoni Porowski (food and wine aficionado), Bobby Berk (interior design guide), Karamo Brown (culture czar), Jonathan Van Ness (grooming guru) and Tan France (fashion maven). And your eyes are not deceiving you: to mirror the times, the cast is much more diverse. Take newcomer Tan France, for instance. He is thrilled by his casting, saying, “I am an immigrant, I am Pakistani, I am Muslim, I’m gay. If you’re Middle Eastern, boys don’t go into fashion. They go to law school or to be a doctor. I love the plan for what they want for
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this new show. It’s very much about the hero but also about us and our stories. I think it’s going to be formidable.” It’s also lost a few inches off its original title: the series is now known as just Queer Eye (a move Bravo made halfway through the US run). Moreover, the tastemakers are on the road: New York City is out and Atlanta, Georgia, is in. “It was time to leave New York,” says executive producer Rob Eric. “We realized that you can take anyone into a high-end Manhattan shop and make them look like a million bucks. We believed Queer Eye should be able to go anywhere—any city, any town, any community on any budget and make over anyone of any gender with great results.” A smart move since the southern US states provide a lot more characterdriven conflict and culture clashes than post-modern New York City. What has stayed the same is the focus on watching the cast forge transformative relationships with men from a wide array of backgrounds and beliefs often contrary to their own. As a TV reporter and critic, when I heard of the Queer Eye reboot,
