‘Queer Eye’s’ Fab Five Are Far from Flawless, and That’s Perfect

I have one major pet peeve when it comes to Netflix’s Queer Eye. Not the show itself, but rather the conversation around the show–one specific way my fellow gays try to act above its charms. Here it is:

If you have ever groaned, rolled your eyes and said about the new Queer Eye, “I don’t need to watch a show where five perfect gay guys give advice,” know that you have immediately outed yourself as someone that has never paid any attention to the show. Saying you don’t like Queer Eye because it the Fab Five are flawless is like saying you don’t like Friends because you hate sitcoms that have a monkey. Just as Marcel was Ross’ pet/cry for help for just half a season, the new Fab Five are almost never depicted as flawless, quipping queens.

That’s never been more apparent in Season 4, coming soon to Netflix, but it’s also been true from the start. Season 1 introduced the world to Jonathan Van Ness, Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France, and Antoni Porowski as fully-formed individuals with strengths and specialities but also insecurities and uncertainties. The emotional realness was there in “Saving Sasquatch” when Tan bonded with Neal over coming from a culture where parental pressure is major. It was there in “Dega Don’t” when Karamo got real about police violence with the cop he was tasked with making over. It was there in “To Gay or Not Too Gay” when the five walked AJ through the coming out process, unpacking all of their own coming out baggage. And it was definitely there in “Camp Rules,” when Bobby first talked about his complicated relationship with Christianity.

Of all the changes made to Queer Eye when it came back to life on Netflix, including the move to Atlanta from the Bravo era’s NYC base, this unflinching display of vulnerability was the most transformative. That’s because the “five perfect gay guys” critique has a basis in reality. That’s very much what Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was when it debuted in 2003–and maybe that’s because that’s what people needed to see at the time. But the show that premiered in 2018 was different in that it let the Fab Five have an interior life that actively informed the exterior.

Season 2 pushed this further, showing that the Fab Five could also learn from the heroes they were making over. Mama Tammye helped mend Bobby’s long ago broken faith just a bit and Skyler got to educate a tearful Tan about trans issues.

And in Season 3, Antoni–the most private of the five–got on the same level as camp director Joey while talking about addiction. And Bobby, maybe the most open of the five, saw himself in Jess, a young woman who was also adopted and also disowned as a teen for being gay. Over and over again, the Fab Five give as much advice from their own lived experience as they do from their actual area of expertise.

This complicated emotional honesty is such a part of the show that it is definitely not a spoiler to say that it is a big part of Season 4. There are a couple Personal Moments from Antoni and Tan talking about strained family relationships, and then there’s “Without Further Ado,” the most personal episode of the entire series. That’s because it’s the first set entirely within the history of one of the Fab Five. Instead of their truck pulling up to a stranger’s house, they pull up to Jonathan’s high school–a place that, as Jonathan says, holds “a painful place in my heart.”

The level of vulnerability displayed by the normally fierce JVN while talking about his high school experience and how his teacher Kathi Dooley helped save him is profound. And what makes it even more profound is that, even through the very real (and very recognizable to anyone that was bullied) tears, Jonathan is still strong. He’s still there for Kathi, still lifting her up when she needs it, all while being being a red-eyed mess.

It’s the most beautiful moment in a beautiful episode.

And that’s why I just can’t with anyone that dismisses the Fab Five as caricatures. That critique has no basis in the reality of this reality TV show. Clock the show for being overly sentimental or for the awkward interstitial dance scenes if you must, but there’s nothing to back up a read that the Fab Five are flawless. The longer Queer Eye goes, the deeper it goes, not only with the heroes that need help but also with the heroes doing the helping.

Stream Queer Eye Season 4 on Netflix