Many moons ago, when Will & Grace was just a child of the zeitgeist and pride parades were still scant in attendance, Bravo introduced the U.S. reality-television masses to a strange mess of a show, one that would involve five gay gentlemen remaking the life of one straight man. On paper, it was hilarious for its time, mostly because Carson Kressley – the blonde – would eat up the scenery as quickly as he would remake it. Now, Variety is reporting that Netflix, the home of shows that don’t fit on cable anymore (some of them really good, too!), has ordered eight new episodes of the quip-tastic makeover show featuring an all new cast. Kressley, Ted Allen, Kyan Douglas, Thom Filicia, and Jai Rodriguez will not be there to point and laugh, then. Oh, well.
According to Netflix, via Variety, “the revival will move far beyond the confines of New York City to ‘turn red states pink…one makeover at a time,’ and promises some tough missions for the not-yet-cast new Fab Five. Scout Productions’ David Collins, creator and executive producer of “Queer Eye,” along with executive producing partners Michael Williams and Rob Eric, are once again at the helm, in association with ITV Entertainment. David Eilenberg will executive produce for ITV Entertainment.”
This could end poorly. Still, we’ll hold out hope in this new Trump-ian world for a show that (hopefully) will give a glimpse into some of the talents (and stereotypes!) of the LGBTQ community that don’t necessarily involve RuPaul. Details are still barely there, as noted above. But Netflix has a way of making you sit there for eight hours and watch, anyway. Good luck to the new Queer Eyes and, well, to their straight victims. Times have changed; hopefully the show will reflect that. Otherwise, we’ll just get back to the drama of every terrible person on HGTV.
