Queer Eye: the Final Season

If you thought Bravo's Queer Eye (formerly Queer Eye for the Straight Guy) was canceled...well, you're right it was. But, the Fab Five is back for ten more previously unaired episodes which Bravo is calling Queer Eye's "Final Season". Presumably, these episodes were shot in happier times...well before the Fab Five were informed they were being given pink slips.

I have always seen Queer Eye for what it really is: a comedy posing as a makeover show. In between the personal and home makeovers and the Fab Five's "hip tips", are some great one-liners that rival whatever it is that's passing for jokes on today's sitcoms. However, after the first season, the show really started to lose its way. First, there was the name change from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy to the shortened Queer Eye. Apparently, Bravo forgot that the name of the show was actually part of the joke.

The name change also signified a change in direction for the show. During the first season, the five gay food, style, grooming, design and culture mavens made over a hopeless straight guy whose life was admittedly in a rut. Usually it was a single guy who couldn't get girls, didn't know how to dress and whose apartment was a total pig sty. This set up the Fab Five to come in like a cashmere tornado, picking apart the straight guy's wardrobe of t-shirts and ripped jeans and pantry full of ramen noodles and hot dogs.

However, starting the second season, things started to go horribly awry with Queer Eye. They started making over gay guys, transgendered men and couples headed for the alter. The show also spawned spin-offs and parodies, including the awful "Queer Eye for the Straight Girl" and Comedy Central's "Straight Eye for the Queer Guy". The Fab Five even put out a book of their "hip tips", the retail equivalent of New Kids on the Block bed sheets and Hannah Montana lunch boxes.