Since 2018, the program Queer Eye has made reality television a space for dialogue between Middle America and the gay community. As Netflix has just released its tenth and final season, a look back at the heritage of a show more precious than it seems.
Queer Eye closes its eye to the United States. Airing since 2018, the American reality series reaches its conclusion in season 10, released on Netflix this January 21. The concept of this makeover show, a reboot of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, is summarized by the title of the original format: to benefit the heterosexual world from the expertise of the gays who, as is well known, have good taste in everything.
Behind its fairly basic synopsis for this television genre often scorned, Queer Eye has become over the years a medium of cultural dialogue between queer America and heartland America, which seem to be worlds apart. “We are really much more alike than different”, concludes Jonathan Van Ness, the hair and grooming expert of the cast. During the promotion of season 7, his colleague Karamo Brown, a cultural expert versed in emotions, was already encouraging viewers to see the series as an opportunity to engage in difficult conversations with their entourage: “There are people who watch our show… and who sometimes do not understand that it is up to them then to go out into the world and continue this fight.” And the decorating expert, Jeremiah Brent, today adds: “Unfortunately, I think the show has never been more important.”
Queer Eye will be missed by anti-Trump America
Filmed during the summer of 2025, i.e., in the middle of the first year of President Trump 2, the final season of five episodes unfolds in Washington D.C., an obvious symbolic choice in a politically torn country, and where the LGBT community is in the crosshairs of the reactionary power. Our five experts follow there a duo of elderly sisters who relearn to love themselves, a former pastor turned teacher who channels his energy into his community, a single mother juggling responsibilities, a vegan mechanic living on a houseboat, and finally a warm tour guide surrounded by his blended family. All these profiles allow the show to highlight its values: the altruism, the spirit of resilience, and a singularity that provokes as much as it inspires.
In nearly ten years, the show’s politically charged, tear-jerking nature has grown heavier, giving the program a more engaged turn. As the United States traverses a dark period, marked by repeated offensives against diversity and inclusion, the disappearance of Queer Eye leaves a real void. If it does not spell the end of the franchise, which has been rolled out in Japan, Germany and Brazil, it deprives anti-Trump America of a weighty educational tool.
