They All Had the Best of
Intentions. Why the Tears?
By
ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Bravo's "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" was funny. So was the reverse
parody on Comedy Central "Straight Plan for the Gay Man." But Bravo's
distaff spinoff, "Queer Eye for the Straight Girl," falls flat.
There are plenty of women who do not comb their hair or throw out old
newspapers, but on reality shows they seem more pathetic than cute. "Queer
Eye for the Straight Guy" worked by tugging at all the endearing
stereotypes of heterosexual men as unkempt, oafish and in need of a
woman's - or a gay man's - touch. Giving Oscar Madison a makeover makes
comic sense. It's not quite as funny for the Madwoman of Chaillot.
On the premiere tonight, Nicole is an insecure 29-year-old woman who
clings to cut-offs and a baseball cap; a SWAT team of stylists, three
exuberant gay men and a lesbian, are called in to ready Nicole for her
30th-birthday party. "Thirty is the new 20," Robbie, who is responsible
for "The Look" (clothes and makeup) proclaims. (Presumably, that means 10
is the new zero.)
The team concludes that Nicole needs to be "Sex and the City"-fied, or as
one of them puts it, "Less Charlotte and more harlot."
But the SWAT team's jokes and physical clowning clash with the crisis at
hand; Nicole's problems appear to be deeper than bad shoes and a deficit
of throw pillows. She seems tightly wound and cries whenever she talks
about her father, who died when she was in college. And she is not an
idiot. After an intensive shopping jag and spa treatments (one that
includes a seaweed mask for her derrière), she says meekly, "Don't take
this the wrong way, but this is all superficial."
To exorcise the inner slob, Danny, who has a London accent and is in
charge of "The Life," gives Nicole some oracle cards and a few New Age
spiritual tips, and then she is ready to be launched, in black halter
dress and stiletto heels, to toast her new life. A handsome man she has a
crush on is secretly invited to the party to surprise her, and Nicole's
astonishment and teary delight at seeing him is poignant and also a little
sad.
What began as a carefree makeover lark turns into a "Queen for a Day"
tear-jerker, and that is more unsettling than it is amusing.
Source:
New York Times
