Similarities and Differences

Recently in class, we watched Queer Eye. It is a show where the “fab five,” which are five homosexual men, go into someone’s life and give it a makeover. From what I’ve heard in class discussions, the episode we watched in class seems to be more of a complete makeover for the guy, Neal, than other people featured in the show.

Most of the aspects of Neal’s life were given a reboot: his wardrobe, his appearance, his cooking skills, and also his house. One could also say that his social life was also affected since he seemed to be more open to relationships with others after the few days of makeovers.

A critical thinking question that I was given was “How is this show similar to ____? (Fill in the blank.)” I chose to compare and contrast the show to Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Extreme Makeover used to be on television and I remember watching it with my family at home. They took a new family each episode and demolished their existing home, that was usually either falling apart, full of bad memories, or outdated.

One similarity of the two shows is the makeover of the house. Each show takes the house and gives it a makeover; although there is a difference with Extreme Makeover, as they take the existing house and demolish it. With Queer Eye, they just give the existing structure a facelift with some fresh paint, new cabinets, or new furniture. Each show also takes the family or person who owns the house away from it while the makeover is occurring. Extreme Makeover took the family away on a vacation while the house was being reconstructed for a week. The family was able to get away from the stresses of everyday life and spend some much-needed family time together. On Queer Eye, the person who owns the house being renovated is taken away for a makeover themselves. On the episode I watched in class, Neal was given a haircut and his beard was also chopped off. He was also taken to a clothing store and got some new clothes along with some fashion advice.

A difference between the two is that Queer Eye gives each participant almost a complete life makeover while Extreme Makeover just built a new house for the family. Both of the shows provided a new life for each family or participant, though. Queer Eye helps their participants rejuvenate their lives, by providing fashion advice, an updated home, a new look for themselves and helps them feel better about themselves overall. While Extreme Makeover doesn’t actually reboot different aspects of the lives of the families who get new homes, they do help to ease the burden of an outdated home that has many expensive aspects that need fixing. One thing that came up in discussion about Extreme Makeover, was that a lot of the people who get new homes through Extreme Makeover end up losing them because they are so new that the family’s income cannot support the new, more costly bills that come along with a new house, along with taxes and other expenses that a new house has, but an older one doesn’t.

Overall, Queer Eye is a good show and I enjoyed watching it. I liked how each one of the “fab five” had a specialty that they focused on with their participant, Neal. One had cooking, one had the fashion aspect, and another helped with the remodeling, among others. I would recommend the show to anyone who likes a feel-good show that inspires or a show that remodels a house.