Queer Eye: Season 6 full review

We don’t know about you, but we are definitely a Fab Five family in this house. We love everything Queer Eye and can’t ever seem to get enough of these five incredible humans. Honestly, they could stand around in garbage bags just chatting together and we would still eat up every single second of the season. Fortunately, though, they didn’t do that! As season 6 unfolds, it’s clear there are many changes in the Queer Eye mix for fans to devour. 

Spoiler alert: we loved every single episode this season gifted us. We laughed, we cried and we also found ourselves yelling at the television intermittently as well. All we really have to say is MORE PLEASE! If you haven’t watched yet, you might want to wander off and come back here when you’re done because we’re about to spill the tea on season 6 of Netflix’s Queer Eye.

Shaking things up!

This season, the Fab Five pack up once more and boot-scoot all the way to Texas, where y’all means all. It’s definitely a change of scenery and the vibe is wildly different, but it’s not all cowboy hats and cattle ranches, let us tell you! The good folks of Texas didn’t know how badly they needed the Fab Five in their lives until they were right under their noses. 

This season we also meet a furry little friend that has joined the fam too. The Fab Five are not strangers to furry four-legged friends and have actually included a couple of animals in their gang over the years. In seasons 3 and 4 a French Bulldog named Bruley joined the team before passing away in 2019, and in season 5 we met a cute little pupper, Walter, that belonged to someone on the production crew.

Well, this season, Antoni and his partner Kevin have adopted a new little furry friend that is also joining the gang as they make over the lovely people of Texas. Neon is adorable, of course, and we definitely loved watching her settle into the family.

A pandemic focus

The past two years have been difficult for everyone. Folks all around the world have suffered fear, loss, illness, anxiety, grief, discrimination, and cultural division. Many shows that continued, or were released during this stressful time have attempted, and in our opinion failed, to really capture the true essence of the global struggle we’re all wading through right now. That is, until season 6 of Queer Eye. 

The vulnerability and honesty of this season managed to harness many stories of the pandemic and the vast and different ways it has impacted people. Season 6 of Queer Eye felt authentic in a way that almost all other Hollywood portrayals fall short on. 

People lost their jobs, and businesses collapsed. People lost loved ones to Covid-19, as well as other things, and were forced to watch said loved ones die alone. Schools were impacted. Kids also missed out on tremendous formative experiences that play a huge role in shaping who they become. Instances of depression and anxiety rose globally as people were forced into isolation – and Queer Eye captured it all. 

Setting the tone

We ranked all the episodes here, so we’re not going to spend too much time detailing every single episode. But, we do want to shout out to some of the moments that we felt really gave this season the authenticity and rawness that made it so binge-worthy.

This season opens with Terri White, a fifty-something-year-old daughter of the owners of Austin’s legendary Broken Spoke. Terri is one difficult woman and makes her transformation a real challenge for the Fab Five because she just refuses to accept change. For example, Terri wears a wig because she’s insecure about how her real hair looks. Jonathan tries to talk to her about hair treatments, but the woman just flat-out refuses to budge on the issue. We understand and respect her feelings, but still.

*cue pillow throwing at television action here*

Terri also has a challenging relationship with her daughter. Karamo steps in and attempts to offer solutions and suggestions on ways to improve the situation, but very much like with her hair, Terri refuses all offers of assistance and support in this area. The lady is one stubborn Texan gal. 

Then the pandemic hit and we didn’t see Terri again until May of 2021. Like so many people during the pandemic, Terri’s family suffered greatly. Terri lost her father to Covid-19 and several other things happened that impacted her so immensely that Terri emerged an entirely different person. 

Gone is the wig and the stubborn unwillingness to change. Terri has adopted some of the fashion suggestions offered by Tan, and is definitely working on her relationship with her daughter. The realities of the pandemic changed Terri, as it did to so very many of us, and she emerges at the end of the episode a Queer Eye success. 

Going back to visit Terri a year later is something new for this fabulous group of humans. The reunion set a new tone for the show as Terri’s story provided space for us, viewers, to reflect on all the struggles we’ve experienced too. We’re invited to compare our own transformation to Terri’s and well, it’s all very emotional. 

Doing it for the kids!

Another particular favorite moment of ours in season 6 was when the Fab Five stepped up to help the graduating class of Navarro Early College High School prepare for their prom after going to classes remotely through Zoom for an entire year. This is another first for the gang this season, as usually, the object of their attention is an individual person. This time, however, they stepped up to help the entire senior class. 

If you’ve got kids, or you know any kids, you’ll understand just how challenging school became for many in the midst of the pandemic. The social isolation caused by lockdowns and quarantines around the world greatly impacted the kids in ways that we could never have predicted. 

When the Fab Five stepped in to give this group of kids the send-off they deserve, we couldn’t help but reach for the box of tissues. They helped them decorate the venue, they helped with wardrobe selections, but most importantly they helped with anxieties, confidences, and all the stuff that was bottled up on the inside for these kids during their times at home. 

Other noteworthy moments

Season 6 managed to really capture so many of the struggles the world has faced over the last two years. Another particularly emotional episode that we cried through was episode 9. In this episode, the gang steps in to help an Asian American business owner recover their financial losses endured by the pandemic. 

Watching the Fab Five help this woman get her business back on its feet wasn’t the most tear-gushing part of the episode though. Like so many Asian Americans (and Asians around the world generally), the pandemic saw a fresh wave of anti-Asian hate pollute communities everywhere. 

In addition to almost losing her business, Sarah also suffered greatly at the hands of the many racist folks that took pandemic frustrations out on innocent Asian people. The Fab Five tackle this issue head-on and help Sarah connect with other business owners in her community to help combat xenophobia and discrimination that is continuing to impact her well-being.

Authentic, emotional, real. Those are the words that we think best describe the experience of watching Season 6 of Queer Eye. The pandemic is not over and people’s stories will continue to unfold as time goes on. Watching the pandemic through the focus of the Fab Five just hits differently though. It’s impossible to watch and not be moved to tears. Two very big thumbs up from us!

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Season 6 of Queer Eye is available to stream on Netflix now. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for all queer stuff!