Original Content podcast: Our love for ‘Queer Eye’ isn’t quite as strong

It’s been barely more than a year since the “Queer Eye” revival premiered on Netflix, but the series is already back for its fourth season.

This time around, the Fab Five finds new makeover subjects in Kansas City (with a detour to Quincy, Illinois, where hairstylist Jonathan Van Ness grew up), offering their custom mix of lifestyle tips and intense emotional conversations. In many ways, the new season serves as a reminder that “Queer Eye” remains one of the most compelling titles in Netflix’s reality TV lineup.

At the same time, some of our excitement is wearing off. That’s not to say that the show is weaker, exactly — but the formula is becoming more familiar, and the contrivance of whirlwind life changes all taking place in a handful of days feels a little harder to swallow.

We also had reservations about Karamo’s big decision in “Disabled But Not Really,” where he asks the episode’s subject Wesley to meet with the man who shot and paralyzed him years earlier. It makes for suspenseful and moving TV, and Wesley seems to find the conversation rewarding, but we argued about whether the sequence felt more contrived and exploitative than helpful.

In addition to reviewing the latest season of “Queer Eye,” we also discussed our first impressions of the new Netflix science fiction series “Years and Years,” which Jordan was particularly excited about because it stars Katee Sackhoff of “Battlestar Galactica.” This, in turn, led to our thoughts on the new trailer for “Star Trek: Picard.”

You can listen in the player below, subscribe using Apple Podcasts or find us in your podcast player of choice. If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review on Apple. You can also send us feedback directly. (Or suggest shows and movies for us to review!)

And if you’d like to skip ahead, here’s how the episode breaks down:
0:00 Intro
0:28 “Another Life” first impressions
17:32 “Queer Eye” season 4 review