Show and Tell

Zoe Laporte, Web Editor

I hope your spring break was refreshing and restful. I spent my break watching a lot of stuff on Netflix, so let me tell you about it.

I made it through about 80% of the first episode of Netflix original “The Confession Tapes” before  giving up on it. I really like true crime stuff, but it has to be done well, you know? I like when shows give a lot of information about crimes, but the information has to be interesting.

The first two episodes of “The Confession Tapes” are strange: Who does a two-parter for the beginning of a new documentary series? It’s weird. It follows two college friends who are suspects in the murder of a family. They have a pretty strong alibi to defend themselves, so the police go undercover as gang-recruitment guys to try to get a confession from them. Did they succeed? I don’t know. I didn’t get that far – I lost interest.

I’ll probably pick up this show again as a “background-noise” type of show, but I’m going to skip the first two episodes and just hope the rest of the series is better.

Onto something completely different – Netflix might have released the best reality television show of 2018, and its name is … “Queer Eye.”

“Queer Eye” is the Netflix reboot of Bravo’s makeover show, “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” which finished airing in 2007. Following its predecessor, “Queer Eye” lets the Fab Five completely redesign another man’s life in five different aspects: design, food, grooming, fashion and culture.

I don’t know about you, but reality television is my guilty pleasure. It’s a type of show that you don’t really need to pay attention to, but it can sometimes be revolutionary in bringing different types of people together. Compared to other reality shows, like “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” “Queer Eye” is a lot more than just a reality show. It’s an experience.

“Queer Eye” focuses on transforming another person to be a better version of themselves for whatever reason, and it is  very emotional sometimes. The first episode, in which the Fab Five transform a middle-aged dump truck driver, made me cry. I won’t give too many details because I think everyone should just watch it and experience it – but this show is seriously refreshing and nice.

While this show is emotional, it is  uplifting too. Seeing men, who sometimes don’t really focus on appearance or take care of themselves, change into people unafraid  to spend time on themselves is so good to watch.

It breaks down our culture’s unfortunate masculine ideals, which can be really harmful to men, and lets them know that it’s okay to feel emotions, spend time on their appearance, or even just decorate a nice space to enjoy. It’s healthy.

This show has a great message wrapped up into only eight episodes. I was sad to see that the first season is relatively short, but the creator has mentioned a second season to take place in the Midwest, as compared to Atlanta, Georgia for the first season.

Also – I binge-watched this show in about two-and-a-half days. It’s so good. I’m probably going to re-watch it. Even if you hate reality television, please check out “Queer Eye!”

Other than “Queer Eye,” I haven’t watched much of anything on Netflix, but I have a lot of shows that I’m looking forward to.

Netflix recently released “Seven Seconds,”a crime drama series that follows the death of a 15-year-old African American boy in Jersey City that leads to government cover ups and investigations about what really happened. It might be difficult to watch, but it sounds like an interesting show nonetheless.

Netflix also released “Flint Town,” an eight-episode documentary series about the Flint, Michigan water crisis and other issues affecting the town. I am really excited to start watching this and to be more informed on what happened in Flint.

If you’re into the Food Network, Netflix is trying to appeal to you, too. They’ve released “Ugly Delicious,” another documentary series about food dishes and their origins. It sounds like a delicious watch.

That’s all for right now – clearly I have a lot to watch. Enjoy!