In an attempt to wring the last ergs of energy out of a dead franchise, the Fab Five will be returning tonight for the first of four new episodes. All of them will be wedding/proposal themed.
If anyone still cares.
Which I don’t.
Only on Bravo.
Seriously, was any premise more played out by about the third episode?
I stopped watching after the first mini-season. I thought it was great when they’d take some straight guy who was more or less a poor schlep, and turn him into a self-confident stud-muffin. But then they started going for wealthy families in expensive homes, giving them a free makeover etc., and they lost me.
Everyone will have their own theory as to when did the water-ski leap over the sharp-toothed fish happen (at the latest the Texas frat episode?) but I’d say for me it was definitely the loss of the sense of “keeping it real” – not so much the rich families or showbiz types, there ARE rich slobs who don’t know any better and can make good TV by showing their humanity and vulnerability… but rather, the rise of what began to look like contrived scenarios in an attempt at Very Special Episodes (multiple families; long-missing fathers; guy shipping out to Iraq). So of course, they’re going to prove it beyond a doubt by ending on what looks like a whole month of Very Special Episodes.
Although I really knew for a fact it was on the downhill side of the curve with the introduction of the spin-off shows, QESG-London (complete with crossover eps) and QESGirl ( Oy! ). What was next, Queer Eye for CSI?
Oh, well, it was fun for a while. "tis as good as you can expect from TV.
I don’t think that it was a case of jumping the shark as much as stretching a very limited premise much, much farther than it could hold. There’s only so many ways to style up a guy without getting too whacky for their own premise and it just wasn’t enough to hold up a full series.
It was a much better concept for a mini I think.
I think more than anything else it was a victim of its own success. I don’t think the producers were prepared for the show being as huge as it was when it debuted. I think they were thinking it was going to be a moderately successful show as opposed to a cultural phenomenon. There wasn’t any way it was going to maintain without doing a wider variety of makeovers, so they went to stunts.
I think the show could have done just fine keeping with what they do best. Take a regular, not-rich-yet straight guy and turn him into the kind of guy his girlfriend won’t be grossed out to spend the night at his place.
All the stunts have been covered by innumerable other redecorator shows. They needed to stay with their niche.