Oh man, it’s been a while hasn’t it! I thought I’d jump right in now that my exams have quieted down. This was prompted by an episode of a TV show reducing me to tears about four times, and the fact that I’ve been shouting at my friends to watch it for the past three months. Maybe this will persuade them!

I’m a teenager who’s just sat his GCSEs. And, like most teenagers who have an important deadline coming up, I procrastinated.

Like, a lot.

I would come home from a day of school, run upstairs, and open my computer with the noble ambition of “Getting Something Done”. Inevitably, within minutes, I would be scrolling through Netflix trying to decide if my fifth re-watch of Stranger Things was more important than my Physics grade. More often than not, it was.

It was on one of these scrolls through the endless list of good shows I’ve seen and bad shows I don’t want to see that I began to notice a show that was being advertised at me more and more – Queer Eye. To those that don’t know, Queer Eye is a reboot of a makeover show called “Queer Eye for The Straight Guy”. Five gay men entering the lives of a man for a week and giving his clothes, his hair, his house and his personality a “touch up” so to speak.

It sounds abysmal doesn’t it? Like reality tv mixed with a dose of homophobia, seasoned by a light sprinkling of “we know better than you”. It could be awful. It should be awful.

So, I left it in the list of “shows Netflix thinks I’ll like but really are just terrible” and moved on. Well, moved on for a week or so. The thing they don’t tell you about procrastination is that it can be really boring. Eventually, the lack of any other content made me sit down and watch the first 45-minute episode, fully prepared to live message my WhatsApp group making fun of the whole experience.

Those 45 minutes had perhaps the most profound effect on me that any show has for the last few years. It displayed a loving, caring message of acceptance and self-worth. It was just a joy to see. Every single one of the “Fab Five” were so sweet, so comfortable. The person they were helping went from a fairly downtrodden man who believed he was cursed to a life of unhappiness because “You can’t fix ugly” to an enthusiastic, confident one who ended up asking out the person he loved – they got married a few months after the show aired.

I want to go through and show you why the show had such a profound effect on me, and what better way to do that then talking about the Fab 5 themselves. Be prepared for gushing and the words “encouraging”, “confident” and “caring” to be repeated.

We’ll start with fashion guru Tan France. Tan is, quite frankly, exactly what I expected from a fashion expert on a makeover show. He dresses supremely well, has hair so sharp it hurts to look at, and is – to be honest – fairly vain. He runs away from kids firing water guns shouting “Not the hair” at one point. But what makes Tan special is that he’s so comfortable with that. He makes fun of himself for his vanity, laughing about how silly it is to care so much. He takes men and women who look just as uncomfortable shopping for clothes as I do, and makes them shine. He gives them new looks, new styles and – as cliché as it might sound – new confidence. Tan shows the subject of the episode what complete confidence of your appearance looks like, and shows how you can still be a wonderful person. He makes sure they understand the power of being confident with your look and he’s made me make some changes to be more vibrant and happy in the clothes I pick out of the wardrobe.

Next up is Bobby Berk, the interior designer. Where to start with Bobby? To be honest, until today I really wouldn’t have had much to say. He seemed like a kind, honest, caring person, but was too busy turning run-down homes into modern palaces to appear much on the show. In the first season there was an episode where he talked to the deeply religious subject and discussed his story of being outcast from his church and his home because of his sexuality. It was deeply moving (Queer Eye has brought me to tears more than any other show I’ve seen this year), but to be honest it was the only real screen time he had.

Then I watched the first episode of Series Two. In the first five minutes he stood outside a church while the others went in because he had sworn to himself to never enter one again. Over the course of the episode he talked at length about acceptance and love with the woman they were making over, and showed an incredibly honest, loving, caring man who had been forced through hardship and learned to value those around him because of it. He comes off as genuine and deeply, deeply beautiful.

Third is Antoni, who is most definitely the eye candy of the group. Although at first he came off to me as someone who had been hired just for looks, the ability to make guacamole and wonderous enthusiasm, after an episode or so I saw exactly why he was picked. Antoni is a man who understands how people tick. He can see the effect food can have on a person and work out the best meal to fix for someone. In an episode with a struggling stand-up comic who was dealing with depression, Antoni served as a gentle but probing force to make the comic understand why he was feeling as he was. He’s a charming, comfortable man who makes people happy. And that’s what the show is about.

Fourth up we come to Karamo, the “culture” expert. Certainly a vague title but Karamo sums up exactly what culture is to me. He made people go outside their comfort zones and deal with things they’d rather ignore while serving as their “rock” to keep them in control and grounded. Karamo spoke to a closeted gay man and helped him come out to his step-mother (who, incidentally, had one of the greatest changes in confidence I’ve ever seen). He talked to a cop about racism and oppression and managed to make a controversial subject seem easy to understand and friendly to approach. Karamo is, at his very core, cultured.

Finally, we have what was probably my biggest barrier to watching this show – Johnathan Van Ness, grooming expert extraordinaire. Johnathan is an incredibly camp, open, genuine guy who treats everyone like his best friend. He shows what he’s feeling, and it’s always nice. Johnathan made me angry when I first saw him because he comes off as a stereotype. He seemed loud, obnoxious and most of all gay as hell. He would snap his fingers and shout “queeeeeeen” and it annoyed me so much.

But – why? Why did I believe that he shouldn’t be a stereotype? Obviously not all gay people are like that, but why was I so angry that he was? Johnathan made me realise I held resentment towards those that weren’t “proving” that not all people were stereotypes. He helped me accept that stereotypes aren’t this evil thing to be accepted and can help you make yourself find a personality you want to have. Once I saw past that unfair anger towards Johnathan, I saw the sweetest, caring, helpful, honest, loving, beautiful man I think I have ever seen. Johnathan made me more comfortable with experimenting a little and being more… well… camp. He showed me that being yourself can be so much fun and that honestly, it’s just nice to truly accept yourself.

Queer eye showed me that loving, caring people can have such a profound effect on the world. It showed me the prejudices I didn’t know I had to other members of the LGBT+ community. It showed me how being confident is not as difficult as it can seem. It showed me love.

That’s why I love Queer Eye. It could be humiliating and unfair. Instead, it preaches acceptance.