Survival of the Thickest, a brand new romantic comedy collection starring comic Michelle Buteau, is a joyful option to get acquainted with Buteau’s star energy.
After a cascading listing of supporting roles, Buteau emerges triumphant as a number one woman, offering a hilarious and empathetic take a look at one girl’s try at coming into her personal after a messy breakup. Mavis Beaumont (Buteau) is a 38-year-old, struggling, plus-size stylist, hoping to climb the shaky rungs of the style world alongside her co-worker and boyfriend of 5 years, Jacque (Taylor Sele).
However Mavis’world is toppled when she comes house to seek out Jacque in mattress with one other girl – the “skinny mannequin model” of Mavis whose boobs she simply double taped for a photograph shoot, no much less. Throughout an eight-episode season, we watch a heartbroken and infuriated Mavis navigate the rolling hills of post-breakup life.
She leaves the couple’s stylish flat for a Brooklyn armpit. “These flooring seem like the stage of Hamilton,” quips Mavis’ high-powered buddy, Marley (a hilarious Tasha Smith). Mavis has to rebuild her profession roster, untangling her successes from Jacque’s affect. However Mavis additionally rediscovers herself by this compelled independence, holding steadfast to her tribe and studying classes from a revolving roster of eccentric romantic pursuits and styling purchasers.
Survival of the Thickest, loosely based mostly on Buteau’s eponymous essay assortment, shines as a raunchy, offbeat exploration of Mavis after her uncoupling. The present, co-created by Buteau and Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, is unapologetically enjoyable and chaotic, permitting audiences to giggle, gawk and wince alongside a floundering Mavis and her awkward embrace of singledom.
The Netflix collection goes past the standard limitations seen in exhibits about ladies’s rising pains. Mavis isn’t a white, twentysomething experiencing a well timed arrival of younger grownup heartache. Mavis is an older, plus-size, Black girl, written with full permission to implode, explode and begin once more.
Mavis randomly strikes in with Jade (Liza Treyger), her white roommate with porous boundaries, an affinity in the direction of olive oil and a (disturbingly) spectacular array of appropriated Black hair kinds. Mavis offers a blowjob to a scorching Italian she simply met (Marouane Zotti), by chance getting wads of gum in Luca’s nether areas. These hijinks are, after all, humorous. However they aren’t executed to humiliate Mavis or diminish her to comedian aid. They really feel just like the sensible, albeit weird, missteps of an individual attempting to reclaim their energy.
Regardless of being cheated on, Mavis nonetheless harbors love for Jacque. She is torn between the depth of Jacque’s betrayal and the safety he offers. Her lingering emotions exhibit one other layer of her humanity: a sophisticated incapability to show away from the one who damage you.
Survival of the Thickest joins a class of exhibits that discover how age doesn’t assure a security web from life’s shitstorm (Insecure, Grace and Frankie). Companions cheat. Lengthy-term relationships finish. Interpersonal mayhem and turmoil can upend all expectations of safety and assurance. Like Mavis and so many earlier than, all one has is the flexibility to rally and begin anew.
Buteau as Mavis is plucky and endearing, a pure lead, bringing a appeal that has been totally displayed in earlier supporting roles and in her comedy specials. She’s a formidable comic, delivering roundhouse zingers with ease. “You don’t need to seem like a virgin from Bridgerton,” Buteau waxes to a styling shopper battling physique picture.
However she is equally geared up within the present’s extra dramatic moments, embodying the nervousness Mavis carries given her wobbly future. She is able to deal with grief throughout early run-ins along with her ex. With Buteau on the helm, Mavis stays hearty and full-fledged.
Past the spectacular central efficiency, the present offers a shiny peek into the style world. Costuming by stylist Keia Bounds places Mavis right into a rainbow of seems to be, freed from plus-size trend cliches. From a black beret dotted with hearts to an all-red energy swimsuit, Mavis’ outfits match her teeming vitality and praise the technicolor of the world.
Extra time might be spent with Mavis’ rising group of queer buddies and purchasers; the present as a substitute offers undue consideration to the romantic exploits of her fuckboy bestie, Khalil (Tone Bell). For instance, Peppermint, a New York drag queen who performs Mavis’ peer, will get little display screen time or story regardless of her commanding and entertaining presence.
At instances, the present additionally succumbs to the Netflix sheen (what number of Netflix exhibits sound and look alike). The present’s soundtrack is generally a mash of TikTok’s prime 100 shuffled alongside nameless pop music.
However Survival of the Thickest is pleasant, straightforward going, and actual to the struggles of starting once more. Buteau’s embodiment is a present – an outlandish and cringy reward that’s not afraid to get sincere.
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