strange eye
The craftsman can
season 2
Episode 4
Editor’s Rating
Photo: Courtesy of Netfilx
There are a few people you should never really ask about their lifestyle habits unless you want your ear to be monopolized for the rest of the party, BBQ, or ice cream meal you’re attending. These people include CrossFitters, anti-vaccinationists, vegans, polyamorous couples, and new dog owners. But of all these groups of terrible time wasters, Burners tops the list. Yes, that’s what those who love Burning Man call themselves, and I’m sorry, they’re just the worst.
So I was shocked to meet Jason, the Altanta craftsman that this episode is about, because he wasn’t the worst. Maybe I’m wrong about Burners. I mean, he had a flamethrower, a gorgeous Leigh Bowery-style blazer made from mirrored plates, and a collection of wry vintage t-shirts that rivaled any thrift store in Williamsburg. I mean what’s not to like about this guy?
The crazy thing about Jason, who lives in the coach house behind an incredibly beautiful mansion, is that he didn’t actually need a whole new wardrobe or furniture or anything. He didn’t need Tan to dress him in better-fitting patterned shirts and skinny jeans, and Bobby to make his house look like the antechamber of a Wilkes-Barre moose cabin. He actually had a lot of cool clothes and furniture lying around his apartment. He just looked like a Haight Ashbury hamster and needed someone to clean up the mess around him.
Jason’s biggest problem is that he seems stuck in his life. Fast approaching 50, and a life of odd jobs, messy homes, and easy relationships makes him think he might want to start over. He has decided to move to Reno, Nevada to be closer to Burning Man. Objectively speaking, this plan makes absolutely no sense. As the Fab Five pointed out, he will be moving to Reno because he wants to be closer to Burning Man, although as you know he already goes from Atlanta to Burning Man every year. It’s like Santa moving to New York City just to be closer to Christmas when he’s already dropping off packages at every tower block, townhouse, and rental apartment in town.
While he does say at one point that the prize will be ousted from Atlanta, which seems a legitimate concern, starting over to be closer to his favorite festival seems foolhardy. Karamo meets up with Jason’s friends and they all don’t understand the move at all. They don’t understand why if he couldn’t get started in good old Hotlanta, where he has a huge group of friends and acquaintances, he could get it done in America’s second most popular seedy casino town in Nevada, where he knows absolutely nothing one. Jason keeps saying he doesn’t know what he wants out of life, but he certainly has an odd self-confidence. It’s the kind of aura that comes from a man who knows he absolutely needs magnum-sized condoms.
I was expecting this whole episode to be some kind of intervention where the guys are all trying to persuade Jason to stay, but I like that they respected his wishes and just set him up to move on. Jonathan had an easy task this week, just giving Jason a haircut and trimming his LSD dealer-ride-an-ice-cream truck beard. It instantly made him look a lot younger and hotter than Antoni, who is slicing avocados in a tight polo shirt and headscarf.
Speaking of Antoni, he wore a Jude, JB, Willem & Malcolm t-shirt, which he also wore in the first season. These names are characters from the famous gay and deeply depressing novel A Little Life, for which Antoni has previously expressed his love. Now, I’m glad he’s going public with his superfan base, but girls, if you want to see a gay book club self-immolate in about three minutes, ask her about her feelings on A Little Life. It’s almost as controversial as whether or not Antoni can actually cook.
This episode contained some points for both camps. Antoni wanted to show Jason how to cook Indian food as it is his favorite cuisine. So he takes it to a restaurant to have someone else show him how to make it. But then, when a Fab Five member needs help, Tan steps in and shows him how to make naan. Shouldn’t he be buying non-printed tops from bonobos? Antoni, let this man do his job and stop making him do your job. But later, Antoni shows Jason how to deep-fry some nuts, and we all love it, mostly because we can pun more about that than about the time Karamo told Antoni he couldn’t put everything in his mouth and nose put.
I loved that Bobby left the house and Jason could show something more exciting about design. He took him to the Neon Company to help Jason make some hubcaps and neon artwork that he had an idea for but was having trouble making. (That seemed to be a recurring theme.) This actually turned out really cool, and honestly I’d pay at least double the $100 that one of Jason’s friends paid for it in the silent auction at his farewell party. The antique speaker they turned into a neon colored guitar amp wasn’t really my cup of tea, but at least it looked decent and gave it the confidence that it could accomplish something.
Bobby also did a great job turning all the cool old junk Jason collected into different and sorted tableaus and living rooms in Jason’s house. It looked like the coolest Airbnb in San Francisco, which I call a huge compliment. When Bobby doesn’t have to buy all new furniture, paint rooms, and install all sorts of crap, he can actually do wonders with a room.
Tan kind of did the same. While dressing him in a pair of saggy linen blazers that are perfect for a 50-year-old who’s probably attended more than enough Grateful Dead concerts, he’s also tailored some of Jason’s thrift finds to make them hip and hip portable. A guy with a mirrored blazer in his closet must be stylish, right? The best part at the end of his visit was Jason giving all the boys one of his old, paint-splattered t-shirts to take home. I think each of the men who are transformed on this show should give these five a gift. They get a new wardrobe, a new house, a cooking lesson, a haircut and whatever Karamo gives them. The least they could do would be a token of their gratitude.
But shockingly, the best parts of the episode happened after the Fab Five had all left. They arranged for Jason a homicidal farewell party complete with the aforementioned silent auction, a fire dancer with two serious gun show tickets, and an urn of fire for Jason to burn all his regrets into. Yes, even after the makeover, he’s still a burner. What neither of them could have imagined was that Jason’s girlfriend, Beth, who nominated him to be on the show, would bring some real shine to this new Jason. Like making those magnums shine.
We get our first Queer Eye epilogue and learn that Jason decided against moving to Reno because he decided he had everything he needed in life right there in Atlanta – including his new girlfriend Beth! That actually brought a little tear to my eye. This is where I was hoping there would be an intervention, but what’s brilliant about this show is that the Fab Five didn’t have to tell him what to do with his life. They gave him the tools he needed to make his own decisions. After they left, he had the insight, confidence, and new perspective to realize that the life he led wasn’t all that terrible, he just needed to capitalize on some of the things that were already there. And I’m so glad he learned that from an Escalade full of homosexuals and not stupid Burning Man.
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