As much as I would love a second season of this fun comedy series, Survival of the Thickest, it just seems like it will be another show that gets lost in the black hole that is Netflix. Which is a shame, because this thing was great!
Comedian Michelle Buteau leads this series as Mavis, a stylist whose world is rocked when she walks in on her long-term boyfriend cheating on her. Not only is he cheating, but it’s with a “skeleton” version of her! Mavis is no fool, she knows she’s thick, but she embraces her beauty and flaunts her sexiness and I wish every woman on earth could inherit Mavis’ confidence – myself included sometimes! Her confidence also carries her to some major successes when she goes out on her own as a stylist without her ex to help pave the way. It’s her down-to-earth personality and realness that people connect with, and it just goes to show that being yourself can help you go a long way.
It also helps that Mavis has a lot of people in her corner. Khalil and Marley are two of the most supportive best friends a person could ever ask for! They never put Mavis down. Sure, they give it to her straight sometimes, but it’s only to help her see that she’s already got the right stuff. And this series also wisely doesn’t just make them Mavis’ best friends. They are also going through their own stuff. Khalil, notorious for hook-ups, finally meets someone he’s willing to change his ways for, and geez, I wish I found someone as awesome as Khalil. Marely, a tough girl boss, is finally facing a side of herself she’s never really addressed before: her queerness. There’s certainly more to their stories, so I hope we get another season to see that all play out.
Aside from making great career strides, Mavis also manages to find love after realizing that one night hook-ups are not her thing. She spontaneously meets Luca at a local drag bar, and though he’s from Italy, they try their best throughout the season to make long distance work. They are so sweet together and Luca is a lot of things that her ex was not, but it’s understandable that Mavis has reservations about committing to someone new in her late 30s. I promise this will work out the way you want it to even if there are still some big questions still lingering for the pair. But I’d say we got a happy ending if we never get anything else.
This was a delightfully cute and real series that’s very in touch with the culture today and I’m begging you to go watch this so the Netflix algorithm doesn’t produce another casualty for good original content.