The first season of Survival Of The Thickest worked because Michelle Buteau brought the same bubbly confidence to her character Mavis that she brings to her standup act. Season 1 ended with Mavis taking one of the biggest romantic chances of her life. How did it turn out?
SURVIVAL OF THE THICKEST SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: Picking up from Season 1’s finale, we see Mavis Beaumont (Michelle Buteau) at the apartment door of Luca (Marouane Zotti), whom she flew to Rome to see after she finally put Jacque (Taylor Selé) in the past.
The Gist: Mavis, after saying yes to Jacque’s proposal, realized what she really wanted in life is someone as devoted to her as Luca is. And, after she surprises him by showing up at his door in Rome, they immediately make love so much that they break his showerhead.
But, while Mavis is in bliss, Luca isn’t 100 percent sure this is a good thing. He loves Mavis, and wants a long-distance thing between the two of them to work, but he can’t shake the fact that she went back to Jacque.
Mavis calls her buddy Khalil (Tone Bell) back in New York and tries to figure out how she can show Luca that life together is going to be great. She decides to make a great meal for him and walks through his neighborhood shopping for ingredients and getting orgasmic over gelato. She meets Luca’s friends and his sister Gabriella (Monya Tebji), but finds out how much doubt Gabriella has in this relationship when she uses Google Translate to decipher Gabriella and Luca’s conversation in Italian.
Her friend Marley (Tasha Smith) reassures Mavis that “you are too cute, too beautiful, to special to be putting up with any of this bullshit!” In a day around Rome’s top tourist attractions, Luca really tries to get past his doubts, but those feelings soon change.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Like we said before the first season, Survival Of The Thickest has a similar vibe as shows like Shrill and Everything’s Trash.
Our Take: The first season of Survival Of The Thickest, created by Buteau and Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, had Mavis finding her footing after she discovers that Jacque was cheating on her. She wanted to establish herself independent of Jacque, both in her romantic and work lives, and she ends up doing so during the course of the season.
Despite things with Luca perhaps not working, the fact that she was in a place to take such a big swing should eventually reaffirm Mavis’ confidence. Buteau’s performance in the first episode shows this; as much as she wants to make things with Luca work, and how heartbreaking it is that he has doubts, she seems much more able to pick herself back up from this than she was after Jacque. We definitely see that self-assuredness in the self-assured Buteau.
While it was fun to start the season in Rome, picking up where Season 1 left off, the 20 months between seasons made us wonder if that was the right strategy. Netflix didn’t even provide a preview reel to catch people up. At a certain point, we needed to remember just who Luca was and why Mavis took the risk of going to Rome to see him. Trying to remember all that kept us from giving the story our full attention.
But knowing that the rest of the season is going to show Mavis picking things back up again, with the support of Khalil and Marley, we can’t wait to see Buteau’s bubbly confidence return to Mavis in short order.
Sex and Skin: We mention the shower-breaking sex, but there’s less skin in those scenes than you might imagine.
Parting Shot: Khalil and Marley console Mavis as she returns to her Brooklyn apartment; Khalil brings a weighted blanket to help Mavis feel better.
Sleeper Star: Monya Tebji is funny in her one scene as Gabriella, as she essentially takes down Mavis for breaking her brother’s heart.
Most Pilot-y Line: “Chicken is done, and so am I,” says a butcher to whom Mavis unloads about Luca.
Our Call: STREAM IT. As with the first season, Survival Of The Thickest rides on the effervescent confidence of Michelle Buteau, with Mavis now knowing that she took the big swing she never did before.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Survival Of The Thickest’ Season 2 On Netflix, Where Michelle Buteau’s Mavis Continues To Pursue Career And Romantic Success appeared first on Decider.
