Posted on Wed, Jul. 16, 2008 10:15 PM
‘Look Good Naked’ gets plus-sized
“Naked,” which signed on in January, took Kressley’s dual message of self-improvement and self-acceptance and applied it to women instead of men.
Operating solo instead of as part of a group of lifestyle experts, Kressley focused solely on helping plus-sized gals stop loathing their bodies and start loving them.
By the end of each half-hour episode, his subject invariably was delighted to pose for the cameras in lingerie that flattered their figures — then take even those coverings off for a discreet, TV-safe cheesecake shot.
So strong was the response to “Naked” (including “Oprah”) that Lifetime expanded the show to an hour. It also added wish-fulfillment elements, as though feeling good about your body wasn’t wish fulfillment enough for a lot of women.
Indeed, Kressley’s first words in the episode airing at 8 p.m. Tuesday are, “Tonight we make fairy tales come true!”
Our queen-for-a-day is Kelly, a married mother of one in her 30s whose despair at having lost her slimmer, sexier figure is so great that, she confesses, she hasn’t had sex with her husband in years.
In the old version of the show Kelly would simply have materalized on screen, ready to go. Now we get the cliche reality-TV moment when she learns she has been picked for the show. Kressley delivers the news in person, having shown up at her office in a horse-drawn carriage wearing a tiara.
Over the course of the next hour Kelly is not only showered with expensive undergarments and a complete makeover, but she also appears in a runway show and gets an award to help kick-start her love life.
“The first season was more, ‘You’re cool with your body, now go out and live your life,’ and this new season is, ‘You’re cool with your body, now we’re going to help you live one of your dreams,” Kressley said.
“I think any time you do something new, (if) the network does a half-hour block, it seems less scary to them. And then after the first season and it was the highest-rated reality show in the history of the network, they had a little more faith in it.”
But that’s the thing — Lifetime, one of the most risk-averse channels on cable, should have realized Kressley was its next big star. (It’s also shooting a pilot with him that could become a daytime talk show.)
“How to Look Good Naked” was obviously the female version of Kressley’s first show, “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” On “Queer Eye,” the show’s makeover subject was a man who needed a slap upside the head; here the woman needs a hug.
Kressley, who made his bones as a stylist with Polo Ralph Lauren, was the bridge character.
His outsized personality allowed him to serve as the show’s scold and cheerleader, the person most likely to find dirty underwear under the bed and the one whose advice was so brain-dead simple — like applying cologne by spritzing some into the air and then walking through — that even a caveman could follow it.
With “Naked,” there’s no need to humiliate these psychically beaten-down women. They’re so thrilled to have Kressley’s attention that they will do anything he asks, including strip to their unfashionable skivvies. (It helps that there’s as much sexual tension between him and them as there was between Will and Grace.)
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