Thick girls having a mo-ment.
Thick girls are definitely having a moment and the moment is phenomenal in Survival of the Thickest. Michelle Buteau stars as Mavis Beaumont in the new show, Survival of the Thickest, which is based on Buteau’s acclaimed book of essays of the same name.
Mavis has had a positive day and is riding the wave of getting an interview for her dream job styling for Essence magazine. That is until she runs home quickly and finds her boyfriend Jacque cheating with a model in their bed.
She’s better than most of us, because the model still has hair left on her head when it’s all said and done. Cheating ain’t no joke, but somehow this show manages to make it not something defining in this episode. Instead making it something that propels Mavis forward.
Taylor Selé plays Jacque, the hot photographer that Mavis had been in a relationship with. We’ll call him model f**ker, Jacque that is. He swears that it’s only been this one time, but one has to wonder how dumb he thinks that we are. Jacque, we know that you’ve been getting that model pussy for awhile.
No one trusts a cheater. No one trusts Jacque. Over the course of the episode we see more and more that he’s a control freak who is just about himself. His needs.
He’s a cheater.
What we loved in this moment, of the cheating, was that Mavis didn’t back down. She was upset, obviously. None of us can blame her if she wanted to punch him in the face. The show has every opportunity to take the road that a lot of shows do, making it seem like the thick girl need to settle, and they don’t do that.
Thick girls are worthy. Thick girls deserve a true and faithful love.
It’s empowering. Thick girls need to see that they are just as beautiful as anyone. Sure, there is more meat on your bones, but it’s not the size of your ass or the cup of your bra that makes the woman. It’s still the heart and the soul of the person, the confidence and the beauty, that makes the person.
Mavis is strong and she isn’t about to have the bullshit, even though she’s forced to move out of one of the most beautiful apartments we have ever seen, and to Brooklyn. Now, where we may have some issues with Brooklyn, we also know that it’s a good borough. So we’ll smile and say that she’s gonna kill it there.
Even with her strange AF roommate, who uses way too much olive oil for any one person to use. We get that it’s a good moisturizer, but hey, so is Aveeno. Like lets live in the moment and make sure that we’re not leaving a film on anything.
Liza Treyger, as Jade, Mavis’s new roommate is quite eclectic, and Treyger does a great job bringing that to life. Now, we don’t really like Jade, because judgemental AF should be her name. However, we’re not sure after this one episode Jade will fit into Mavis’s journey.
However if we are judging by this one episode, we’re not sure we like her and we’re not sure that we’re supposed to like Jade.
However, the real star of this episode and Mavis’s life is her bestie, Khalil. Tone Bell portray’s Khalil and makes you want to have a Khalil in your life. Bell brings Khalil to life with such grace, you can’t help but laugh at Khalil’s man hoe side and also cheer for him as he does things like help Mavis move to Brooklyn, on the subway.
Helping a friend move is already enough torture, but helping them move (between boroughs especially) is like above and beyond. The scene where the two of them are trying to outrun a woman he ghosted (who btw, didn’t give no fucks) will have you laughing.
Mavis is trying to learn how to be on her own and when realizing that she’s single, has sex with an old colleague. One who is even like ya, babe, we gonna f**k after you vomited, no problem. While we can understand the need and want for dick, anyone who is gonna let us fall on theirs after we vomited in the bathtub is a hard pass.
But here we are and alcohol gives a person some rose colored glasses. Hey, at least he put her furniture together.
Khalil leaves her alone for one night and she’s already fallen on the penis, but he’s not going to let her fall into the depths of despair. Nope. He’s going to make sure she goes to that interview for her dream job.
Stop telling yourself no before someone else tell you no.
Prolific words from Khalil that we all can relate to.
Only when she pulls her shit together and walks into that interview like the boss bitch she is, it’s quickly faltered when she finds out that Jacque has told them that he will only do this shoot if he’s the lead stylist.
While some of us would have been like okay, I will suck this shit up and deal with my ex, because hey, want the job, Mavis is like fuck to the no.
She’s not about to do that. He’s treating her like she needs him, but Mavis doesn’t need him. What she needs is herself and she knows that. She’s not going to settle. So watching her tell him that she’s not doing this, that she lost her identity in him, and that won’t happen again, well, hell yes.
Jacque may want to do whatever to heal his relationship with Mavis, but that is about nothing but control. Mavis is in control of her own story now and hey, that takes courage.
She reminds Jacque, “here the fuck I am,” and we applaud whomever that turns out to be. We believe in you Mavis.
Moral of episode one – “you need to walk into your story and keep your plants watered.”
We’re listening, we’re watching, and well we’re watering our plants. IYKYK.
