Review: ‘Survival of the Thickest’ Season 3 Is for the Fattie Baddies and the Oddie Bodies

The third and final season of Michelle Buteau’s Survival of the Thickest is now streaming on Netflix. Since its beginning, the show has been unwavering in its messaging about body positivity and joy in the Black, trans, and queer communities. Right until the very last scene, the casting has made it one of the most realistic portrayals of life in New York City on television. It bends towards overly optimistic, but the arc of the show has been about Mavis Beaumont (Buteau) overcoming obstacles and pushing through the grind in her quest for real love and to be a successful inclusive fashion designer.

Survival of the Thickest opened with Mavis’ love life and career falling apart, but she was raised up by her chosen family. It ends with her enveloped in the love of that family and her sexy Italian man, Luca (Marouane Zotti from I May Destroy You).

Although the absence of Tasha Smith (Bad Boys: Ride or Die) as Marley is strongly felt, season three goes hard and moves fast. It spends a lot of time on Mavis’ relationship with her lifelong best friend Khalil (Little’s Tone Bell), and how he and Luca move towards each other to love and support Mavis’ career and family aspirations. We also learn a lot more about Khalil’s family and follow his emotional growth journey.

The main plot is focused on the collaboration with designer Charles Renee (RonReaco Lee) that Mavis established last season. He does everything he can to diminish her efforts and steal her creative, size-inclusive designs. Mavis and her assistant, Nala (Alecsys Proctor-Turner), the greatest hype-woman ever, go to Paris to stage a renegade show during Fashion Week in an attempt to get a leg up on him.

The pacing of Mavis’ career storyline moves quickly this season because she’s in constant pivot mode. When one door closes, she forces open a window and occasionally Kool-Aid Man’s her way into the rooms she needs to be in to make her dreams happen.

The other story being told this season is Mavis’ fertility journey after she and Luca decide they want to get married and have kids (not necessarily in that order). The story comes to a crashing, tragic halt in episode 5. Some folks may need a content or trigger warning for pregnancy loss for the back half of the season. But Buteau creates a moving portrait of grief and resilience that avoids the pitfall of caricature.

There’s a lot of time jumping in the last few of the eight episodes to get us to Mavis’ happy ending. I usually hate time jumping. Survival of the Thickest keeps it linear, and it’s such a relief to get a timely conclusion to a series that I didn’t mind it this time. Better we do some jumping ahead than the series go on for too many seasons or be canceled after the first one.

The storytelling in Survival of the Thickest has been concise across all of its seasons, and the comedy on point. The cameos alone put this show on a different level. Buteau is a talented stand-up, and she convinced a lot of very funny people to come play with her. During their overnight in Paris, Nala says to Mavis, “You don’t know what it means to see someone like you do what you do.” That’s as true for the character as it is for the show’s creator. The show was a breath of fresh air after so many straight, white-centered series about living in New York City. I don’t know if we’ll see another one like it any time soon. But we’ve got three great seasons to enjoy.

All seasons of Survival of the Thickest are now streaming on Netflix.