Jonathan Van Ness is a hairstylist and is well known as a member of Queer Eye‘s fab five as the grooming expert. Before becoming a member of Queer Eye, Van Ness worked as a personal assistant at Sally Hershberger Salon in Los Angeles. In 2013, he was asked by Erin Gibson, who was working with the comedy video website and film/television production company Funny or Die, to perform his recap of Game of Thrones, which later became the Gay of Thrones web series. Van Ness was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Variety Series in 2018 for the web series. In 2019, he won the Critics Choice Award for Male Star of the Year. Jonathan Van Ness is also an author. His memoir, Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love, was published in October 2019 and it won the Goodreads Choice Award. He shares his struggles growing up and his learnings in the memoir with the goal to inspire his readers, especially LGBTQ+ youth. The following year, he released a picture book titled Peanut Goes for the Gold which features the story of a nonbinary guinea pig who strives to be a rhythmic gymnastics prodigy. Recently, Netflix released his latest series, Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness, which involves him talking about various topics with his signature fabulous twist. The show is based on his popular podcast of the same title which has been running since 2015. In his podcast, he tackles various topics he is curious about and invites experts in the field to explore the topic further. In 2019 he received the iHeartRadio Podcast Award for Best LGBTQ Podcast.
His podcast and spinoff series definitely show how much Van Ness is eager to learn new things and to share them with others. In an interview with Parade, he shared, “We have to use our curiosity to create worlds where we do and you can kind of use your imagination. For me, when I’m learning, it kind of takes me away. I go into my mind and I’m just immersed in this thing that I’m learning about and I think that is so fun.” Here are the 5 reasons why you should be watching his new series “Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness.”
Interesting and wide-ranging topics are featured
The topics on the show feature anything that Jonathan is interested in. The episodes on “Why is hair so major,” “Why Don’t You Love Figure Skating as Much as I Do?” and “Can We Say Bye-Bye to Binary?” are obviously his interest and is something he’s passionate about. In an interview with NBC News he highlighted the latter topics and shared, “Those are such expansive, gigantic topics that I’m so passionate about. I don’t think I’ll ever be done learning about them.” In the show, he also covers topics about bugs (Are Bugs Gorgeous or Gross?) skyscrapers, ( Are Skyscrapers Huge Divas?), and snacks (Why Do I Love Snacks So Much?), and they visit landmarks such as the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Stonewall Inn, and other parts of Central Park.
Jonathan Van Ness is a very engaging host
Watching Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness is like watching a documentary feature without all the PBS seriousness. Van Ness adds so much charm and humor as he shares facts and interesting information about each topic and he easily holds a conversation with the guests in the show. In an article published by The Guardian, they praised the host saying, “As one might expect, it’s very camp and extremely fun. But it’s also instructive, at times emotional, and underpinned by Van Ness’s infectious enthusiasm and appetite for information.”
Humor and learning are combined
Watching documentary features usually have a serious tone to it but Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness presents its facts in a very creative manner. The topics definitely provide good insights and some new knowledge for viewers but it’s so fun to watch and even features some animated characters and funny skits. The Spool wrote about the series and praised the show’s take on sharing knowledge with a fun vibe. “The editing is quick-paced and fun, leading the viewer down a rabbit hole of JVN’s obsession du jour. This really is fun for the whole family. The skits are cartoony and zany in a way that captures the type of curiosity we all felt as kids blended with a love of the wacky.”
It features experts, notable figures, and celebrity cameos
Just like in the podcast version of the show, several experts in the field are invited to discuss the topic on each episode, as well as celebrity cameos. The Guardian wrote, “There is much to recommend. Academics with unusual specialisms are great value on television, and seeing people’s unbridled dedication to wigs or spiders or 18th-century paintings is always entertaining. Van Ness is a delight to watch, so easy in conversation with strangers, and their wide-eyed enthusiasm is infectious.” The notable figures and celebrity cameos in the new series include RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Monét X Change, celebrity chef and Top Chef judge Padma, Lakshmi, Orange Is the New Black comedian Lea DeLaria, comedian and The Circle host Michelle Buteau, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, writer and performance artist Alok, Fashion designer and Project Runway host Christian Siriano and model, Nala Toussaint, Two-time Olympic medalist Michelle Kwan, Fab Five’s food and wine expert, and chef Antoni Porowski, three-time American champ figure skater Eliot Halverson, Bronze medalist and two-time American figure skating champion Gracie Gold, and Saturday Night Live alum Rachel Dratch.
It shows different perspectives
The last reason why you should be watching the series is how it presents its facts about the topic from different perspectives. In each episode, Van Ness does not only seek one expert in the field but gathers information from several people involved in the topic being featured. Decider praised the series for this reason and wrote “But what I truly love about this series is that every single episode presents facts from all sides — and when I say “all sides” I mean positive and negative, objective and subjective, all rooted in fact and sanity, and frequently coming from marginalized communities who are directly affected but rarely interviewed.”
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