Mavis Beaumont (Michelle Buteau) is a fashion designer with a lot of personality and dreams. When her stable relationship with the perfect man comes to an end on the eve of a great professional opportunity, she needs to find a way to start over in her life. And with the help of her best friends, she sets out in search of new adventures.

Right from the start, I would like to point out that one of my favorite parts of this series: the character’s best friends have their own stories. They are more than just “friends of the main character” and escape the cliché of the unemployed friend who is always on screen ready to crack a joke.

Marley (Tasha Smith) and Khalil (Tone Bell) have plots that are just as interesting as Mavis. Khalil is the typical scoundrel who ends up falling in love and experiencing romance for the first time, and Marley is discovering/developing more of her sexuality.

And even though it is not as in-depth as the main plot, we can follow a little of each one’s story.

Despite addressing issues such as racism, plus-size women, and having a lot of LGBTQIA+ representation, none of these issues seem forced in the story. On the contrary, they are there adjacent to everything else and are treated with due naturalness.

The comedy itself revolves around Mavis’s discovery and journey of learning to be single. We follow a woman returning to the single life in her early 30s, after a long relationship that didn’t end well.

Here, we follow her disastrous dates, her professional challenges, and her adventures living in a house with someone who is the complete opposite of her.

Jade (Liza Treyger) is an eccentric character, with questionable habits (such as bathing her body in olive oil and sitting on the apartment’s furniture) and a cat affectionately called Cocaine.

Her character comes as a contrast to the normality of Mavis’ life, the change from a stable life to a messy apartment and an even messier roommate.

As for Mavis’ love life, when I started the series, when I got to know the dynamics between her and Khalil, I was afraid of being led to “ship” the two for the sake of plot convenience. In shows with plus-size characters, this is already a cliché: “the chubby friend who ends up being seen as a woman by her long-time friend”.

Fortunately, the tone is quickly set; the two are friends, they care a lot about each other and would do anything for each other, but that’s it.

There’s no room for romance; on the contrary, each one really roots for the other’s love life and there are no secrets between them. Khalil is Mavis’ best friend, almost like a brother, but there’s nothing more to it than that. Which makes the love between them even more genuine.

As for her ex, Jacques, he still wants to reconcile the relationship and chases after Mavis for a good part of the series. Despite being the reason for the breakup, he wants to prove to her that he can’t live without her and that he has now changed into a better person.

There is a slight “love triangle” when we are introduced to Luca, an Italian with a sense of humor and an accent that takes our main character’s breath away.

In the end, Surviving in Style is a series that shares with the viewer the daily life of a woman in normal situations of her day to day life.

And yes, despite being a mid-size/plus-size woman, there is never a mention of insecurity due to her body, Mavis is a very confident woman, men compliment her and flirt with her.

In works with the same theme, a common mistake is to always reduce the character to this, being fat is who she is and nothing else matters. Fortunately, this is another cliché avoided by Surviving in Style.

Surviving in Style is a quick series, easy to binge-watch and with great moments to make you laugh. The series is available on Netflix and has 8 episodes.

For now, there is no confirmation of a new season and Michelle Buteau, the actress who plays Mavis and author of the book of the same name, made it clear that she will not consider the idea of ​​another season until the rights of the writers are respected and the strikes in Hollywood end.

Watch the trailer:

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