Inspired by Michelel Buteau’s 2020 book of the same name, Survival of the Thickest casts the comedian as Mavis Beaumont, a stylist struggling to build a career in her photographer boyfriend Jacque’s (Taylor Selé) shadow. That quest takes on new urgency when Mavis—who embraces what she calls her “drumstick-emoji physique”—catches Jacque in their bed with a “skinny-model version” of herself. After years of subsidizing his rise to fame, she’s suddenly single, 38, and in need of her own big break. It’s a pretty dusty starting-over setup, but one that might have sufficed had Buteau and her co-creator, Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, subsequently arrived at a clearer vision for the show.