Crushing Krisis

Mabuhay! Welcome to my review and power rankings of the third episode of Drag Race Philippines Season 1 – Pop Off Ate! This is a classic Drag Race Girl Groups challenge to write, record, and perform a verse on a pop track, paired with a seriously scary runway celebrating the myths of Filipino folklore.

(Based on when this episode was released, I think my Drag Race Philippines coverage will be on Thursdays and Fridays for the remainder of the season.)

Girl Group challenges are always interesting on Drag Race because they combine teamwork, quick memorization, and being able to think on your feet. A queen who brought a killer track from a producer to the talent show might not be able to produce the same results when they have to write and record a verse in a matter of hours!

As the queens discussed early in the episode, “The Universe Loves Decisiveness.” When it comes to a songwriting challenge where you have just eight bars to express yourself, you can’t hedge your bets with a lot of filler words that don’t tell a story. You have to get straight to the point of who you are and what defines you.

I’m not going to do a deep dissection of songwriting in this post as I did for the RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 7’s Girl Groups, since most of these verses are multilingual. However, songwriting wasn’t the only thing I know well that the queens worked on this episode… they also Power Ranked each other! They’re trying to steal my gig!

How did the queens rank themselves? (And how did that compare to where they currently rank in my Power Ranking averages so far?)

1. Precious Paula Nicole (#3)
2. Turing (#9)
3. Eva Le Queen (#4)
4. Minty Fresh (#1)
5. Gigi Era (#8)
6. Lady Morgana (#10)
7. Marina Summers (tie) (#5)
8. Xilhouete (tie) (#7)
9. Viñas Deluxe (#2)
10. Brigiding (#6)

Clearly there is some workroom fuckery going on on this poll, with Turing ranked high out of respect for her lip sync and Viñas ranked low out of jealousy for her win. However, the rest of the ranking feels relatively balanced compared to mine. The queens are a little warmer on Gigi Era and Lady Morgana due to their good nature and hard work, and cooler to Brigiding.

It’s interesting how the entire group immediately shifted to saying Brigiding was the most-annoying as soon as they were rid of their previous pick, Corazon. There’s definitely a bit of group-think going on there, where queens are expected to go along with the pack and not cause any ripples.

That left the top pick, Precious Paula Nicole, and the bottom queen, Brigiding, to select their pop star groups, which wound up as follows:

• Team Precious AKA “Pink P*ssy Energy” – Precious Paula Nicole, Vi?as Deluxe, Minty Fresh, Gigi Era, Xilhouete
• Team Brigiding AKA “Flexbomb Girls”-  Brigiding, Marina Summers, Turing, Lady Morgana, Eva Le Queen

For the record, my picks would’ve been Minty Fresh, Turing, Marina Summers, and Eva Le Queen… which means, based on this challenge, I might’ve had a solid shot at winning!

The team choices were followed by what must have been the most-wholesome recording session of all time with guest judge and mega-star Nadine Lustre. She was so calmly encouraging to everyone. She really got the best out of each of them in the studio.

I’ve noticed that sort of coaching and judging has been a theme of Drag Race Philippines on all three episodes so far. There doesn’t seem to be as much of a hidden agenda from the judges as we get on other franchises. They’ve been surprisingly tough on some queens, but never for a surprising reason.

If RuPaul wants to keep reaping Emmys she needs to take some notes from the one-two-three punch of this set of runway critiques going from the uplifting comments to Brigiding, to the unresolved grief of Precious Paula Nicole, to the need to be loved of Xilhouete. I continue to be so impressed with Jiggly as a judge, and Paolo crying repeatedly while trying to slice the welling tears out of her eyes with a sharpened point of a napkin was at once pure heart and pure camp.

How did this Girl Groups challenge shake up my Power Rankings from Week 2? While my top six remains the same, that half-dozen queens continue to jostle for spots in the top 3. Read on to find out and let me know in the comments if you agree!

If you want to watch Drag Race Philippines outside of the Philippines and Canada you can sign up for WowPresentsPlus to watch the many worldwide Drag Race franchises for $4.99 a month or $50 a year. (Note that if you’re in the home country of a franchise you will need to use a VPN to “visit” another country to see that content.)

Readers, start your engines! And, may the best Filipino drag queen win! [Read more…] about Drag Race Philippines Season 1 Episode 3 – Pop Off Ate!: Review & Power Ranking

Mabuhay! Welcome to my review and power rankings of the second episode of Drag Race Philippines Season 1 – SagalAmazon, an unconventional materials design challenge.

As I understand it, this episode title is a play on words. “Sagala,” “santacruzan,” or “Flores de Mayo” is a flower festival and pageant where one beautiful local woman is declare the queen and is escorted by handsome men in a procession through town. From what I’ve seen, their outfits are not crafty flower affairs, but full-on regal opulence! The flowers come in everywhere else, including on the parade floats and arches that frame the queens.

As for the Amazon part… I’m not sure. Because they had to deliver the looks in a hurry?

Designing with real flowers and greenery is no easy feat. Even if you came to the show with plenty of sewing lessons under your belt and a suitcase of dress patterns, you might still fail spectacularly.

This challenge was slightly different than the similar Episode 1 challenge on RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under because the Filipino queens were encouraged to augment their plant-based looks with fabric from the workroom supply – but, they were not meant to use their own garments.

That meant the real, unspoken challenge in this episode was “Do you want to risk relying only on flowers and leaves, which are in short supply and might not sell the full Sagala fantasy, or do you want to rely on convention fabric with flowers as accents but risk being too safe?”

(Ostensibly they were mean to to also design their own flower arches, but the amount of flowers on the arches was vastly more than they had available for their outfits and not a single judging comment focused on the arches. I have a suspicion the queens were allowed to simply sketch the arches and then production crafted them. I could be wrong!)

This challenge is tricky to critique, because I don’t have the context of the Philippines’ festival to work from. I might have missed some references that made these looks more clever, referential, or haute couture than they seemed. I’ve done a bit of my own searching for image references, but if I’ve missed something, please feel free to drop me a link so I can educate myself. It’s not your job to do the labor for me, but I always appreciate a point in the right direction!

Before we get to the Power Rankings, which have shifted slightly since my Episode One ranks, I have to take a moment comment on two other aspects of the episode.

First, the mini-challenge was absolutely wacky. The queens were challenged to shimmy up a massive bamboo pole to grab a flag, with some support from a team of Pit Crew members (who actually got to wear shoes, presumably for non-slip safety reasons). I can’t think of another franchise that would throw out a challenge so aggressively athletic and actually dangerous, nor can I think of another cast we’ve met who could make it quite this goofy.

Second, and more significantly, the episode featured remarkable judging! Designer Rajo Laurel is a Drag Race superfan who gave actionable advice in the workroom and terrific, sensible critiques on the runway. He kept things aspirational and encouraging even when he was tearing into a concept. He was one of the best fashion judges we’ve ever had across all of the franchises. I’d compare him to Carson Kressley when he’s actually allowed in the workroom.

Also, our beloved investigative journalist Jiggly Caliente came for one of the queens for breaking the rules! I am living for Jiggly’s “fun aunt who has seen it all” energy on the panel, right down to her bejeweled domed take-out drink.

If you want to watch Drag Race Philippines outside of the Philippines and Canada you can sign up for WowPresentsPlus to watch the many worldwide Drag Race franchises for $4.99 a month or $50 a year. (Note that if you’re in the home country of a franchise you will need to use a VPN to “visit” another country to see that content.)

Readers, start your engines! And, may the best Filipino drag queen win! [Read more…] about Drag Race Philippines Season 1 Episode 2 – SagalAmazon: Review & Power Ranking