Drag Race Belgique - Season 2 Grande Finale

Bon retour, mes chers lecteurs, dans mon classement final! Drag Race Belgique Season 2 Episode 8 was the Season 2 Grande Finale! That means a winner was crowned, and there are no more performances to rank!

Producing a season of Drag Race is a delicate process. Any reality competition show relies on the strength of its casting. The alchemy of the cast is what makes a show compelling. Eliminations serve a dual purpose of narrowing the field to both the best competitors and the strongest personalities who will produce good television. A reality competition based on art is even more fragile – now, the show relies not just on the personalities of its cast, but their talent and inspiration.

I think we often take this delicate balance for granted when we watch Drag Race – and, especially, when we critique it. Simply casting the most talented queens with the biggest budgets and serving them the best challenges does not make a season of Drag Race an instant classic. Creating a magical, beloved season like RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 5 or Season 9, or Drag Race France Season 1, requires so many intangible factors to coalesce into a whole – from both the queens and production.

I think Drag Race Belgique Season 2 never quite coalesced the way that the first season did. The production improved in many ways, including Rita settling into her role as host and the addition of the lovely Lio to the panel. Yet, this mix of queens never had the giddy, fizzy alchemy of Season 1. Everyone felt tentative and filled with self-doubt the entire time – our winner included!

No matter how many loving critiques they received from the judges, it felt as though no queen this season was fully willing to reach out and demand the crown. There were elements of that same hesitation last season from some contestants, but it felt more like it came from a demanding judging panel – and not from some inner saboteur.

As a result, I find that I have few memorable moments in this season, beyond La Veuve’s supreme confidence as an actress and Alvilda’s magnetic command of the camera. There were no standout moments and no real character arcs, despite Lou Lou Velvet growing in confidence and Gabanna having a compelling underdog story right from the start. Three of this Top 4 felt locked in from the very start, as evidenced by my season-long rankings, and that meant there was little dramatic tension to interrupt the narrative of an increasingly-obvious champion.

Is that down to a tentative set of queens? Or, is it the national sentiment of Belgium? I think it must be a mix of both. I think Americans always expect every artist and performer to naturally be as brash and loud as the most-exceptional American. Yet, what I’ve learned in these past seven years as an immigrant is that sometimes exceptionalism can look very different in different places. Even if these queens had their tentative moments, I think they were exceptional

All’s well that ends well. We ended the season with a deserving Top 2 and a winner who absolutely can stand alongside the dozens of other winners the Drag Race franchise has crowned around the globe these past few years.

I’ve loved recapping this second season of Drag Race Belgique for you. Since I have no nuanced power rankings to deliver this week, I even got to watch it entirely in French – without even using English subtitles! I will always be a Francophile thanks to the outstanding dedication of my beloved French teachers back at J.R. Masterman in Philadelphia, and that love of the French language extends to an interest in all French-speaking cultures.

Thank you to every reader who stuck with my recaps all season long. You were few, but my data (and your encouraging comments) tells me you were consistent! If you love Drag Race, I hope you will stick around for a few more weeks of my coverage of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 16!

I may be back later this year with some commentary on All Stars, Global All Stars, Drag Race France, Drag Race Philippines, Drag Race Down Under, or Drag Race Canada – although certainly not all of them! Let me know in the comments which you’d love to see me recap and power rank if I only have the time for two of those seasons.

(Want to watch Drag Race Belgique outside of Belgium? For most of the world, it’s available with a Wow Presents Plus subscription as soon as the episode is done airing.)

Adieu, et j’espère qu’on pourra se revoir!

Reminders: I consistently refer to Drag Race artists with their drag names and with she/her pronouns even when they are not in drag, which is the convention of the show. Some performers may have different personal pronouns. Drag is inherently brave, political, and artistic, and all drag is valid. It’s also hard to do. Every drag artist in the world deserves endless essays dedicated to their talents and life stories. I’m commenting on drag artistry in how it fits the established expectations of this specific television program, but the reason I’m commenting at all is because I am obsessed with drag and the people who create it.

Comments

Fer says

March 28, 2024 at 11:39 am

Thank you for covering this season! I agree something is not clicking with Belgium seasons, but I still feel it’s fine, just not outstanding, like a lot of other seasons

if we are picking – I feel like Global All Stars will be a must-watch (I’ve spoiled myself with the cast, and it’s iconic). For the other seasons you mentioned, it would be also exciting to hear from you, if you get to them

Daphne says

April 3, 2024 at 11:02 pm

I enjoyed reading all your commentary the entire season (well, I can understand why your finale one was this short–it was about 90 minutes and it felt like two episodes squeezed together). People are asking about Jimbo randomly appearing in the episode but I’ve read from somewhere she was in Paris at that time and Rita suggested they invite her. Loved Rita’s black mainstage gown, by the way! Best she’s ever looked in both seasons and maybe next to it is her outfit from Belgique’s season 1 finale and the Canada’s Drag Race season 1 pageant gown she wore when Jimbo read her wig.

I agree that the season seems to be not exciting and I feel that the editing had a part in it. However, in season 1 you really see Couenne hungry for that winner spot and was really confident. They edited these girls as anxious puppies, and they seemed to focus more on their personal traumas. Even though we know Drag Race does that to show the /other/ side of drag for their audiences who may not be familiar with it (given how Belgique is airing on public TV), for the regular drag race viewer they look for a different kind of narrative. The cast was lovely and felt that they were less timid than season 1’s cast but it lacked this competitive edge. I suppose Belgians aren’t as catty as the die-hard audiences want so they dismiss this franchise to be boring.

They may stumble along the way, but they still manage to crown the right person at the end of the season!

Would love to see your take on Drag Race Philippines and Global All Stars (and maybe Belgique season 3 if by some miracle they do greenlight it haha).