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Drag Race Belgique Season 1, Episode 6 – “A deux c’est mieu!” makeover challenge Review and Power Ranking

March 26, 2023 by krisis

Welcome to my review, recap, and power rankings of the sixth episode of Drag Race Belgique Season 1 – A deux c’est mieu! That translates as “Two is better [than one].” That’s the perfect title for Belgium’s first makeover challenge as the queens partnered with five presenters from Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française – or RTBF (Belgium’s version of NPR & PBS).

If you follow my RuPaul’s Drag Race coverage, you’ve just read my thoughts on the mercurial nature of makeover challenges from yesterday’s “Teacher Makeovers.” Makeovers give production carte blanche to make any placement decisions they please, but sometimes that involves less interference and more going with the flow of the narrative.

That’s exactly what happened in A deux c’est mieu, with each queen producing the exact result you’d expect. The excellent queens delivered excellence, the contentious queen delivered contested results, and the low-key queens had nowhere left to hide from the judge’s critiques in such a slim field free of anyone making a mess of things.

That resulted in a satisfying episode, even if it highlighted the particular deficiencies of Lufy as a judge.

In her workroom walkthrough it was obvious that Lufy was playing the Michelle Visage role of giving pushy, counter-intuitive advice that could easily backfire. However, Michelle backs that up with the utter conviction of being right all the time. If her advice turned out to lead a queen astray, she simply doubles down that if what she said was done correctly things would’ve turned out fine.

Lufy is a much less experienced media personality. She couldn’t deliver on the much-needed judging punchline when one queen one faltered because of her advice and another succeeded despite it.

Even if the judging this season feels inexperienced, Drag Race Belgique more than makes up for it with a stellar cast of professional, entertaining, personable queens. We had two queens exchange rankings compared to last week’s Snatch Game line-up, but we’re heading into the semi-final with the three queens I predicted for the Top 3 in the pre-season and a fourth who I was most hoping to see succeed.

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

Lecteurs, start your engines. Et, que la meilleure Drag Queen gagne!

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15, Episode 13 – “Teacher Makeovers” Review & Power Ranking

March 25, 2023 by krisis

Welcome to my review, recap, and power rankings of the thirteenth episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15 – “Teacher Makeovers,” a makeover challenge with a quintet of local women teachers who are members of or allies to the LGBTQA* community.

Let’s be honest about Makeover Challenges on Drag Race: it’s often a “free play” week that allows the show to create whatever narrative works best for the remainder of the season.

Few queens utterly fail at the makeover (though we had one tonight!) and even when they do they can be sent to lip sync with just about anyone else in the cast to ensure the desired result. And, good makeovers tend to be similar in their strength, which means picking a winner can come down to arbitrary details. It’s rare to see a total blowout in either direction.

This has lead to many questionable Makeover episode placements over the years, from Divina winning while Cheryl went home in UK Season 1 to Trinity The Tuck not being in the top for the All Stars Season 4 make-over in favor of Monét. Heck, even Canada does it, putting Icesis in the bottom for a spectacular makeover on Season 2 just for not using matching colors on obviously similar dresses.

That’s why the makeover challenge tends to come late in the season (along with other challenges with extremely subjective measures of success). You can hand out a questionable win in a makeover to much less scrutiny from the cast and the fans than you can for Snatch Game.

That can make for a somewhat miserable episode for the queens, who are usually exhausted by this point in the season. A little bit of rigger morris goes a long long way to cracking competitors who are already on the verge of a breakdown.

The positive that comes along with this is that Makeover Challenges bring outside influences into the workroom. That can shake up tense dynamics within the cast and bring new stories to light. This episode’s makeover focused on five women teachers from around the Los Angeles area, each with their own connection to Drag Race and the LGBTQA* community. These women are already champions, from a mom of queer children to an art teacher on her own coming out journey to a kindergarten teacher who emphasizes that “love is love” to her youngsters.

All five teachers were willing to put in an A+ effort for their queens, but one queen wasn’t in the mood to match her partner’s enthusiasm for group work. That lead to an obvious bottom placement and a preordained lip sync. What it didn’t do is shake up the power rankings at all from last week’s Rusical rankings. Production has made some deliberate storytelling choices heading into next week’s semi-final. We’ll see if they all pay off.

Readers, start your engines. And, may the best drag queen win!

Drag Race Sverige Season 1, Episode 3 – “Drag-a’-mera!” design challenge Review & Power Ranking

March 21, 2023 by krisis

Welcome to my review, recap, and power rankings of the third episode of Drag Race Sverige (AKA Drag Race Sweden) Season 1 – “Drag-a’-mera!” It’s a familiar unconventional material design challenge with the added pressure of being judged by one of Sweden’s most legendary drag performers, Christer Lindarw, and one of their most notorious fashion icons, Fredrik Robertsson.

The presence of Lindarw and Robertsson seemed to ratchet up the tension in this episode much more than on a typical RuPaul’s Drag Race design challenge. Even when RuPaul’s Drag Race lands massive stars as guest judges, often they represent something apart from drag – or, at least, just a single aspect of success in drag. RuPaul remains the person who it is most important to impress and whose career exists as the exemplar for contestants.

By contrast, on this episode of Sverige it felt as though its charming host Robert Fux was secondary to the pair of heavyweights on the judging panel. The only time RuPaul has ever come close to being eclipsed as the show’s paragon of drag was when Lady Gaga appeared for the Season 9 debut – an episode on which Ru never appeared in drag!

When it comes to design, RuPaul is typically looking for some form of indefinable “eleganza” that’s all about size and structure. However, Fredrik Robertsson’s walkthrough for “Drag-a’-mera” was much more intimidating than a typically breezy (but helpful) commentary from Carson Kressley or Brad Goreski. It felt as though Robertsson was treating the queens as though they were all legitimate fashion designers, demanding that each one of them deliver the careful detailing of haute couture while also using a mix of materials to suggest something more avant-garde.

Meanwhile, the presence of the soft-spoken Christer Lindarw seemed to unnerve some of the queens even more. His career as a drag performer and fashion designer spans nearly 50 years, including four decades of his “After Dark” revue that employed many Swedish performers (including Elecktra). There was a tangible feeling that he had the ability to make or break the career of any queen on the cast, which is usually only true of RuPaul herself on the main franchise.

The result was an unusually polished design challenge runway without any true failures, but with more than one surprising development in the judging. That meant a major shake-up for my power rankings compared to last week’s talent show! It feels like this season is already down to a set of heavyweight frontrunners who are all deserving of a spot in the Top Three with just three more episodes until the finale.

After tonight, two queens who seemed like obvious cuts are experiencing a sudden surge while another former lock feels like she’s in danger. No matter what happens next week, it will be a shocking elimination.

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

Läsare, start your engines. Och må den bästa Drag Queen vinna!

Drag Race Belgique Season 1, Episode 5 – Snatch Game & Night of 1001 Audrey Hepburns Runway

March 19, 2023 by krisis

Welcome to my review, recap, and power rankings of the fifth episode of Drag Race Belgique Season 1 – the first Snatch Game in Belgium, plus a Night of 1001 Audrey Hepburns runway!

I felt that this Snatch Game and accompanying iconic runway said a lot about the drag culture of Belgium.

Snatch Game was low on rude and uproarious jokes and heavy on studied character work. Even the worst queens of this panel presented better character illusions than the best queens of a typical Snatch Game in the United States!

Similarly, while queens on other franchises might take this runway theme as an opportunity to show off a “high glam” version of Audrey Hepburn, here five out of six queens presented near-exact replicas of some of her iconic looks. None of them were draggy for drag’s sake, and none amplified Hepburn’s petite frame with drag staples like exaggerated shoulder pads or giant hair.

As we have the chance to see Drag Race adapted to countries all around the globe, we must remember that the aesthetics of US Drag Race is heavily influenced by the pageant system. Critiques about proportions and “dragging things up” do not always apply equally in other drag subcultures.

From this season thus far I get the sense that Belgian drag values a much less exaggerated sense of femininity from its drag artists, which has been reflected both in the runways and the judging. It seems to be a season where smaller, more-thoughtful performances can thrive.

Snatch Game shook up my power rankings compared to last week’s acting challenge everywhere but the very top. While we maintained the same front-runner, spreading the wins around and putting a new queen in the bottom definitely shuffled the odds of who might wind up in the finale.

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

Lecteurs, start your engines. Et, que la meilleure Drag Queen gagne!

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15, Episode 12 – “Wigloose The Rusical” Review & Power Ranking

March 18, 2023 by krisis

Welcome to my review, recap, and power rankings of the twelfth episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15 – “Wigloose The Rusical.” It’s a winking drag lip sync parody of Footloose that arrived at the perfect time, plus an “Everybody Say Glove” runway theme.

Drag Race couldn’t have gotten the timing of the release of this episode any better if they had consulted a crystal ball. This Rusical about outlawing drag comes just as many states in America are passing anti-drag bills that cast drag queens as inherently predatory and indecent.

Of course, the idea that drag is inherently adult or sexual is absolutely ludicrous. Drag and blurring the lines of gender has always been a staple of entertainment for all ages, whether that’s in Mrs. Doubtfire, Steven Universe, or William Shakespeare.

A drag queen reading a storybook to children is truly no different than the reading coming from someone dressed as a Disney Princess. Both are forms of exaggerated femininity, and it’s up to each parent to decide when that’s appropriate for their children.

Really, these bills are a simply an old tactic brought back to life in the ongoing war on transgender Americans and all LGBTQA* people waged by hate-filled Republicans.

Legislating against drag is often synonymous with restricting all forms of presenting yourself in a gender non-conforming way. It tries to enforce gender norms with threat of public shaming, felony charges, court costs, and even jail time.

It’s important as part of this conversation to state clearly that doing drag is not synonymous with being trans. Trans women are women dressing as themselves – they are not doing drag. Not all drag queens are trans women, and not all trans women have done drag. However, if it is illegal to perform in drag, does that also make it illegal for a trans person to perform as themselves? If it is criminal for a drag queen to be seen by children, does that also mean it’s criminal for a transgender person to be seen by children?

Republicans are interested in blurring those lines if it means they can harm more queer people and erase them from being visible in every day life.

If I grew up under one of these drag bans, I would not have been able to dress androgynously in high school. I would not have been able to give one of my first performances in a theatre, which was in drag as Jackie O. And, in the present day, I would be at risk of being charged with a felony as someone who sometimes drives my car while wearing long hair, make-up, and high-heeled boots just because that’s how I like to look.

Of course, these laws are not all about me – and, I don’t even live in America anymore! However, I use myself as an example to show the kind of intentional side effects that come with these laws.

No anti-drag law is truly about keeping drag confined to night clubs or removing children from risky situations. They are about trying to enforce gender norms in all walks of life, which has the side effect of criminalizing being visibly trans or queer.

I often struggle with whether I should be writing about drag on Crushing Krisis. Do people who like comic books want to see these posts? Should I be writing them as someone who is not a drag queen and is not active in a queer subculture? Is it somehow embarrassing or inappropriate for me to be writing about drag as a business professional? What would my clients think?

These laws and their accompanying discrimination is why I write about drag. Drag deserves to be visible. Drag is for everyone. Drag is art just like comics are art. Drag artists deserve essays and analysis written about them just like artists who create comic books, movies, music, and other forms of popular and fine art.

Drag isn’t going away and neither are LGBTQA* people. It’s important for everyone who can safely do so to show their support and resistance to the advance of hate in the world in any way they are able. It felt good to see my favorite television show make its own silly statement about it in a week where any form of queer joy is welcome.

(It didn’t hurt that it may have been their best Rusical of all time.)

This highly-enjoyable, highly-relevant episode of Drag Race slightly shuffled the rankings compared to last week’s comedy challenge. However, it mostly confirmed what we’ve known all along to be our top four, with one very lovely, very loose fourth-runner up.

Readers, start your engines. And, may the best drag queen win!