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RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings, S09E03 – “Draggily Ever After”
This week’s RuPaul’s Drag Race had one of the most peculiar challenges of all time!
The remaining 13 queens presented fully-developed princess characters on the runway, but each one had to be accompanied by a dweeby floating-head sidekick which later had an animated body added to it.
Maybe some fans weren’t into this Roger Rabbit, Space Jam sort of realness, but I loved the juxtaposition – plus, I adore any challenge where the queens have to get literary.
This week on Untucked, the safe queens opined that most of them belonged in the top group, and I can’t help but agree. I think all of them were better than the queens that remained on the stage (yes, even Trinity).
Despite loving drag even as a child that I’ve only been in what I’d call “full drag” – with makeup and everything – twice in my life. One of those times was for Halloween, the other was on stage. Both were now half a life ago during my willowy, longhaired youth when I would easily pass for a woman just walking down the street.
Thinking and looking back at those occasions, getting dressed up specifically to read as “woman” and not “man in dress” was still a challenge. Even with an easy-to-dress figure, soft features, and no issue with affecting a feminine walk, there were still a hundred details to presenting myself as womanly I had to figure out. Not just padding, make-up, and jewelry, but how to stand with my legs held demurely or how to toss my hair.
That’s why for me drag is not only about a heightened reality of womanhood and blurred gender lines, but also a reminder of the exceptional expectations the world places on every woman, every day. Women are held to a ridiculous standard of seamless beauty whenever they leave the house, always treated by some as an object which must always make itself worthy of attention.
And, if they have the temerity to appear in front of a camera? I believe the term for the world’s expectation is “picture perfect.”
Is there some hypocrisy to me – a guy who hasn’t been in a dress for many years – ranking queens who do this professionally multiple nights a week on their picture perfectness? Absolutely! At the same time, there’s a reason why I watch Drag Race and not a single other reality TV show, and that’s to see people at the height of their craft showing off their abilities.
I know that even on my best day I probably couldn’t do drag as good as the last-place contestant in any season of Drag Race. However, I’ve also done a lot of the other things they have to do to win – some professionally – and I think it’s fascinating to dissect their performances.
With that off my chest, let’s begin! [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings, S09E03 – “Draggily Ever After”
RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings, S09E02 – “She Done Already Done Brought It On”
The second episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race is packed with 14 queens, three B-52s, two cheer squads, and a weirdly out-of-place Lisa Kudrow.
It’s all a little much.
The editors are being a gaggle of tricky bitches this episode, keeping most of the stars of episode one in the background while foregrounding a new set of queens.
That makes for a big juggle in the rankings, and a bit of a mystery about who the next weak link will be after this week’s bottom two.
If you want to read more each week, please leave a comment and share on social media, okurrrrr? It’s the only way I can know anyone is out there listening, henny.
[Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings, S09E02 – “She Done Already Done Brought It On”
RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings, S09E01 – “Oh. My. Gaga!”
Oh happy day, it’s a new season of RuPaul’s Drag Race!
That’s cause for celebration in my house (well, mostly just for me, but still), but coming from a stellar season of All Stars, I can’t help but wonder: Can this season of brand new drag racers possibly stand up to what many fans have called the best season of Drag Race of all time?
I don’t know, but a good way to get things off on the right kinky book is to book Lady Gaga as the guest for your first episode.
When I first heard that Lady Gaga would be on the premiere of Drag Race, my fervent hope was that they’d go for the BBC Adele impersonator trick, gussying up Gaga as a lower-rent drag queen version of her high class drag queen self to try to fool the other contestants. The episode played at that for a moment, but it’s real use for Gaga was much more clever – they used her as the best possible judge of drag the show has ever featured. 
Short of commentary from RuPaul herself (which usually comes only in the workroom), we’ve never seen this level of consistently incisive candor from a single judge before.
But, enough about Mother Monster – how did all the little monsters fare under her tutelage? Read on for my RuPaul’s Drag Race Season Nine Week One Power Rankings.
If you want to read more each week, please leave a comment and share on social media, okurrrrr? It’s the only way I can know someone is out there listening, henny.
[Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings, S09E01 – “Oh. My. Gaga!”
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Power Rankings, S2E04 – “Drag Movie Shequels”
This week on RuPaul’s Drag Race, the queens tackled sequels of three famous camp films and brought their best two-fashions-in-one reveals to the runway.
As with last episode’s lip sync extravaganza, this episode is a greatest hits of queen performances – the weakest pair of acting jobs are still hilarious and the worst runway is gag-worthy. Uneven (some would say unfair) judging casts a pall over affairs and makes the obvious winner of the week look messy as a result.
However, none of that compares to the reveal of the final frames of the episode, which found the four eliminated queens staring back at the five remaining queens through one of their workroom mirrors. The eliminated girls are back and ready for their revenge!
And now, on to the rankings!
1. Alaska Thunderfuck 5000
Runner-Up, Season 5. Pre-Season Rank: 1. To date: 2, 1, 1. Average: 1
An acting challenge is the perfect bounceback for Alaska after a week where she would have been in the bottom if not for her shrieking alien runway outfit.
While her results were bit mixed, the show’s reflexive applause for her efforts prove that this season was designed for Alaska to win in the same way All Stars 1 was Chad’s game to lose.
Be warned, fair readers: I’m about to drag this beloved drag queen a bit despite her top ranking.
Alaska was gifted with the most gag-worthy, meme-generating character in the trio of acting scenes, Bette Davis’s legendary Baby Jane. I have to believe that this script was destined for Alaska no matter what, just like the script with the “tired old showgirl” joke was going to be Phi Phi’s (who knows what would’ve happened if they paired up).
Alaska slayed in her uncanny Baby Jane impression, which proves she could have easily done Bette Davis for Snatch Game (a Jinkx favorite on the Best of the Seasons tour). However, all the mugging as her impressive caricature made her scene also feel like the Snatch Game – it was joke-to-joke instead of moving smoothly through a story as the other two did.
While you could blame the script for the herky-jerky quality of the scene, it didn’t help that every one of Alyssa’s interjections felt like a full stop in the action. Alaska was a clear winner, but she doomed Alyssa in the process.
As for the runway, this was one of Alaska’s weakest of all time yet she got a pass for being Alaska when Alyssa got a fail for being Alyssa. The runway theme was a dual-fashion reveal, but Alaska’s lumpy trash bag burqa didn’t qualify as fashion. Beneath, she presented a decidedly inelegant take on her legendarily foul mini-challenge creation, Lil’ Poundcake. It was shabby when it should have been stunning, which would have only further sold her petulant mugging as Poundcake.
(Non-fan E caught a glimpse and said, “Well, that was pathetic.”)
Luckily, the judges love in-jokes (as do fans) so they ate it up. However, it’s insulting to see such applause for Alaska in joke-mode when everyone else in the field smoked her on reveals and were all considerably more elegant. She then delivered a lackluster, unserious lip sync on one of the best lip sync songs of all time – “Got Be Real” by Cheryl Lynn – all while Phi Phi destroyed it with perhaps the best sync of the season.
We get it Alaska – you’re a skilled impersonator, even of your own characters (including yourself). I came into this season rooting for Alaska, but after four weeks of All Stars I’m looking for something a little bit more. Hopefully Alaska delivers in spades for next week’s comedy challenge to keep some semblance of objectivity going in this race since it’s not destined to be suspenseful.
Otherwise, I’m hoping for an upset by the queen who has Charisma Uniqueness Nerve and Talent right in her name… [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Power Rankings, S2E04 – “Drag Movie Shequels”