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RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings, S09E01 – “Oh. My. Gaga!”

March 25, 2017 by krisis

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.

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Power Rankings, S2E04 – “Drag Movie Shequels”

September 16, 2016 by krisis

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.

rpdras-s2e04-queen-reveal 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

rpdras-s2e04-alaska-maxi-01 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).

rpdras-s2e04-alaska-runway-01 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.

rpdras-s2e04-alaska-runway-02 (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”

on Jeffrey Tambor, Transparent, and Transmisogyny

September 15, 2016 by krisis

This weekend the heavy favorite to take home the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series is Jeffrey Tambor, who plays a woman on Amazon’s show Transparent.

More accurately, Tambor plays a trans woman – a woman who has transitioned from being a man. It’s a stellar role on a series that spends a lot of time on voices we don’t traditionally hear from in sitcoms.

And I really, really dislike it.

Jamie Clayton and Freema Agyeman, stars of Netflix’s Sense8.

This isn’t my typical hyper-critical nature rearing its head. The show is fine. The thing I don’t like is Tambor himself in the role.

Having a cisgender man (i.e., “a person whose self-identity conforms with the gender that corresponds to their biological sex”) cast in the role of trans woman not only takes the role away from a trans actor, but also emphasizes the inherent maleness of the character. That’s a trait most trans woman characters are trying to leave behind as they live an external life aligned with their internal gender identity. If a trans actor wasn’t available for the part, a cisgender woman would be more appropriate since the truth of the character is as a woman, not a man.

No matter how much Tambor transforms into the role, we will still see him at awards ceremonies as a man. His next role will likely be as a man. Tambor is sensitive and supportive in every media appearance for the show – a true ally – but all the accolades he’s won and will continue to win for Transparent will be about how bravery and honesty of his portrayal of a woman in transition.

It would be more brave and honest to have an trans artist like the Jamie Clayton on Sense8 or Laverne Cox in Orange Is The New Black (two shows with their own set of other representational challenges).

I’ve had trouble articulating this discomfort to friends in conversation, especially as a cisgender white dude who doesn’t really have a stake in this discussion. Why do Transparent and The Dutch Girl bother me so deeply when I’m fine with the way Drag Race and Hedwig and The Angry Inch dissect gender roles with men portraying women?

Then, a few weeks ago, I came across a powerful series of tweets from writer and actress Jen Richards. Richards articulates my objections concisely and crystallizes them with additional detail. I present them here, unedited, in their entirety. [Read more…] about on Jeffrey Tambor, Transparent, and Transmisogyny

Crushing On: The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo

September 11, 2016 by krisis

Once, in high school, a teacher asked us to keep a log of all the television we watched in a week. If I recall correctly, mine tallied at 36hrs – one of the highest in the class.

A lot of that came from consuming sitcoms. This was a world before prestige dramas – the closest we had was Baltimore: Life on the Streets. Instead, there was a two hour block of comedies each night, plus a preceding two hour block of re-runs of Cheers, Seinfeld, and other modern classics.

Maybe it’s burnout from those days, but I haven’t been able to stomach a funny TV show in years aside from 30 Rock. Nothing about any of them seem remotely funny. The internet is no different – people link to amusing web series and I’m a stone face. It’s like my TV overdose permanently broke my funny bone.

Maybe that’s because sitcoms are so… situational. They depend on so many of the same archetypes being filled – the clueless dad, the vapid attractive woman, the brainy kid, the wacky sidekick of color. Even with a giant bucket of archetypes, you see a lot of the same things over and over.

That’s why I am genuinely surprised and absolutely obsessed with The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo, a TV-quality YouTube show from the mind of sketch comedy pro Brian Jordan Alvarez. It’s the funniest non-animated thing I’ve seen on a screen all year.

It’s Seinfeld-esque in being a show about nothing other than the entanglements of the titular Caleb Gallo and his group of friends – each occupying some part of the fabric of the LGBTQ community. It’s also a 30 Rock inspired show filled with fast-paced dialog, wicked wit, and occasional flights of fancy.

Here’s the first episode:

I love it. Every cast member is my favorite. Caleb has the easygoing likability of Paul Rudd crossed with Jimmy Fallon as he tries to maintain a long distance relationship with the sweet, young Benicio while pining after seemingly-straight Billy, who in turn really wants to date Caleb’s best friend Karen, a man-crazy bombshell who uses Caleb to clear out her one-night stands more quickly while she obsesses over Lenjamin, a wannabe actor who is considering being bisexual “for professional reasons” and wants to ease into dating men by being set up with Caleb’s friend, the gender-fluid Freckle.

the-gay-and-wondrous-life-of-caleb-gallo If you find yourself thinking, “Oh, a gay show. I probably won’t like it,” you need to reset your expectations. Maybe you’ve seen a clip of of a “gay” web series that was a lot of sex jokes that went over your head and you suddenly felt uncomfortable and othered.

That’s not a bad thing to experience sometimes, but that’s also not this. Gay and Wondrous Life of Jacob Gallo is a show about people first, like like Blackish and Off the Boat are shows about people. Despite all of the potential hookups, this show doesn’t find all of its humor in sex, but in relationships (though there certainly is some sexual humor, as with the erection joke that opens the episode). The misunderstandings and neuroses of all the characters aren’t unique to their sex, gender, or orientation.

While the entire cast is charming, Freckle is a scene-stealer of Jane Krakowski magnitude. It’s not because of their gender-fluid character, but because they are gifted only terrific great lines and a magnetic grin that pulls focus from everything else in view. Actor Jason Greene developed the character outside the bounds of this production, and it shows in the implied history of hijinks expressed in their twinkling eyes.

Yet, when Freckle isn’t on the screen, all of these actors are MVPs. Ken Kirby as Lenjamin is delightful in subverting the unsexy Asian guy stereotype by being a hunk that’s at the center of love triangles while also vying for the sort of parts he probably wouldn’t get cast for in real life. Stephanie Koenig as Karen bursts from the screen in every scene, her natural comfort and scarlet locks recalling Karen Gillan’s turn in the under-appreciated Selfie.

The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo was funded for five episodes, the last of which went up this week. While the fifth does resolve a few plot threads, you couldn’t be blamed for wanting more. I can’t imagine it’s making enough as a streaming show to subsidize more episodes of this visual caliber, but hopefully a web or television network gets interested and picks it up – it’s gold. A Daily Dot feature went behind the scenes of the indie production.

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Power Rankings, S2E03 – “HERstory Of The World”

September 9, 2016 by krisis

rpdras-s2e03-herstory-title-card The third week of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars brought us a lip sync extravaganza, with each queen playing a famous woman of history – Eve, Helen of Troy, Marie Antoinette, Catherine the Great, Annie Oakley, Eva Perón, and Princess Diana. (Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, and Frida Kahlo were earmarked for the departed girls.)

These group lip syncs are some of the most scripted performances on the show – each queen needs to hit a set of pre-determined lyrics with a dictated look and choreographed dance steps.

That leaves limited room for creativity (unless they’re choreographing themselves), but a whole lot of opportunity to mess up on execution.

How did our queens fare in this cooperative endeavor after the ultimate in “every girl for herself” last week in Snatch Game?

1. Alaska Thunderfuck 5000

Runner-Up, Season 5. Pre-Season Rank: 1. To date: 2, 1

This was an average showing for Alaska – maybe even an off week? Yet, it’s still clear she inhabits a different plain than the majority of her opponents.

Her lip syncing as Eve was far and away the weakest of the entire bunch, despite a showy and altogether hilarious dance performance. There were clear missed and misaligned words if you watch closely, especially during her strut to center stage. That’s despite her Britney-knockoff tune having one of the most straightforward pop arrangements of all the songs. She also wasn’t especially noticeable in the background of the other girls’ performances, either. rpdras-s2e03-alaska-runway-1

Her saving grace was the runway, even though runway didn’t save a similarly weak performance for Detox last week. Alaska’s runway was an imaginative and complete alien vision that nods to Sharon Needles’ final runway of Season 4 with long tentacled fingers. She wasn’t headed to the bottom two with a look that on-theme that wisely broke out of the expected silver box the other girls were in.

With a dance challenge out of the way, can anything else possible derail Alaska? Only if some of the queens on her tail start delivering a string of flawless performances – particularly the next one… [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Power Rankings, S2E03 – “HERstory Of The World”