Power Rankings

Drag Race Philippines Season 1 Episode 3 – Pop Off Ate!: Review & Power Ranking

August 25, 2022 by 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?)

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

Drag Race Philippines Season 1 Episode 2 – SagalAmazon: Review & Power Ranking

August 23, 2022 by krisis

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.

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

RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under Season 2, Episode 4 – Snatch Game: Review & Power Ranking

August 21, 2022 by krisis

Kia ora and welcome to my review and power rankings for the fourth episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under Season 2 – Snatch Game!

Snatch Game is one of the most-celebrated episodes of every season of Drag Race. That’s not only for the laughs and memes that it brings, but because it is the one challenge queens can prepare for the most. Even when RuPaul slightly changes up the format, Snatch Game is always a challenge about celebrity impersonation and being ridiculous.

I’ve come to appreciate that Snatch Game is also an interesting window into the national humor of each country and its drag scene. That was slightly muted in this panel of contestants, because only one of them chose to portray a New Zealand or Australian celebrity – and, that choice came with its own set of challenges.

Spankie Jackzon brought Barry Humphries to Snatch Game, who has been primarily known outside of Australia for decades as a drag character named Dame Edna Everage. This is down to Drag Race‘s rules around playing copyrighted characters. The idea is that as long as you claim to be playing the actor behind the copyrighted character that Snatch Game is a fair parody. The show wants to avoid legal trouble for portraying a character without legal release… sometimes saying inappropriate things.

While Humphries certainly wears drag to portray Dame Edna, who he created in 1955, to my knowledge he does not considered himself a drag queen. He happens to portray an over-the-top female character, which has links to British Panto.

In the case of Dame Edna as a drag character, I’m not aware of her having any connection to gay or queer culture or making commentary on same. She is simply a parody of a woman – at first a Melbourne suburbanite, but from the 80s onward a sort of self-made media mogul fitting for the time period. She became sort of daft but incisive response to the heartless conservative power-ladies of the Thatcher era

Adding another layer to all of that, Humphries lives publicly as a straight, cisgender male, and he has repeatedly and unapologetically made transphobic comments in recent years. It reached a point that a famous Australian comedy award named in his honor decided to retitle itself.

People of any sexual orientation or gender identity can perform in drag. However, performing in drag is not a shield for being deliberately cruel or offensive, or to protect your bigoted views.

I share this background not only to catch you up on the only actual Australian character on the panel this year, but also as a means of exploring Spankie’s portrayal of Humphries as Dame Edna. As an impersonation, it was perfect. I’ve seen a fair amount of Edna back in the day, and if you had told me this was the real deal making a guest appearance on Drag Race I would have believed you.

If you listen to Spankie’s answers, you’ll note a lot of slang about female genitalia and how Edna’s has aged. I haven’t watched Edna’s act recently enough to recall if this is a big part of it or Spankie’s own invention. However, what stuck out to me is that this is the sort of overt parody of womanhood that leads some folks to label drag performances as misogynistic.

Drag Race itself engaged in this sort of misogynistic commentary more often in earlier seasons, as well as language that we would now all label as transphobic. Comparing the sorts of things the judges would say on Season 1-4 to today reveals how different the dialog around queerness, drag, and transgender people has become.

Of course, I’m also writing about a regular challenge on a female impersonation show called “Snatch Game.” There’s always an element of transgression in drag.

What’s fascinating about that is we have no way of knowing how meta Spankie intended her performance of Edna to be. Was she intentionally leaning into the offensive aspects of an elderly, bigoted man playing an elderly panto dame, making outdated jokes? Was that also a commentary on Drag Race itself? Or, was this her literal interpretation of Edna, with no comedy attached? Or, yet again, was this Edna speaking with Spankie’s voice, saying things Spankie thinks are funny?

I have no answers for you. Nor am I trying to engender any negativity or blame towards Spankie! To me, this is one of those moments that is so fascinating about Drag Race, where it has become the very thing it is commenting upon. I think it’s important that we don’t just view the show as entertainment or as a showcase for drag art, but as a conversation about gender – and, one that sometimes can be uncomfortable or even offensive.

Last week, Spankie Jackzon conquered my Episode Three rankings. Has she held onto her top spot, or did someone else snatch the pole position from her? Read on to find out – and let me know if you agree (or disagree) in the comments below.

If you want to watch RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under Season 2 outside of Australia, New Zealand, 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 Down Under drag queen win!

Drag Race Philippines Season 1 Episode 1 – Mabu-Heeey! Review & Power Ranking

August 20, 2022 by krisis

Mabuhay! Welcome to my review and power rankings of the debut episode of Drag Race Philippines Season 1 – Mabu-Heeey!

This episode was utterly packed with content: entrance looks, a Dragna superhero photo shoot challenge, a Totally Exciting Talent Extravaganza, and a runway based around the Terno – the Philippines national dress.

That gives us more to discuss in this episode than we get in a typical Ball challenge, and this is with all twelve queens!

That’s a lot to put queens through in the first episode of a regular season. However, it also served to effectively stratify the cast, giving them plenty of opportunities to show their quality across different situations – and, leading to a relatively obvious and fair first elimination.

There’s not much else to say before we get down to ranking all of these queens through each of the four hurdles of the episode, which definitely shifted things from my speculative Pre-Season ranking. Even though the show premiered two episodes at once, I am 100% spoiler-free on the second episode as of this writing! I’ll be back with that second ranking early in the week.

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

Canada’s Drag Race Season 3 Episode 6 – Cosmetic Queens: Review & Power Ranking

August 19, 2022 by krisis

Welcome to my review and power rankings of the sixth episode of Canada’s Drag Race Season 3 – Cosmetic Queens, a combination make-up and branding challenge.

Every season of Drag Race comes with some form of branding challenge, but it’s rare that queens are given a make-up maxi-challenge outside of making over someone else. While they have to dress themselves up for different roles in Rusicals and Snatch Game, I feel like there’s an unspoken rule that a queen’s beat is a queen’s beat. Outside of critiques aimed at improvement, the show isn’t looking to change that.

This challenge wasn’t looking to change how the queens do their make-up, but it came with some restrictions. Each queen chose a palette of six signature colors to craft a product, an accompanying face of make-up for a marketing photo, and a 20-second commercial to sell the product.

This is more relevant than ever with make-up products from drag queens turning into big business around the world. In America, Season 8’s Kim Chi recently expanded her make-up line into CVS stores around the country! Even for queens who aren’t going to start their own business, the ability to quickly assemble a pitch for a potential brand collab is an essential skill for all Drag Race graduates.

That yielded a wide range of results from the queens. Some of them were more focused on comedy than sales, while others were obsessed with creating a personal story. The queens who did the best in the challenge were uniformly the ones who didn’t do anything all that different with their make-up, but who also didn’t forget to sell the make-up.

(Also, I have to point out that co-host Traci Melchor had a sudden breakthrough in this episode! Typically, Traci sounds very scripted, to the point of being stilted. This week but she was an outstanding director who helped queens realize their vision. She gave so many good tips about how to position themselves, how to work the camera, and how to deliver lines. Her status as a veteran TV presenter really shone through. And, she was genuinely emotional during the runway segment. Let’s not forget: hosts and presenters are people, too! I think it’s exciting to see Traci level up in her Drag Race skills just as watching Brooke’s looseness as a host this season has been a real joy.)

The challenge gave us an unsurprising elimination, even if it was a queen who wasn’t at the bottom of my ranks last week, plus one meteoric rise of a queen gunning for a spot in the finals. Do we actually have our final three locked in? Perhaps…

If you want to watch Canada’s Drag Race Season 3 outside of Canada and the UK 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 US you will need to use a VPN to “visit” another country to see the US Franchise.)

Readers, start your engines! And, may the best Queen (of the North) win!