Welcome to my review, recap, and power rankings of the tenth episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15 – “50/50’s Most Gagworthy Stars.” It’s a spoof of the inimitable Barbara Walter’s celebrity-focused interview specials on 20/20, her Friday-evening news magazine show. Plus, a long-awaited and much-requested “Night of 1000 Beyoncés” runway.
This episode’s challenge impressed me on a conceptual level. I love when Drag Race invents new challenge formats and rumixes old ones.
We’ve had queens host their own interview shows before, as with Season 6’s infamous interview of Georgia Holt and Chaz Bono. However, this talk show boasted multiple formats and multiple celebrities (even if all three of them are long-time friends of the show).
The idea of having queens out on a golfcart and in a kitchen segment was a brilliant way to get them out of the interview chair, and to reflect the range of opportunities that today’s queens receive post-show. Drag is as mainstream as it has ever been even as conservatives try to outlaw it as a way to attack transgender people across dozens of statrs. Queens need to be ready to be visible and vulnerable on either side of these goofy segments of cooking, driving a golf cart, or exercising.
I wasn’t as impressed with the queens themselves as I was with the challenge concept.
Look: interviewing is hard, especially when your subject ranges from easily-distracted to actively-hostile to the idea of being interviewed. Anyone who has a chatty friend with a huge personality knows this feeling. You need to toe a fine line between investigative journalism and improv comedy to keep the conversation on track without it turning into a monologue.
Of the entire cast, it was evident that only Loosey LaDuca had the chops to manage that sort of chaotic situation. While Loosey had the easiest interview subject in Frankie Grande, I have no doubt she would have done just as well with Charo or Love Connie. However, even more than Loosey, Sasha Colby showed an ability to think on her feet to create TV alchemy.
What does that mean for our Power Rankings as the field tightens from eight queens down to seven? Unsurprisingly, our solid Top Four hasn’t changed since last week’s Crystal Ball even if there has been some slight shuffling. The real contest at the moment isn’t about who will make it to the finale, but who will manage to hang on for a fifth place finish!
Readers, start your engines. And, may the best drag queen win! [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15, Episode 10 – “50/50’s Most Gagworthy Stars” and Night of 1000 Beyoncés runway Review & Power Ranking