Drag Race Sverige Season 1

Drag Race Sverige Season 1, Episode 8 – Sweden Grand Finale, “Queen Delicious” runway, & season retrospective

April 25, 2023 by krisis

Welcome to my review, recap, and power rankings of the eighth episode of Drag Race Sverige Season 1 – the Drag Race Sweden Grand Finale!

Drag Race Sverige Season 1 was a unique season with many high points but several unavoidable lows – including a last-minute lack of nerve in the finale.

Let’s start with the highest of highs: Sverige crowned not only the most-deserving queen, but a queen with one of the most entertaining personalities in the history of Drag Race.

If this season was being viewed by as many fans as an American franchise, Admira Thunderpussy would’ve coined more memes than Alyssa Edward herself. She never wasted a single second of camera time, either on stage or in her confessionals.

The second high point of the season was host Robert Fux. Everything about Fux was entertaining and heartfelt, from his too-earnest rhyming video messages to his audacious runway package.

Fux had perhaps the best season of runways we’ve seen on a host since Mathu Andersen used to do RuPaul’s styling. Even then, Ru was never as avant garde as Fux.

The high point of Fux as a host was highlighted in this Sweden Grand Finale episode, which repurposed the standard “tic tac lunch” with the host into a full-on out-of-drag meeting with the judges panel in the workroom. Though brief, the segment felt surprisingly revealing and personal compared to the curated version of final out-of-drag interviews we get from Ru-hosted seasons.

The third high point of the season was the quality of the challenges. From an absurd opening mini-challenge photo-shot to a pair of slickly-produced songs to an acting challenge with an actual script, Sverige always gave its queens solid material to work with (which I’m sure was in no small part due to Fux himself and his experience as a playwright and producer).

The final high point is that the show never played it safe with bottom placements. If a queen was obviously the worst in the challenge or the runway, she was headed for a lip sync even if her narrative would suggest she was due a questionable safe placement.

That led to a number of shocking eliminations and improbable survivals. As much as we’ll likely always complain about Antonina Nutshell outlasting Imaa Queen and Santana Sexmachine, that same ruthless fairmindedness gave us Fontana in the Sweden Grand Finale, where she proved she really had been one of the top queens all season long.

However, the biggest low point could sometimes eclipse the many positives: it didn’t feel like most of this cast was ready for the global primetime the way we’ve seen from other new franchises like Belgique, France, and Philippines. There were several queens who simply weren’t at the level of polish and experience that Drag Race demands, not to mention one queen drag who seemed to be opposed the show’s entire concept.

In retrospect, it feels as though producers they weren’t even able to fill out a full cast of 10 from Sweden’s drag scene for their episode order, which is why they had nine queens that included a pair of “bedroom queens” and an early comeback challenge when none of the eliminated queens deserved to come back.

As a result, sometimes the lines felt blurred between the race being fixed for our winner versus her being the the only queens who arrived ready to compete at RuPaul’s Drag Race standards (even when she was handily beaten in the finale).

My takeaway from this season is that Sweden’s drag has a very different aesthetic than we’ve seen on any other country. Other than Admira Thunderpussy (and occasionally Fontana), none of them delivered looks that were anything like American drag race looks all season.

For Imaa, that meant repurposed recycled materials into signature couture unlike anything else we’ve ever seen from the show. For Santana that meant a blend of sex, camp, and a dash of danger. Elecktra delivered a small, surprisingly unglitzy version of “showgirl” that felt like it could’ve traveled in time from RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 2. Similarly, Vanity basically did bar drag in a way we haven’t seen on Drag Race for over a decade.

All of their aesthetics would have looked out of place on any other Drag Race franchise, but even with the wild differences between the four of them they all fit together in an odd way here on Sverige. I got the impression that Sweden’s drag has no pageant influence on it whatsoever, nor does it obsess over high fashion. That meant the queen didn’t automatically lean into wearing ballgowns, nor did they feel the need to stone every inch of their outfits.

That led to some looks that seemed deglammed compared to other franchises, but it also felt like a level playing field in a way that no Drag Race season has felt in a long time.

I started this season of Power Rankings at a significant deficit – there were no Meet The Queens interviews with this cast! Not even a promo video! All we had to go by were single photos and the queens’ social media presence. Yet, I still managed to predict 3 out of the top 4 queens correctly as well as the first two outs in my Pre-Season ranking, including our winner! (I also got all of the final three Sweden Grand Finale placements right in my final Power Ranking, last week.)

Keep reading for a quick retrospective on each queen of Sverige. Then, come back later this week for my recap of the second episode of Drag Race España Season 3! That will be our only franchise for another week while we await the kickoff of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 8 on May 12.

(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 Sverige Season 1, Episode 7 – “Diva Assoluta” acting challenge Review & Power Rankings

April 18, 2023 by krisis

Welcome to my review, recap, and power rankings of the seventh episode of Drag Race Sverige (AKA Drag Race Sweden) Season 1 – “Diva Assoluta.” It’s a farcical whodunit acting challenge paired with a “Drama Queen” runway that invited the queens to present their most memorable outfits yet.

It’s always hard to appreciate a Drag Race scripted challenge in a foreign language, partly because you can’t catch all of the inflections and hesitations, but partly because the comedic moments are packed with rhythms and references that just don’t translate. However, even with the language barrier, the ranking of these four queens and their performances seemed obvious to me – I completely agreed with the judges.

I can’t say I was extremely entertained by this challenge, but the script seemed more coherent than the typical Drag Race standard. Maybe that’s down to Robert Fux being an actor and playwright. I’d bet anything he took a polish pass on the script before it was printed out for the queens!

I’ve been skeptical of some of the judging this season, but I was satisfied by how fairly things unfurled in this episode. I think RuPaul would’ve found a way to cut Fontana in favor of keeping the steady Elecktra, who seems like a more legitimate challenger to Admira Thunderpussy.

Yet, Fontana is on a late-season surge and showed nerves of steel throughout every element of this episode. She deserved to stay, and I’m happy that the show didn’t make up and excuse to eliminate her.

This episode’s results completely flipped my power rankings from last week’s makeover episode! I’m not sure that means much with such an obvious front-runner, but this season has surprised me many times over already. Who knows what next week holds in store!?

(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 Sverige Season 1, Episode 6 – “Dream Sisters” makeover challenge Review & Power Rankings

April 11, 2023 by krisis

Welcome to my review, recap, and power rankings of the sixth episode of Drag Race Sverige (AKA Drag Race Sweden) Season 1 – “Dream Sisters.” It’s the standard Drag Race makeover challenge with a substantially beefy set of sisters-to-be in the form of a pair of Swedish Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighters and their gym buddies.

The results were by far the most-hilarious episode of Drag Race we’ve had so far in 2023. Between Admira Thunderpussy’s constant deadpan antics and Fontana’s ongoing meltdown over whether her partner will shave his bushy eyebrows, you could find yourself laughing out loud through entire swaths of this episode’s workroom antics.

Admira was on fire this episode with a literal and metaphorical straight man to play off of. When her partner tries on corsets and pads and asks her “How do you put up with this?” she dryly replies “I usually think about my invoices when I do this.”

Later, while instructing her partner on his runway walk, she strikes a pose and exclaims, “Ah! I’m the world’s most beautiful! Everyone else can die! Ha ha ha!”

Every word out of her mouth is iconic. She is like a Disney cartoon villain come to life.

In the midst of all the comedy, Fontana has a surprisingly nuanced character arc as she gets to know her makeover partner. He confesses that he used to be that straight guy – who used “gay” and “homo” as slurs, who judged queer people, and didn’t understand why there ought to be a Pride parade.

As her partner shares his journey to acceptance, Fontana goes through her own journey both live with him in the workroom and in her confessionals. This is the sort of straight man who taught her to fear straight men! She can’t help but be triggered merely by his presence, and especially by his story You can see the panic of PTSD washing over her in her wide eyes and set jaw as he tells his story. She adds in voiceover, “In the real world, I’d never dare to hang out with a guy like that. I was so scared. Guys like him are always so mean to me.”

Even as he gradually reveals how he discovered his own version of being an ally, Fontana can’t decide how she feels about it. She’s not wrong to be hesitant. Her partner’s story essentially centers his observation of queer trauma as the turning point to acceptance. It’s nice to acknowledge someone else is a human being when you see them be hurt, but it would be even better to accept their humanity without having to see them in pain.

Yet, this story does have a happy ending, with Fontana’s partner forcefully proclaiming, “I want to leave behind the person I was and grow to become someone better!” In that moment, you can see Fontana find some joy but also some steely resolve to make this partnership work – not just to win the challenge, but to show people watching the power of embracing allyship.

I don’t think her partner wasn’t trying to center himself and his feelings in the story of his journey. His whole point is that he wants to learn and transform, and in sharing his story he wants to help other people get to that place without needing to wait to be inspired by a queer person’s trauma like he was.

Fontana channels her newfound kinship into a surprising performance while Admira can’t translate her humor onto the runway, which leaves our power rankings severely shaken compared to last week’s “Dragodi Festival” Girl Groups episode. What does that mean with just one more episode before the finale? It feels like we have our winner locked in, but there might be a shocking entrant in the runner up position!

(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 Sverige Season 1, Episode 5 – “The Dragodi Festival” Review & Power Ranking

April 4, 2023 by krisis

Welcome to my review, recap, and power rankings of the fifth episode of Drag Race Sverige (AKA Drag Race Sweden) Season 1 – “The Dragodi Festival.” It’s a Girl Groups challenge in the form of a Eurovision qualifying round, with a reveals-on-reveals runway theme.

This season of RuPaul’s Drag Race featured one of the most-obvious frontrunners of all time in Sasha Colby, but it still felt competitive and fun. Even if Sasha is the obvious winner, we still got to see some other high-achieving queens do well for themselves. The show never cut Sasha any slack and made sure to bring the fiercest-of-the-fierce competition to the finale.

Don’t worry, you’re reading the right post: this is about Drag Race Sverige! However, I bring up Sasha and her winning run because production’s hand in steering a Sasha-friendly outcome could not often be felt. That’s not the case here on Sverige, which seems to be doing anything within its power to produce a result that honors the local drag legends over edgy upstarts or newer queens.

I don’t know how else to explain the totally nonsensical judging of the past few episodes. There’s making each episode count on its own, and then there’s totally ignoring the challenge and runway criteria to produce the result that favors your slightly-boring designated frontrunner.

Last episode, Imaa Queen had one of the worst three Snatch Game performances but one of the best runways, and was sent to lip sync. That makes sense – even the best runway cannot save you from a bad challenge performance! Yet, tonight the best runway saved one of the worst challenge performances, and another weak challenge performance with a weak runway was saved from lip syncing.

The chaotic judging means we’ve lost the two most-revolutionary queens in a row, leaving us with three competent but slightly-dull showgirls as front-runners and a pair of younger queens who lack the nerve (and style) to win the season. To be fair, two of those top three were my top picks at the start of the season, and the third I said could surprise us if her drag wasn’t too boring.

As it turns out, slightly-boring drag might be exactly what this season is looking for. Okay, maybe that’s a little bit cruel. What I mean is that the judging might be telling us something about Sweden’s drag culture that promo photo shoots and social media can’t. It feels like Sverige is very focused on longevity. It has paid homage to classics and idols, both in how it addresses its queens and in the way it has treated its guest judges. Perhaps as a first season in a drag season with a clear divide between traditional showgirls and punk queens there was never any way for the latter to defeat the former.

What does that mean for our Power Rankings? Who cares! Only one queen maintains her ranking compared to Snatch Game, but much like Snatch Game we’re playing a game where show where everything’s made up and the points don’t matter.

(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 Sverige Season 1, Episode 4 – “Snatch Game” & Mitt Liv Som Tant runway Review & Power Ranking

March 28, 2023 by krisis

Welcome to my review, recap, and power rankings of the fourth episode of Drag Race Sverige (AKA Drag Race Sweden) Season 1 – “Snatch Game,” Sweden’s first try at the iconic Drag Race improv comedy challenge. It was paired with a Mitt Liv Som Tant runway, which translates literally to “My Life as an Aunt” but in the subtitles was “My Life as a Golden Girl.”

Content warning for this episode: the “Elimination Day” workroom scene after Snatch Game and before the runway includes a graphic discussion of sexual assault and sexual violence.

I get frustrated when Drag Race is an entertaining reality show first and a serious competition second. I react negatively whenever a season trends towards making things a game of random chance.

This episode combined two elements that tend to turn me off: bringing back an eliminated queen and making a surprising elimination.

Bringing back an eliminated queen doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. It’s what gave us more of Trixie in Season 7. It created amazing dramatic tension with Latrice’s return in All Stars Season 4 and Silky’s battle to conquer lip sync island on All Stars Season 6.

It’s a mechanic best used when a season has seen some queens eliminated early who felt like they they had more to offer to the show – either as drag queens or as personalities. Even less notable returns from Carmen Carrera or Joe Black still gave us iconic Drag Race moments, because they brought back great characters.

Yet, on Sverige it has felt like all three queens left with reasonable justification: Almighty Aphroditey for being too green, Antonina Nutshell for struggling with the runways, and Endigo for struggling to show confidence while in drag. All three of them brought some amount of certain “not ready for prime time” awkwardness to the show that the other queens never displayed. That’s not a statement about the quality of their drag, just about how prepared they and their packaged seemed to be for the rigors of Drag Race.

As a result, we had a Top 6 who felt like the strongest competitors in this race. Even if the show had already accounted for a returning queen mechanism, if ever there was a time to hold that in reserve an episode longer this was it! No matter who left this episode, they would be someone who had more to show.

Instead, we have a returning queen who already feels hopelessly outmatched by the competition. She proceeded to bomb Snatch Game and the Mitt Liv Som Tant old lady runway, but she was kept by Robert Fux and the judges thanks to a desperate, over-the-top lip sync win against the show’s frontrunner.

I’m not arguing in favor of protecting an early front-runner who makes a stumble – that winds up just as frustrating as an unfair early elimination! However, as a viewer I feel like I’ve lost the chance to see more of the best drag Sweden has to offer.

That outcome detracts from what was a solid, entertaining first Snatch Game from Sweden! Not only did several queens deliver comedic performances, but Robert Fux was a delightful host who upheld his end of the absurd game of improv with both the queens and the Snatch Game “contestants.”

Of course, the unusual developments of this episode shook up my power rankings from last week’s design challenge. With our front-running no longer in the race it’s not only a toss-up for who will come out on top, but there’s a sudden chance for a safe queen to sneak her way into the top three of the season.

(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!