drag

Krisis covers RuPaul's Drag Race, international Drag Race, Dragula, and more in their incredibly in-depth essays and recaps on Drag.

RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings, S09E06 – “Snatch Game”

April 29, 2017 by krisis

Every mysterious new season of RuPaul’s Drag Race comes with one hotly anticipated standard episode: Snatch Game!

Based on the 60s TV gameshow Match Game, RuPaul introduced his version of the game in Season 2 and it’s been back every season since (save for All Stars 1, which substituted a similar celebrity impersonator take on Laugh In).

Snatch Game has two simple rules – transform into a celebrity, and make them funny. It’s a make-or break live improv challenge that tends to elevate certain queens from the rest of the pack for the remainder of the season and create quotes that fans will call back to for years.

Last night’s episode delivered another callback to past seasons – a redux of Season 8’s “Night of a Thousand Madonnas” runway theme, which served up four different kimono looks based on the “Nothing Really Matters” video and Drowned World Tour.

With 11 queens in the race already forewarned to avoid the kimono could we avoid duplicates entirely? I don’t know, but I hope this runway becomes a fixture of every season just like Snatch Game. And girls, you betta watch out, because there is no one that knows their Madonna better than your author – except for maybe Michelle Visage … and we’ve both been served with cease and desists by Madge.

The combination of Snatch and Madonna was last seen in 2000, with Miss M lending “Lucky Star” to the soundtrack of her then-husband Guy Ritchie’s film. In the 2017 edition, it catapulted a new queen to the top of the rank after last week, plus shuffled a pair of queens at the bottom.

Who’s that girl? Let’s find out!

RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings, S09E05 – “Reality Stars: The Musical”

April 22, 2017 by krisis

This week on Drag Race, the queens were faced with an all-syncing, all-dancing tribute to The Kardashians and a faux fur runway.

These pre-choreographed lip sync challenges rarely give any queens a chance to shine, but this week’s was a bit different since almost all of the girls got to impersonate a current celebrity.

Or, at least, I hear they are celebrities. Other than being vaguely aware that one of them is married to Kanye West and that another was a Drag Race judge, I really don’t have the slightest idea of who any of the Kardashians are.

Meanwhile, faux fur was a fail, with most queens looking rather slapdash in their attempt to mix and match fabric and fake animal skins.

Did anyone come out of this week looking good? Three queens rose from last week’s standings, although one was really more about sinking less than her competitors than rising. [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings, S09E05 – “Reality Stars: The Musical”

RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings, S09E04 – “Good Morning Bitches”

April 15, 2017 by krisis

This week of RuPaul’s Drag Race felt like a bit of a letdown after last week, despite a pretty lively challenge.

That’s not entirely the fault of the final Lip Sync, which saw British queen Charlie Hides completely give up any chance to save her spot in the show with an already-defeated lip sync.

Part of the problem was also a stilted edit, which gave us only little time with one of the two morning show teams. A basic Naughty Nighty runway theme flew by.

The queens tackled the central challenge with aplomb, hosting a live morning show filled with back-and-forth repartee and little room for error. The show-within-a-show laid bare one of Drag Race‘s big weaknesses – their silly scripted challenges. All eight of the queens who had to adhere to a stricter script were duds, and one of the teams was sandbagged with a dour set of scripted anchor personalities. Meanwhile, all four queens allowed to sass up their cooking and DIY segments were a hilarious success.

I’ve got Drag Race‘s writers in the bottom of the rankings this week, but the top of the race is getting thrilling. Three queens seem to be getting comfortable at the top of the ranks, while two contenders are losing steam again a newly risen queen suddenly back in contention.

Want to know who’s who in that assessment? Keep reading!

RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings, S09E03 – “Draggily Ever After”

April 8, 2017 by krisis

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”

April 1, 2017 by krisis

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.