Power Rankings

RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under Season 2, Episode 6 – Hometown Hunnies: Review & Power Ranking

September 4, 2022 by krisis

Kia ora and welcome to my review and power rankings for the sixth episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under Season 2 – Hometown Hunnies, where queens were challenged to create a spoof tourism ad for their hometowns.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen another episode of Drag Race where RuPaul seemed so incredibly over it, both in the workroom and on the runway.

Maybe that comes down to how the queens took the direction to create their spoof ads. All of them understood the challenge in an incredibly literal way and were initially planning straight-forward homages to their hometowns with little bits of humor. Ru sets them straight one-by-one in the workroom, telling each one of them to go back to the drawing board with limited time before their shoot begins.

We all know Ru loves to keep the queens second-guessing themselves, but the fact that she needed to correct everyone in the cast tells me there was some form of missed communication from production to the queens. Maybe that was intentional, or maybe Ru and the production team simply assumed the “spoof” aspect of the ads was implied right up until Ru’s walk-around.

I think there’s a little bit of a cultural aspect mixed in with that. I feel like if the US franchise asked a queen to talk about her home town, she would be more likely to assume it was mean to be a silly version and script it as such.

For Australia and New Zealand, I feel like there’s a lot more pride in wanting to make your town look good – especially on an international stage. Even though almost all of them do take an initially negative view of their hometowns (Beverly, especially), at first they all seemed mor- focused on explaining their places rather than telling a story about themselves.

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen this many awkward moments in a Drag Race judges’ critique that didn’t end in RuPaul screaming about H&M. It feels like the editors could barely piece together enough comments from the three judges to fill the time. Maybe that’s down to Ru’s openly hostile reception to most of the ads (again, stemming from poor direction). Or, it could’ve been the super-basic “Swimsuit Edition” runway prompt, which feels like it was originally intended for a mini-challenge or third ball look. To their credit, all of the queens took things in a conceptual direction with their swimsuits, but the prompt definitely failed to produce a gag-worthy moment – and, it gave the judges very little to discuss.

That leaves us with a fairly obvious Final Four, as predicted in last week’s “Bosom Buddies” Power Rankings (and the week before that in Snatch Game, and the week before that in Drag Brunch). The real question is who will graduate to the Top 3 in the finale after next week’s episode. Two of the choices seem very obvious, while the other one is still hotly contested.

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!

Canada’s Drag Race Season 3 Episode 8 – Masquerade Ball, Review & Power Ranking

September 2, 2022 by krisis

Welcome to my review and power rankings of the eighth episode of Canada’s Drag Race Season 3 – the Masquerade Ball, a classic Drag Race ball episode requiring three runway looks, including one constructed in the workroom.

I often comment that Canada’s Drag Race feels like old-school RuPaul’s Drag Race from the era of it airing on Logo TV. You could ask, “Is that a read?” about it feeling low budget compared to the current flagship franchise. For me, it’s more about the show having a certain scrappy, DIY energy.

Also, sometimes it’s unforgivingly difficult.

When I think about Drag Race at its hardest, I always flash back to RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 3 as the most-difficult season of all time, where the queens looked like they were on the verge of a nervous breakdown when Ru announced the “Money Ball” hot on the heels of the “Hair Ball.”

I imagine that’s what the five remaining queens of Canada’s Drag Race must have felt when they heard the final hurdle before the finale was the Masquerade Ball – a third design challenge in just eight competitive episodes. That’s not only difficult, but also surprising, since it means this season left out not one but two staple challenges of Canada that would be welcomed by several of these queens: an acting challenge and their phenomenally heartfelt makeover challenge, which have been the highlights of the past two seasons.

Sending the queens back to their sewing machines and glue guns for a third time yielded interesting results. Our two seamstresses backslid while two of the remaining trio of Glue Gun Girls stepped up their games in a major way.

Maybe the seamstresses had design fatigue at this point. Or, maybe Masquerade Ball is just a difficult category to design – as were both of the ball categories paired with it! We wound up with a shakey set of constructed looks, a surprising winner, a shocking entrant in the bottom two, and one of the biggest lip sync bops of the season.

Next week is the finale of Canada’s Drag Race! Did any queen manage to jostle her way into a new spot compared to last week’s rankings? And, who do I think is most-likely to take the crown? Read on to find out!

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!

Drag Race Philippines Season 1 Episode 4 – OPM Divas: The Rusical, Review & Power Ranking

September 1, 2022 by krisis

Mabuhay! Welcome to my review and power rankings of the fourth episode of Drag Race Philippines Season 1 – “OPM Divas: The Rusical.” This is a lip sync Rusical where each queen needs to impersonate an iconic Philippines pop star by lip syncing to nursery rhymes performed in their signature style.

OPM refers to “Original Pilipino Music” – a particular style of Filipino post-1970s pop songs heavy on soulful balladry. This is one of those times where no amount of YouTube research can adequately prepare me to fairly judge the results of a Drag Race challenge from an international edition of the show.

I tried my best to find comparable looks and performances from all of the OPM Divas to better appreciate the impersonations, but some of these Divas have been around for decades – long enough that we could have a whole Rusical dedicated solo to them the way we have had for Cher and Madonna on the US franchise.

Even this mini-challenge was completely new to me! It was a game of “Ten-Twenty Talon Becky,” a reverse-limbo street game of hopping, leaping, and eventually cartwheeling over a Chinese garter. (A “Chinese garter,” is simply a rubberized elastic band you can use for stretching and/or jumping rope.) I couldn’t imagine how the queens were going to make it over the belt once it got up to eyeball-level – and that’s where the cartwheels came in! If you get even a toe over the rubbery line, your momentum and its elasticity takes care of the rest.

The mini-challenges this season have showed off how good-natured and downright silly this cast can be, which is easily obscured by how seriously they all take their runway assignments. I cannot think of another season of any franchise where an entire cast of queens have been so gamely foolish for physical challenge like the pole-climbing and the Chinese garter.

The willingness to be awkward on camera feels unique to the Philippines cast, but it also helps that the mini-challenges are rooted in their culture and their sense of childhood play. Compare that to the typical US mini-challenges, which tend to be either games that Ru (a man in her 60s) finds personally entertaining or full of sexual innuendo (if not both).

This episode also showed that the Philippines franchise is not above outright riggory to create drama in critiques.

As I understand it, every queen had advance knowledge of two Divas they might impersonate, but they didn’t have a say in the final choice or in the style of song and how it would be choreographed. Many Filipino Divas are known for being Celine-Dion-adjacent balladeers, which gave some queens less to work with than others.

Minty Fresh, in particular, felt stuck with a performance that could only accentuate the “Wake Up, Pearl!” narrative that she’s been saddled with. Similarly, Lady Morgana landed the most world-famous of all the Divas, but that Diva is such a chameleon that Morgana couldn’t possibly capture her within 45 seconds of impersonation.

Finally, there were some queens who were protected from critiques to yield the elimination the show wanted tonight, which might not have been 100% warranted based on the episode but which made sense in the arc of the season.

Did all that riggory that wreak major havoc on my Power Rankings compared to Episode Three? Read on to find out!

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 4 – OPM Divas: The Rusical, Review & Power Ranking

RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under Season 2, Episode 5 – Bosom Buddies: Review & Power Ranking

August 28, 2022 by krisis

Kia ora and welcome to my review and power rankings for the fifth episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under Season 2 – Bosom Buddies, a classic Girl Group challenge of writing and recording a verse on a pop song.

I think fans all often overlook the fact that there’s a songwriter locked in a tiny room somewhere writing these girl group tracks on demand for Drag Race. It’s a daunting task! They have to come up with an idea that feels in-genre and on-trend, that can fit in a number of additional verses, but that’s not too good of an idea or else they’d want to sell it for use as an actual song!

I think “Bosom Buddies” joins the pantheon of the best Girl Group challenge tracks, presided over by the spectacular “Break Up (Bye Bye).” This song hits the perfect spot of a snotty, pop-punk Charlie XCX or Olivia Rodrigo tune that gives a nod to its grungy forebears likeAvril Lavigne and Veruca Salt. I would absolutely listen to it outside of the context of a Drag Race recap.

This episode included some tense interpersonal drama between Beverly Kills and Kween Kong. Beverly Kills was being young and overconfident to try to psyche herself up for a win, but that crossed the line to taunting the similarly-pressed Kween Kong and then later blaming her for snapping back.

I felt for Kween Kong in this moment. It feels like she is a queen who constantly has the expectations and assumptions of others piled onto her. I’m sure that’s down to many reasons, including being a queen of color in an overwhelmingly white space, and being such a handsome and masc-presenting man who performs in drag.

It was sad to watch this moment of reality show conflict become a trigger for Kween Kong, sending her into a spiral of negativity as she prepared for the main stage. I know some people would celebrate her turning out a strong performance after that setback. While I celebrate her success, I recognize it as a moment of sadness. This is a burden Kween has been made to carry many times over, both in and out of drag. She wants to access the same ease and joy as other queens around her, but she always has the weight of expectations, assumptions, and projections on her shoulders.

More than anything, I want for Kween Kong to never need to feel that weight again once she exits this season as an international star.

What did this Girl Groups challenge do for my Power Rankings? I’d say things have solidified even further from last week’s rank, but I’m sure some of you would have my #3 at #1 and my #5 at #4! Please sound off in the comments below if that describes you.

Readers, start your engines… and may the best Down Under drag queen win!

Canada’s Drag Race Season 3 Episode 7 – Squirrels Trip: The Rusical, Review & Power Ranking

August 27, 2022 by krisis

Welcome to my review and power rankings of the seventh episode of Canada’s Drag Race Season 3 – Squirrels Trip: The Rusical, a live one-act musical that required each queen to pre-record her vocals but act, dance, and lip sync live on stage.

Canada’s Drag Race has a reputation for bringing out the best versions of all the standard Drag Race challenges, and “Squirrels Trip: The Rusical” was no exception!

I think this Rusical even managed to top last year’s spectacular “Under the Big Top“ all-clown musical, because this year’s challenge had a narrative and played out like a real show rather than a series of single-character vignettes.

This was the sort of magical mid-season Drag Race episode where no queen truly did badly. This is a cast of six highly-capable queens who have the chops to entertain in almost any kind of challenge. There was an obvious bottom two, but both queens were fun to watch in the Rusical – and one of them delivered surprisingly great musical theatre vocals!

This week’s rankings got a solid shake-up from last week, with a new queen on the top of rank. Do you agree with my assessments heading into next week’s challenge, or would you rank them in a different order? Comment below to let me know your thoughts.

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