Ranking

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 3 Power Rankings S03E02 – Divas Lip Sync Live

February 3, 2018 by krisis

This week on RuPaul’s Drag Race, the show sinks to new depths of low-effort self-promotion with a VH1 Divas Live impersonation concert where every one of nine famous divas are singing RuPaul songs.

This was an episode full of buffoonery, riggery, and straight up tomfoolery.

It could have been a truly iconic and hilarious event, as shown by BenDeLaCreme’s instantly-memorable performance lip syncing to RuPauls’ “Mother” as recorded in the style of Julie Andrews by actress/impersonator Christina Bianco.

Why was that performance so incredibly memorable, and all the others much less so? Two reasons.

First, “Mother” was sung in Andrews’ style but over what essentially sounded like original RuPaul backing track. It doesn’t stand up to a direct comparison, but it was a simulacrum of what you’d expect from Ru and nothing like a Julie Andrews song. BenDeLa benefited from the dissonance because she could play up the element of frantic, held-hostage nervousness in her performance. All of the other divas essentially sang an unrecognizable RuPaul song in their own style, which was less funny and gave many of them much less to do.

The second reason connects to that last bit. Essentially, Todrick Hall done fucked up drag race. He went totally ham on the choreography of Ben’s track because there was a lot for her to do. He also went ham on Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey, but barely touched the six other routines. Note his uncontained glee on the judges’ panel as the girls perform his super basic voguing during BenDeLa’s song, while he basically left the capable Thorgy (and, let’s be honest, Trixie) out to dangle.

Where does that leave our rankings? They’re not too shook compared to last week, though one queen is making her own case for an advance on the final three.

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Power Rankings, S03E01 – All-Star Variety Show

January 27, 2018 by krisis

Are you ready to get All-Started?! The time has come for the third season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars.

A normal season of Drag Race plucks a dozen drag queens from semi-obscurity to compete on a nationally televised stage in front of RuPaul Charles (“supermodel of the world!”) to prove they have the charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent to be America’s Next Drag Superstar.

All Stars is a little bit different. It features ten queens returning from previous seasons to vie for a spot in the Drag Race Hall of Fame. In the past it tended to focus on high-placing queens, but this time around the cast are all competitors who just missed the finals or got stuck in the middle of the pack … with the exception of one.

This series of weekly posts will rank the house down, looking at who is surging in the competition versus who is going a bit limp.

Every post in this series comes with a big disclaimer: Drag is hard, and these girls are all consummate professionals. I’m ranking them from the comfortable position of a critic and fan who has only done drag a handful of times in my life, sews slowly, and can barely apply eyeliner. I just happen to have a lot of stage experience and a life-long love of drag, which makes me want to give each of these queens the same kind of serious critical attention I’d give to a rock star or famous actor.

Want to get to know this cast before we get started? Check out my pre-season rankings, and then keep reading to find out who came out on top in the premiere Variety Show! [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Power Rankings, S03E01 – All-Star Variety Show

The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula Power Rankings – Season 2, Episode 6

December 9, 2017 by krisis

It’s week six of Dragula, the search for a Drag Super-Monster who is equally gifted in the areas of glamour, horror, and filth.

This week’s episode saw the queens challenged to go goth with a gothic bride look and lip sync from quintessential goth-rock band Switchblade Symphony.

It’s the second week in a row the ladies could turn out a traditionally “pretty” look that still had a horrific element to it, but had to be able to back it up with serious performance chops.

That played out almost exactly as it did last week, but in a slightly smaller field the minor, unforced errors from a few queens were judged even more severely than they were last week in the cabin in the woods.

Now we’ve got four queens left, and two of them feel like an utter lock for the finals – but the other two will have to fight tooth and claw next week for that final spot.

Enough talk – watch Dragula’s sixthh episode, and then see if you agree with how I’ve ranked the queens below.

The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula Power Rankings – Season 2, Episode 5

December 2, 2017 by krisis

It’s week five of Dragula, the search for a Drag Super-Monster who is equally gifted in the areas of glamour, horror, and filth.

This week’s episode went totally girly and campy by challenging the queens to be in a horror movie. They weren’t starring as a scary monster, but as the typical slutty girl who makes for an obvious first victim.

While a few of Dragula’s Exterminations have been hard to watch, this episode marked the first time I was unsettled by the main challenge of an episode – and I think that might have been part of the point.

There was something particularly shocking in watching a man act out these purposefully-exaggerated, somewhat sexualized acts of violence against someone doing her best to present as a woman but who we know to be a man.

Seeing the violence play-acted by two men really drove home the amount of degradation we put female characters through just for having the temerity to walk alone at night or dress provocatively.

With that realization comes the ultimate chicken-or-egg question: is this violence in our movies because being a woman is an inherently dangerous act, or do we expect and accept violence against women because the media normalizes it constantly in trope after trope, from the slutty girl dying first to the love interest getting fridged?

So far this season we have seen drag as torture and death, been reminded that rock’n’roll is simple socially-acceptable drag, and seen the queens in their most outlandish outfits while giving birth. The Boulet Brothers have unquestionably amped up the unspoken commentary in their challenges compared to the zombies and sea monsters of the first Season. I think that’s a big part of why the show is so much more compelling this time around.

Clever commentary aside, it’s shocking to see all six of the remaining queens deliver straight-up feminine performances for the first time this season. It emphasizes just how strong the remaining half of these girls are. This week’s weakest queens are weak for choices rather than faults.

Enough talk – watch Dragula’s fifth episode, and then see if you agree with how I’ve ranked the queens below.

The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula Power Rankings – Season 2, Episode 4

November 25, 2017 by krisis

It’s week four of Dragula, the search for a Drag Super-Monster who is equally gifted in the areas of glamour, horror, and filth.

This week’s episode totally took my breath away. The cast’s interpretation of alien life – complete with a live birth – is hilarious, stunning, and scary all at once.

It also stretches the boundaries our belief when it comes to reality editing. Clearly these looks were put together with a lot of resources on hand and more than one day of notice. The implication seems to be that everyone finds out what the theme was before they are dismissed from the previous week of shooting.

(If that’s the case, I’m not sure why the Boulets can’t just say, “As we told you last week…” when they explain the challenge.)

If it’s hard to suspend disbelief about the editing of the show, it’s not at all hard to imagine that the remaining seven contestants are really female alien life who really reproduce live on camera. Even the weakest performances goes above and beyond what I expected to see. The floor show is absolutely transfixing.

Enough talk – watch Dragula’s fourth episode, and then see if you agree with how I’ve ranked the queens below.