RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World Season 2, Episode 8 – Grande Finale

March 30, 2024 by krisis

I’m back with one final post on the Drag Olympics of Drag Race! The RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World Season 2 Grande Finale combined a reunion with a Lip Sync Smackdown for the Crown.

While final episodes often included some form of performance or lip sync, the idea of a sudden death lip sync tournament in the Drag Race finale began in 2017 with RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9. That was our first season with four finalists – Shea Couleé, Sasha Velour, Trinity the Tuck Taylor, and Peppermint. We’ve learned since then that production shot multiple endings of the semi-final episode, including various eliminations, and that Peppermint wasn’t certain she would be included in the live finale until relatively close to the date of the show.

That could have become a one-time affair if not for winner Sasha Velour and her roses. Sasha undoubtably created the biggest Drag Race moment of all time – a meme that instantly spread across the internet, and which has been referenced by many mainstream shows including Saturday Night Live (twice!). The idea of a wig reveal to a downpour of roses has become part of the queer internet lexicon. [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World Season 2, Episode 8 – Grande Finale

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World Season 2, Episode 7 – Haters Wedding Roast power rankings

March 23, 2024 by krisis

I’m back with more coverage of the Drag Olympics of Drag Race! RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World Season 2 Episode 7 – Haters Wedding Roast, a stand-and-plant stand-up challenge delivered from behind a wedding dais paired with a “Take Me Up The Aisle” bridal runway.

If you engage in a retrospective Ru-watch of Drag Race, it’s interesting to watch how the show transforms over the years from a competition where drag queens must occasionally be funny to a full-fledged comedy competition. At this point, the show is known (and memed) as much for its laugh-out-loud absurd moments as for its fashion. At this point, there’s no way to win RuPaul’s lasting affection if you’re not at least a little bit funny.

The peculiar thing about that transformation into a full-on comedy competition is that it hinges entirely on RuPaul’s sense of humor. What Ru finds funny is grounded strongly in references that are older than most of her competitors. Though she’s twenty years older than me, RuPaul and I have an incredibly similar set of comedy references – Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, 80s sitcoms like The Golden Girls, campy game show hosts and guests, and the deadpan early seasons of Saturday Night Live.

That’s a big reason why campy queens and old souls tend to do so well with RuPaul – they tap into her comfort zone when it comes to humor. Would someone learning to be funny today for the young consumers of now be funny to RuPaul? Would they do well on Drag Race? I’m never sure. I think we got a hint of this with Willow Pill, who has a darker, edgier kind of humor that’s right on the edge of Millennial and Gen Z. RuPaul ate that up. Yet, most times when we see anyone with a more youthful sense of ironic humor on the show, Ru is quick to serve them neutch and chop them down at the first chance.

This Haters Comedy Roast included two sets that were legitimately hilarious for audiences of all ages. That gave us a tiny but critical shuffle to the rankings compared to last week’s Strictly Come Prancing power rankings. What does that mean for next week’s finale? I think we have a clear powerhouse pair of potential winners, but also a black horse (wonk wonk) who could come through and surprise them both.

I’ll be back next week to congratulate our winner and reflect on my predictions and power rankings for the season!

(Want to watch RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World outside of the UK? For most of the world, it’s available with a Wow Presents Plus subscription as soon as the episode is done airing.)

Readers, start your engines. And, may the best international drag superstar win!

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World Season 2, Episode 6 – Strictly Come Prancing Power Rankings

March 16, 2024 by krisis

I’m back with more coverage of the Drag Olympics of Drag Race! RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World Season 2 Episode 6 – Strictly Come Prancing, a choreographed partnered dance challenge with a “Business In The Front, Party In The Back” contrasting runway.

I am not a dancer, but I love dancing – both doing it myself as watching other people do it! I grew up dancing all the time in my living room, at parties and weddings, and on the sidewalk in front of my grandmother’s house with my boombox blasting “Pump Up The Jam.”

As an adult I’ve discovered I have no head for learning choreography (as divined by working with my competitive dancing sister-in-law to try to learn the American Foxtrot). I’ve never taken a proper dance class, but I leap at the chance for any gym class with a hint of choreography.

Even if I’m no dancing queen myself, I am very well-acquainted with this week’s guest-choreographer Janette Manrara (and her dance partner, real-life husband Aljaž Škorjanec)!

I fell in love with Janette’s dancing from the moment I first glimpsed her on So You Think You Can Dance Season 5. She executed everything flawlessly, but with a casual air that reminded me of the chic Italian women of the 80s at all those parties and weddings. I’ve rewatched her routine to “Ruby Blue” with Brandon Bryant so many times I can play it back perfectly in my brain! And, she is one of the few (only?!) celebrities who I personally follow on Facebook, where I’ve kept up with her transformation from reality show contestant, to professional dancer on Strictly Come Dancing (the UK’s Dancing With The Stars), to becoming a co-host and media personality in the UK.

Manrara has been on both sides of dancing competitions – as the contestant and the pro – and she brought a no-nonsense approach to instructing our queens without a whiff of for-the-cameras drama.

The result was a predictable winner and an obvious eliminated queen, without many surprises in the middle. That did lead to one key change from last week’s Power Rankings for Seven!: The Rusical, which might make a real difference heading into the finale in two weeks!

(Want to watch RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World outside of the UK? For most of the world, it’s available with a Wow Presents Plus subscription as soon as the episode is done airing.)

Readers, start your engines. And, may the best international drag superstar win!

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World Season 2, Episode 5 – Seven!: The Rusical Power Rankings

March 9, 2024 by krisis

I’m back with more coverage of the Drag Olympics of Drag Race! RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World Season 2 Episode 5 – Seven!: The Rusical, a live-singing blend of Rusical and Girl Groups challenges with a “When I Glow Up” redemption runway of past looks.

Seven!: The Rusical is a direct lift from SIX, a rock/pop opera musical staged like a concert delivered by the six wives of Henry VIII – two of whom we met last week in Snatch Game! The Drag Race version of the musical is slightly less rangy in pop styles, mostly coming off like five subtle remixes of “Express Yourself” with a pair of unusual outliers rather than seven distinct songs from different music genres.

Much like “Drag Race World” in Episode 3, I think this episode (and the queens) suffered from poor production choices in what could have been an all-time great episode given their level of talent.

This Rusical was subtitled, “Confessions of a Drag Queen,” but Ru never fully defined what those confessions ought to be. In the original SIX, each queen confesses the story of her own love affair via a catchy pop tune. Each song could be effortlessly excerpted to radio without revealing it originated in a musical. Here, all of the queens merely confessed the stories of their runs on the show, trending towards tepid lyrics in the category of “look at me, I sashayed away, I’m gonna snatch the crown!” Only one queen (La Grande Dame) fully broke out of this model to deliver a verse entirely about herself.

Beyond the lack of direction for the songwriting, there was also a lackluster “vocal coaching” session with pop artist Self Esteem. After seeing some truly brilliant singing and songwriting advice on the recent Canada’s Drag Race Season 4, Self Esteem was a real letdown as a coach.

On Canada, the performance coaches treated the songs seriously – as if they were responsible for making improvements to a song that would really be released to radio with their names on it. They edited lyrics, revised melodies, and coached queens on delivery and support. By contrast, Self Esteem left the queens stuck with some easily-fixable problems… and for at least one queen she made her verse worse.

I’m not sure if Self Esteem was too starstruck by being on the show or if she simply isn’t a very talented songwriter, but she failed these queens. (Her lip sync track would suggest the latter.)

Finally, there was the failure of the choreography – or, lack thereof. I know next week is a full-on dancing challenge, so it didn’t make sense to have this challenge also hinge on learning professional choreography. Yet, a Rusical without choreography just doesn’t hit the same – especially on the same day we got an American franchise episode choreographed by Jamal Sims. (More on that tomorrow!) That’s what made this more of a Girl Groups challenge than a Rusical despite the title – the choreo was mostly walking and pointing.

I’ll make my own confession: I’m fully annoyed to be delivering this week’s Power Rankings, with a newly-solidified Top 4 compared to last week’s Snatch Game Power Ranking. This episode made clear that one queen who is crushing the season isn’t in true contention for the crown, while another queen delivering barely-adequate performances is Ru’s chosen one. Meanwhile, the three queens between them continue to deliver terrific performances each week.

(Want to watch RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World outside of the UK? For most of the world, it’s available with a Wow Presents Plus subscription as soon as the episode is done airing.)

Readers, start your engines. And, may the best international drag superstar win!

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World Season 2, Episode 4 – Snatch Game Power Rankings

March 2, 2024 by krisis

It’s another week of the Olympics of Drag Race! RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World Season 2 Episode 4 was the UK vs The World Season 2 Snatch Game – “Family Edition”! that was paired with a nautical “Gone Cruisin'” runway theme.

Snatch game often produces the most-iconic moments of each season of Drag Race. This time around, it seems to be about exposing habits and biases.

The first big bias has to do with the Snatch Game format. This “Family Edition” is a thinly-veiled version of survey-based quiz show Family Feud. The UK had a version of Feud called “Family Fortune” that ran for two decades and was recently revived in 2020.

Ru loves game shows. In addition to her obsession with old Hollywood standards like Match Game, Hollywood Squares, and The Dating Game. Ru has appeared on a riotous episode of Family Feud and she even hosted her own unfortunately-titled “Gay for Play” and a revival of Lingo on CBS.

Yet, in the UK, comedy panel shows are equally as popular popular than game shows. It would make more sense to reskin Snatch Game to be a copy of Quite Interesting (possibly my favorite television show!) or 8 Out of 10 Cats, where the entire point is to humorously volley with the host. If Ru actually was willing to somewhat localize Drag Race, this would be an easy change.

The second bias is also Ru’s. This is the bias that her advice is always correct. We very rarely see a queen go against Ru’s advice and be rewarded for it. Gigi Goode’s Maria the Robot on the RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 12 Snatch Game might be the best example. And, if Ru is diabolical with her advice in America, she is doubly bad in the UK. This is the RuPaul who on UK Season 3 told Choriza to be Cher and Scarlett Harlett to be Macaulay Culkin.

In this case, Ru had her heart set against a certain queen’s (very good) impersonation, and when that queen knocked it out of the park on Snatch Game Ru served her Total Neutch in response.

Next, we come to the habits of the queens. We saw some repeat offenses in this episode. Queens who impersonate a straight cis man by suggesting he is gay. Queens who pick a character known for one iconic trait but have no plan beyond that one trait. Queens who pick someone much funnier than they are.

And that was just on one panel! There was also a queen who gave the same answer three different times… and she won!

However, this Snatch Game also addressed one particular fan bias – or, at least, a common complaint. Fans loved to harp on how some queens get fewer shots at answering questions in the finale edit. Here, we got two full rounds from each team, presented in a way that meant they couldn’t have been chopped up or reassembled at all. The flops still flopped! But, I do think this edit was better at showing which queens stood on solid middle ground.

Big biases and bad habits in the Snatch Game meant that every single queen changed rankings this week compared to last week’s Drag Race World immersive experience commercial power rankings. It feels like we have a fully-formed Top 5 with two queens on borrowed time. Will either one of them be able to turn things around in the next two episodes, or will the real game begin with the cut before the final four?

(Want to watch RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World outside of the UK? For most of the world, it’s available with a Wow Presents Plus subscription as soon as the episode is done airing.)

Readers, start your engines. And, may the best international drag superstar win!