Talent Show

Drag Race Sverige Season 1, Episode 2 – “MARATHON Talent Hunt” Review & Power Ranking

March 14, 2023 by krisis

Welcome to my review, recap, and power rankings of the second episode of Drag Race Sverige (AKA Drag Race Sweden) Season 1 – “MARATHON Talent Hunt.” It’s a standard Drag Race talent show paired with an in-the-dark quick drag mini-challenge and a Longstocking Extravaganza runway.

The Drag Race talent show challenge has transformed from a novelty when it debuted in All Stars 2 back in 2016 to a staple regular seasons around the globe. It usually comes early enough in the season that it isn’t a a must-win challenge, it has definitely proved to be a “must not flop” challenge every time it has appeared on the show.

The flopping comes not in singing a little out of tune (a-hem, Monét), but in approaching it with a lack of imagination. As with many challenges on Drag Race, the talent show isn’t really a challenge about talent but a challenge about branding. You can sing an original song, but what does it communicate about you and how you do drag? You can dance to a royalty-free track rather than penning your own song, but what are you saying about yourself with the dancing?

MARATHON Talent Hunt saw a particular pair of queens understand the idea of “talent” in vastly different ways. Both of them are primarily talented at drag itself. One of them turned that into a hilarious song and dance act about being an untalented hack. The other used their act to protest the idea that Drag Race asks queens to have a talent.

One act was a terrific branding win about having a sense of self-deprecating humor. The other was a complete branding fail that made its performer out to be a bland, petulant prima donna. Unsurprisingly, the former was in the top and the latter only narrowly won a lip sync for her life.

What do those performances and the other talent show acts mean for my power ranking compared to last week’s debut episode? One queen from the middle of the pack has made her move to be a front-runner while another plummeted to the bottom of the rank. Meanwhile, a talented queen missed an opportunity to gain momentum with some questionable choices.

(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 Belgique Season 1, Episode 1 – “Bonjour Iedereen” Talent Show Review & Power Ranking

February 19, 2023 by krisis

Welcome to my review, recap, and power rankings of the first episode of Drag Race Belgique Season 1 – “Bonjour Iedereen.” This episode introduces us to 10 queens, explains the Drag Race format to new viewers, and has the cast perform one-minute Talent Show segments and show off their “Belgicolours” on the runway.

Each new international Drag Race franchise brings its own flavor of production and judging, and especially of drag. Drag Race, Drag Race UK, Drag Race Canada, and Drag Race Down Under are all wildly different despite all being English-speaking franchises (and three of them being hosted by Ru).

As a result, I was not sure what to expect from Drag Race Belgique despite being obsessed with its neighboring (and language-sharing) Drag Race France when it aired last year (plus, loving the part-Francophone Drag Race Canada, which might be my favorite of the franchises).

My first impressios of Drag Race Belgique is that Belgian drag feels like it has much less to prove than French drag. Even the most austere and fashionable of these 10 queens were a little bit weird and goofy compared to the most competitive members of the French cast. This first episode may have felt the least cutthroat of all of the franchises, save perhaps Canada.

Also, I had no idea Belgian drag would be so humourous, or that the humour would be quite so surreal! I’d describe the majority of these Talent Show acts as deliberately comedic, and all of them had at least a slight edge of absurdity to them. Compare that to España, whose last Talent Show felt like queens were competing in an intergalactic tournament with their very lives at stake!

I see a potential downside of this franchise being that when the humor misses the mark things may seem underwhelming. That could be because the queens simply aren’t funny, or because their humour is are low key and it doesn’t translate well out of the Belgian idiom. Some of these Talent Show performances felt like they may have required us to be in on the joke as viewers, and I can’t tell if that was a Belgian thing or just down to the intensely unique perspectives of each queen.

I’m impressed with Rita Baga on her first Drag Race hosting outing. She’s not trying to be something she’s not by coming off as austere and full of glamour. Rita is our beloved Quebecois alien actress and a dedicated weirdo, but she’s also always authentic. I think she balanced her silly side with clear, incisive commentary as the head judge on the panel. She also showed a fair amount of sympathy for the queens as competitors.

If you came into “Bonjour Iedereen” looking for American-style haute couture and back-breaking stunts, it’s likely you only found one or two opportunities to TOOT along the way.

However, if you treat watching this franchise in an education about how drag can be different all over the world, it was a charming introduction with a strong cast of characters.

How did the performances from this strong cast stack up against my Pre-Season Power Rankings, based only on Meet Queens Interviews and social media? I think I nailed the bottom of the pack, but there were many surprises in store at the top of the ranking to shake things up heading into this season.

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

Lecteurs, start your engines. Et, que la meilleure Drag Queen gagne!

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15, Episode 1 & Episode 2 – “One Night Only” Talent Show Review & Power Ranking

January 7, 2023 by krisis

Welcome to my supersized Power Rankings of the massive double-episode premiere of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15 – “One Night Only”! This pair of premiere episodes introduced a never-ending cast of 16 queens competing in a mini-challenge photoshoot, a Talent Show, and a runway theme of “Who is She?”

The last season of Drag Race was one of the most-entertaining in the history of the show. It also verged on jumping the shark. There were several stretches of episodes with no eliminations, the season shoved an excessive (but entertaining) lip sync tournament in the middle, and the entire thing was saddled with the “it’s chocolate” save mechanism that was obviously fully under the control of the producers.

It left Season 14 feeling belabored. For the first time, many fans complained that Drag Race was… well, dragging. Drag Race is at its best when it is a non-stop variety show competition with real stakes for the contestants when they misstep. The more it is stuffed full of non-eliminations, immunity, or special saves, the more it drifts into feeling scripted – which minimized the agency of a talent cast of artists.

What saved Season 14 from sailing straight over the proverbial shark was its cast. In retrospect, the cast seems packed full of unforgettable personalities – but, part of why they were so unforgettable is that we got so much time between them Sashaying away!

As it turns out, a belabored season can still be one of the best, as long as it spends that extra time showing off its cast.

The show seems to be headed in the opposite direction this year, with a massive cast competing all at once in this first pair of episodes with a supposedly irreversible elimination at the end. That means far less early screen time per queen. Plus, after this initial pair of episodes, episodes will only air for an hour on MTV (which means the actual content is more like 40 minutes).

Will Drag Race be able to steer away from its impending shark jump by producing a brisk, tight, shenanigan-free season that shows off the talents of its massive cast? Or, will this extra-long season of extra-short episodes collapse under the sheer weight of trying to make each of its 16 queens stand out.

Only time will tell if the season was successful, but based on these first two episodes there seems to be a clear divide in the cast between the competitors and the potential fodder. Several queens burst out of the gates ready to slay, while many others seemed to struggle to make their drag ready for prime time.

Which queens came out on top and which ones are in danger of an early elimination? My Power Rankings considers each queen’s performance on the show as well as how they are treated by the edit and the “meta game” of what a queen needs to win Drag Race in the wake of a season with an unusual winner like Willow Pill.

Readers, start your engines! And, may the best drag queen win! [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15, Episode 1 & Episode 2 – “One Night Only” Talent Show Review & Power Ranking

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Power Rankings, S2E1 – “All Star Talent Show Extravaganza”

August 27, 2016 by krisis

Wow. Just… wow.

The first episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 2 was like the summer blockbuster movie of drag: it had tons of flashy effects and big twists, but the ending wasn’t much of a surprise.

The blockbuster status isn’t just because of a cast of 10 mostly-flawless queens, but because the show finally let the queens perform exactly as they would in their own drag shows with a unthemed talent show.

Honestly, I can understand why Ru wouldn’t try this on any old season – some of the typical queens might have messy routines or rely entirely on licensed music to make things work. However, for 10 all-stars at the top of their games it was a different story entirely.

How did the rankings shake out after the show compared to my Pre-Season Rankings from Thursday given the shocking rules changes for Season 2, all of the talents on display, and the ouster of Coco Montrese? Let’s take a look.

1. Roxxxy Andrews

Runner-Up, Season 5. Pre-Season Rank: 7

Roxxxy Andrews was flawless in this episode.

Flawless.

Her entrance look was one of the best of all time. Roxxxy was breathtakingly gorgeous, modern and feminine, but aspects of it were still exaggerated enough to read as drag. Her burlesque routine was a hot little number, and she looked like a curvy woman while she did it.

Most importantly, she got to be the one to test-drive the new “Top queen kicks off the bottom queen” system, and it showed just how tactically she plays this game. She passed over kicking off two competitors most likely self-sabotage in the future in Phi Phi and Adore (one with utterly rabid fans) for a competitor who could reasonably beat her in a Lip Sync and doesn’t have the huge fanbase to vilify her.

Will the smarts and unshakeable confidence last? I say yes – this really felt like an all-new Roxxxy. But in this new format the moment a strong contender winds up in the bottom two she’s toast.

Can Roxxxy really stay out of the bottom until the final episode, or at least manage to wind up in the bottom with the bigger threats Alaska or Katya? Let’s recall, she only lip synced a single time in her original season. It could happen. [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Power Rankings, S2E1 – “All Star Talent Show Extravaganza”