Scream Queens, Rusicals, and Snatch Games
Thursday, March 27, 2014 at 12:01AM If you can't love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love someone else? Amen. I love myself therefore I forgive myself for being three weeks behind my promised RuCapping. I hate calling tv posts recaps, though that's the web's preferred terminology, because I'm not about to recount everything that happened. That's for the contestants themselves to do on reality television. That's the whole structure, right? Step 1: Talking head commentary on clip you're about to see from contestant involved. 2: What you actually see from the contest. Step 3: A recap of what you just saw via the same or different talking heads. Then the next day on the internet everyone who is not on the show recaps again. We're a very redundant pop culture, we are!
But I do feel bad for going AWOL because these three weeks of RuPaul's Drag Race were really movie friendly and you know how I love my TV at the Movies. After the jump brief notes on the queens forays into celebrity impersonation, horror movies, and off-key musicals.
6.3 SCREAM QUEENS
Your mother darns socks in hell!"
The queens starred in two short & stoopid slasher films "Drag Race Me To Hell" (black & white 60s with Psycho fonts) and "Drag Race Me To Hell 5" (color and totally awesome 80s). Ben de la Creme was funny as an old psycho lady but Darienne Lake gave great head (in a box) and won the challenge.
Name Dropping: Roller Boogie, Singin' in the Rain, Maggie Smith, Liza Minnelli, Sandra Dee, Linda Blair (well she was on the panel. You have to have for a horror fest!), Rick James, Diana Ross, Beyoncé, Leigh Bowery
Judges Panel: Adore Delano got the funniest quip rom RuPaul:
Raggedy Ann sure grew up to be a slut."
Lena Headey was an awesome judge, even cracking Ru up.
I adore Adore. She's kind of like a daughter I want to slap."
Losers: Vivacious sashayed away after a completely inept horror movie performance but Gia Gunn wins most loathsome for getting all judgy in her own ignorance -- she didn't understand 80s vernacular OR, more damningly, that movies used to be in black and white. Yeah, I died a little inside. How can people be that ignorant of things before they were born by the time they're in their 20s?
6.4 SHADE THE RUSICAL
This is the episode that pissed off the trans community because RuPaul loves terms they're not okay with like trannies and "shemales" but that was the mini-challenge and we're skipping ahead to the musical. Divided into two acts the first was (almost) professional with good voices the norm but sometimes its best to leave at intermission if you know what I mean. This was expected to be a showdown between Adore and Courtney since they both competed on the Idol franchise but Courtney won the night in a cute little nod to the Tony Awards. Ru opened an envelope and everything.
Guest Judge: Sheryl Lee Ralph from Broadway's Dreamgirls who told Trinity to put a cork in it. LOL. She actually spun it for good advice but Trinity was offended (more on that later)
Losers: April Carrion sashayed away, but Gia Gunn was again competing for Most Annoying in that she loves to parade it. "What's a Tony Award?" I rolled my eyes with Bianca. But she reveals she grew up doing kabuki theater in Japan which wins her cool points with me, as much as I hated to give her any. But Gia couldn't win that title this time because there was just too much damn competition. Trinity K Bonet and Laganja Estranja were in a fierce competition for the title with their super whiny thin-skinned self-absorption. Laganja was just awful in the "Untucked" portion. She had a sweet moment with her parents which she then pissed all over by assuming that the rest of the entire episode should be the queens fawning over her and discussing her moment again and again rather than moving on. This morphed into a wider utterly inane must-see argument about drag and who was being ignorant (no, too easy).
Bianca Del Rio is perfect. I need gifs of everything she does
It all led up to the greatest minimalist "read" (totally silent) since Willam's deliciously deadpan perfect "your tone seems very pointed right now" from Season 4. It consisted of Bianca speaking for all of us by merely throwing her arms out in a "duh" style shrug, a proxy-gesture for all of us, as nourishing to my viewing party as manna from the heavens. We erupted into peals of laughter and rewound it three times. It needs to be seen in motion and in context for full appreciation. Bianca is fast emerging as the star of the show.
6.5 SNATCH GAME
I will never fully understand why this is everyone's favorite episode each season because I usually find it cringe-worthy. But, yes, it has a certain rubber-necking appeal as the queen's trot out half-baked celebrity impersonations. In most cases this episode has undeniable winners and losers and that was as true as ever. Here's how I'd rank them from Best to Worst:
Wonderful
Ben as Maggie Smith (unexpected, brilliant)
Bianca as Judge Judy (perfect marriage of queen & celebrity)
Adore as Anna Nicole Smith
Pretty Good
Darienne as Paula Deen
Joslyn as somebody (I didn't understand who it was -- I don't do a lot of reality TV -- but she was funny)
Okay
Courtney as Fran Drescher
Oopsie
Milk as Julia Child (great choice, bad work)
Inexplicable Utter Disasters
Laganja as Rachel Zoe (weirdly talking like a epileptic gay robot)
Gia as Kim Kardashian but no different essentially than Gia
Trinity as Nicki Minaj (who literally did nothing but change her wig)
RuPaul seemed worried about Ben dela Creme's decision to do Maggie Smith but it was an original choice and she found ways to make every answer hilarious. Like Dame Maggie would ever be answering these stupid questions or understand any of them.
Losers: In the end the lipsynch was between Laganja and Gia so either way, I knew I would win. I felt utter joy even before Gia sashayed away
ADDENDUM
We're all caught up and hopefully you are to. Feel the relief!
Adore Delano changed her twitter background to Pizza. I ♥ her
Queen of Social Media
Due to my obsessive impulsiveness I've been tracking twitter follower gains for the queens as a sort of symbolic assessment of fan favor. I'm not counting pre-show followers (Courtney Act still leads there having had 15,000 before the show ever aired since she was a big deal on Australian Idol) but gains over the course of the airing of the show. The current rankings of the past three weeks go like so:
- Bianca Del Rio + 9000ish
- Courtney Act + 5,600ish
- Adore Delano + 5,400ish
...do you think they'll be the unholy trinity come the finale? - Ben dela Creme + 5,216
- Milk + 4,779
- Joslyn Fox + 2,675
- Darienne Lake + 2220
- Trinity K Bonet + 1804
- Laganja Estranja + 1230
The queens that have shantayed away have been amassing fans too since not everyone watches shows as they air. In the past few weeks the 5 who've already left have also gained followers -- albeit at a much slower rate once they're off the air -- in this order from top to bottom: April Carrion, Gia Gunn, Vivacious, The Kelly Mantle, and Magnolia Crawford.
Are you watching or did I just waste a shitload of time typing this up?
Reader Comments (17)
she's obviously a front runner but bianca exhausts me - how many times do we really need to see her standard bitchy comment/eyes widen/head bob as exclamation point?
my rankings thus far -
love:
ben dela creme
joslyn fox (gasp! total surprise package)
like:
courtney act (bland, but local girl made good)
darienne
gone far too soon:
april
can understand their appeal:
adore
bianca
disappointing:
milk
meh:
trinity
hate with the fire of a thousand suns:
laganja esdrama
gia
I want Laganja gone.
I want to love Laganja because she's from the House of Edwards but ugh, that whole "i want the world to hold my hand" bullshit just killed her for me. It did lead to that EPIC multiple eye-roll moment from all of the queens sitting near her though.
I'm on team Courtney but damn did she fade into the background this week.
Bianca is basically the voice of every viewer. Girl constantly is on point with her opinions.
I'm quite surprised that Milk didn't hit bottom two this week. She flopped in Snatch Game and while her Ru runway was daring and totally true to her aesthetic, it wasn't well-done and it's more of the same. She won't make it far at this rate. Pretty to look at out of drag though. ooh.
agree with Nat's comments... Laganja Esdrama lol
Love the show, dying for your views - don't stop! I hate laganja, love hate adore and adored Bianca but Ben just became the front runner with that spot on impersonation of Maggie. Joslyn is the dark horse though, her moment is coming. But thanks for the coverage again Nat!
Adore is a mess but she'll unfortunately and surely be at least top 5. She's messy, unpolished and basically a teen queen with a wig. I don't even believe she did drag before American Idol. I thought the impression was horrible too.
Ben de La Creme should win this in a cakewalk. Courtney and Bianca will be the runners-up. Milk, Laganja and Trinity are the next 3 outta there. Milk lacks the confidence and comfort to pull off her visual ambitions. She always looks scared of being judged. Laganja does great drag but there's nothing memorable. Trinity... lolwut?
I also adore Adore, yes she is unpolished and was a bit immature, but that is a lot of charisma ooozing out of him. He's like the Jennifer Lawrence of Drag Race if that makes any sense? (The quote about Selena was genius in the last episode).
I loved Gia, I know people get mad at her 'stupidity' but she gave me some of the funniest moments of the first 4 episodes with her talking head and her lack of self-awareness. Also , knowing that he grew up in Japan I can forgive him for being ignorant to some pop culture things, as I am not sure when he moved to America and so sometimes pop culture references elude people who didn't have their childhood in the west.
Laganja is just annoying now, she needs to grow up. It's interesting that both Adore and Laganja seemed immature at the start but one of them is calming down and the other one isn't.
My rankings of the queens left :
1. Ben Delacreme
2. Adore
3. Bianca
4. Joslyn
5. Courtney
6. Milk
7. Darienne
8. Trinity
9. Laganja
your ratings for the snatch game are on point......A+
I can't get enough of Adore! It's like everything she says just tickles my funny bone, can't help it. Love love love.
Overall, Ben and Bianca are probably the best queens, but I agree with what par said above about her constant bitchy/wide-eye thing getting a little exhausting.
I hate Laganja like nothing else and literally cringe when she speaks. Gia did the same thing for me so I was happy to see her go.
Milk frustrates me because I think she's super creative and has a really cool style, but there's some kind of disconnect.
Love Drag Race so I'm so happy you did this write up!
Adore is consistently surprising me - that Anna Nicole impersonation during Snatch Game was AMAZING. We'll see how she holds up but after the first week I had totally dismissed her as canon fodder and now she's one of my favorites.
Ben de la Creme is my absolute favorite and the Dame Maggie bit sealed it. HILARIOUS.
Bianca is WAY too calculated for me to ever love wholeheartedly, but there's no way she's not making it to the end. And she is never anything but completely on point in her reads.
Laganja is the biggest attention whore I have ever seen. If everything isn't all about her, she WILL yank the spotlight back. At first I was amazed by this ability, but after that epic meltdown in the most recent Untucked, I'm over it. "I don't know exactly what it is you did, but you DID hurt me!" was so much bullshit and Adore smacked it down PERFECTLY.
Once Trinity and Laganja go, it's a really talented group. I'm not so hot on Joslyn - she's pretty bland in drag - but she hasn't done anything bad yet and is actually maybe possibly getting better week to week. Darienne better step it up, though. I LOVE her, but these other queens are leaving her in the dust. She needs to have another stand out performance SOON.
I am so happy that you like Bianca, because I find myself defending her to everyone that I know who watches the show. I mean, she doesn't need me to defend her, but I am very much looking forward to when the "filler" queens are gone and Bianca takes down people even harder. At the season 6 premiere, Bianca made a dress on stage. No performance or lip synch. The bitch made a dress on stage and then put it on. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out.
Watching, and love the write up. I would have given it to Bianca, but Adore was great. Ben was funny but Maggie Smith deserved more. I really wish they sent Gia AND Laganja Estranja home, but I guess we'll have to wait a week.
Can I just say that I don't get the Milk love I've been hearing elsewhere? Creativity is one thing, side show tomfoolery another. Just sayin. Jinkx and Sharon outweighed the creativity and could adapt to win challenges.
I like Bianca, but her shtick has the potential to become very old over the course of the season, and I would like to see her prettify her drag face on occasion. I hope that she isn't the indomitable frontrunner many presume her to be, because Ben De La Creme is just as deserving in my eyes and Courtney and Adore have great potential.
Eurocheese I agree, in terms of performances in the snatch game, Adore and Bianca were slightly (just slightly) better than Ben, but I think his runway look is what sealed the win for him this week as both Bianca and Adore had some issues with their runway looks.
I started out loving Milk and Courtney, but now I'm loving Ben De la Creme and Bianca more and more. For me a successful drag queen is about their ability to perform on cue, and they can! Also I know trinity is boring as in every challenge - but gurl - her runway is always incredible. So I'm ok for her to stay. Leganja can just Sashay away please.
You don't write about this show enough!
Bianca needs to be den mother of Untucked every season moving forward. Somebody needs to be strong enough to call out the bullshit (Season 5 would have been more watchable this way).
Everybody thought Milk would be the second coming of Sharon Needles but she ended up being Ivy Winters with just more screentime. Girl definitely hasn't lived up to her hype which leads me to believe she may have gotten better AFTER the show.
I heard something HORRIBLE about Courtney from someone that met this seasons drag queens recently... I hope it doesn't happen. ppl will know what I'm talking about later if it's true.
Love adore, Bianca is entertainment, and ben is the cutest out of drag for me!. I like trinity too. Milk is as one note as Gia (just in the opposite way) and darienne could be next, just nothing is sparking from her recently. laganja is just misguided as fuck.
in order of my fanship
adore
crème
Bianca
trinity
Joslyn
Gia
darienne
....
(laganja really is okay, im interested in what she could do but she needs time to grow into herself.)
This season is awesome though and it's the most talented crew of queens this show has had as far as I could tell.