RuPaul's Drag Race S9E1 - Oh My Gaga!
Saturday, March 25, 2017 at 8:00PM 
by Chris Feil
It’s here, children! We’ve finally arrived at the premiere of season nine of RuPaul’s Drag Race! Not that we should complain about waiting considering we got a bonus All Stars season last fall, but when you’re talking the most joyous show on television enough is never enough.
So it doesn’t please me to say that this season premiere left me begging for more in the worst kind of way. While the episode starts out with the usual high energy and first day of school nerves as we meet every queen entering the workroom, we don’t get much of the queens beyond this introduction. The energy flatlines right around the second commercial break when much hyped presence of guest judge Lady Gaga establishes the challenge: a non-elimination Miss Charisma Uniqueness Nerve & Talent Pageant, each queen presenting a look representing their home city and a Gaga recreation.
Now don’t get me wrong: the time we spend with the queens promises a stellar cast of vastly different drag styles and points of view. With the effervescence of Peppermint, the arty edge of Sasha Velour, the goofiness of Charlie Hides, the showgirl sex of Alexis Michelle, this season’s girls are less “something for everybody” and more “how can I choose a favorite”. But I wonder if Shea Couleé could have a leg up by having a foot in the most puddles, so to speak.
Best Entrance Look - Valentina. All this polish and poise and she’s only been doing drag for ten months?! I mean, come on. (Though I can’t decide if her right-angle positivity is charming or grating yet.)
While I hate when new queens are reductively compared to previous contestants, something about this cast assemblage as a whole reminds me of the more organically picked casts of the earliest seasons. This ensemble feels less manufactured, less categories ticked off a checklist. And thank God these queens aren’t too afraid of the ire of the internet and the editing to be a little shady, like recent seasons have shown. Seriously, who wants their drag queens to just play it sweet?
Early Drama Alert - At least one major rivalry story line is always foretold in every first workroom, and this season is definitely going to be Trinity Taylor vs. Eureka O’Hara. With her relentless humor, it’s likely Eureka we’ll be rooting for instead of Trinity. It doesn’t help that Trinity is already laying the “I’m not mean” line while being mostly caustic in confessionals.
The challenge represents how this episode is kind of at odds with itself, strangely. It wants to serve the queens, but also can’t help making it all about the megastar performer. It’s kind of a shame, because it turns out Gaga might be the show’s most thoughtful and invested guest judge ever - she’s even openly moved at several points, and remains humble. It’s more the producer’s fault than her own considering [Joslyn Fox gasp] she even upstages Mother Ru. When was the last episode you couldn’t remember anything Michelle Visage said?
The rhythms of critique on the runway are strangely lethargic and longwinded. The judges not only offer their puns and observations as usual over each look but then do a full breakdown of each queen’s performance. Add in the queens’ mini-monologue for their hometown look and the whole segment becomes really sluggish. Not giving a top and bottom 3 critique also removes a huge dramatic and emotional element from the proceedings.
The looks however are largely successful. The Vegas girls Farrah Moan and Kimora Blac are the least distinct for their city (Vegas = feathers and other stuff, apparently) despite being gorgeous, and Sasha Velour gets points for being the least literal of the many New York queens.
Best City Look - Shea Couleé’s Chicago Hot Dog, or as Ru put it: Shebrew National. (though extra points to Trinity Taylor for her Orlando airbrush theme park tacky delight. Even if the back looked like, umm... a butthole.)
Those Gaga looks, however. Now while this wasn’t a repeat of season 8’s Madonna kimono runway disappointment, but for some it was pretty damn close. Lady Gaga offers, if not as many iconic instantly recognizable looks as Madonna, plenty of looks the average person on the street can recall. Sorry queens, but her Golden Globes black dress, American Horror Story, or a blue bob Do Not Cut It. We’re talking about an entertainer who wore a meat dress and put a Pepsi can in her hair. You don’t have to think long to dig deeper.
Best Gaga Look - Nina Bo’nina Brown’s Alexander McQueen lace at the VMA’s. Not only is this a distinct Gaga fashion moment, but Nina revealed her point of view at the same time by giving it a twist.
You didn’t really think I wouldn’t pay some due to Miss Nina Bo’nina Banana Fofana Osama Bin Laden Brown, did you? I’m partly saving mentioning this queen for last, because I have fallen and I have fallen hard. With her Atlanta peach and kooky mouse designs, she’s stylistically something we’ve never seen on the show and rightfully won the challenge. Her casual humor and humility has me gasping for more. If you catch up to the behind the scenes companion show Untucked (which gives us a further hint of the queens before also falling prey to the YASGAGA awe), Nina could be this season’s underdog. I think we have our first star of the season.
Oh but if you thought the episode was relatively drama free for a premiere, RuPaul is always prepared to snatch your wig off. At the very end, Ru revealed he was bringing back a queen from a previous season - see, this Shangela / Season 3 moment is the only thing giving me early season vibes! Could the queens reactions from shocked, to enthusiastic, to underwhelmed reveal the identity of this queen? We’ll find out the lucky lady next week!
Overall this was one of the weakest premieres for the series with the Gaga-focus making for an episode that feels incomplete. But it still hints at one of the very best and most diverse lineups of competitors. Here is my current ranking (minus our mystery girl):
- Nina Bo'Nina Brown
- Shea Couleé
- Sasha Velour
- Peppermint
- Eureka O'Hara
- Alexis Michelle
- Valentina
- Farrah Moan
- Charlie Hides
- Aja
- Trinity Taylor
- Kimora Blac
- Jaymes Mansfield
Gif as Episode Grade:
What did you think of the premiere and which queens were your favorites?
Reader Comments (18)
ross matthews for the win: "somebody stop me"
nina bo'nina brown [how i love that name] and valentina emerged from the pack; the rest a just a blur of wigs and glitter at this point.
Nina and Valentina!
But seriously, they should have had a 90 minute premiere, a lip sync for the win and a penalty for thus bottom three going into next week (Kimora - so disappointing, Aja -makeup is a queens bread and butter girl - get it right and Jaymes - nice but so NOT ready for the show yet) and it would have been a winner.
I actually loved the Gaga runways and was let down by the hometown looks!
All bets on Miss Cucu to return right??
(Please say this will be a weekly feature - I'll transfer $10000 via pay pal!)
I'm here for Sasha, Shea, Nina and Valentina but I really like the whole cast. And I like that there isn't a clear front runner like Bob last season because it made last season very anti climatic.
It's definitely Cynthia returning.
i have to offer my own ranking though i agree with the incomplete feeling. If any show on television deserves a 2 hour premiere every season, it's this one!
1 Nina Bo'Nina Brown
2 Eureka O'Hara
3 Shea Couleé
4 Alexis Michelle
5 Sasha Velour
6 Valentina
7 Charlie Hides
8 Farrah Moan
9 Trinity Taylor
10 Peppermnit
11 Jaymes Mansfield
12 Aja
13 Kimora Blac
now that i've seen untucked it's confirmed my suspicion from the episode: eureka is going to be trouble; that bitch can't keep any opinion to herself. i sense insecurities of delta work proportions [not a fat joke]
It was an okay episode, but the Untucked episode was SO good! Gaga giving each other queens individual notes was just so amazing. That was honestly so invaluable and she was so gracious to really want to help them grow as artists.
Nina, Valentina and Aja are my picks in the Drag Race sweeps so I think I chose wisely with at least the first two and I think Aja showed promise if not necessarily make-up skills.
Similarly, my issue with the episode - and it started in All Stars s2 I think where the runway started literally about 8 minutes into each episode - was that all the workplace stuff was nonexistent. This is what happens when you never have sewing challenges anymore or mini-challenges. Especially as we're meant to be getting intro'd to all of these people, it felt truncated. I thought the runway was MUCH better than the Madonna one - I suspect since she was there they very deliberately made sure so problems would arise. And, really, we couldn't expect a meat dress or somebody being carried around in an embryonic shell.
The biggest WTF moment was RuPaul seemingly giving up drag and taking on an emcee role at the side of the stage? I hope this was just a one-time only thing since she wasn't eliminating anybody and the stage *was* set-up differently as a T as opposed to the usual upside down T. Hmmm.
@NATHANIEL
I'm glad that I'm not the only one who puts Aja and Kimora in the bottom 2 slots (although Kimora is better in Untucked than she is in the feature ep).
Morganb - We'll be recapping every week! Our Paypal link is on the sidebar and operators are standing by!
Glenn - I was struck by that too, but less surprised when I thought about it. RuPaul has been semi-open in interviews about hating to get into drag in recent years. My guess is he jumped at the opportunity for this episode and we might see more of this when he can get away with it.
A little clarity on my Jaymes thoughts - I LOVE her brand of humor and would pay for a ticket to her show so fast, but her head is that far out of the game. If she can focus in the next episode, she'd skyrocket up that chart for me
I'm weirdly into Trinity Taylor. She gave the episode's best shade when she commented on Aja's make-up.
I suspect that they only had Lady Gaga for one day and as such, Ru couldn't take 12 hours to get into geish? The queen's have said they were in drag for 13 hours that first day!
Yeah I'm assuming it was a really long day and Ru was not gonna be in drag that long.
This was an excellent premiere.. It's a great crop and we got two looks from all of them—three if you count their enter-the-workroom looks. Isn't that better than an inaugural photo shoot that takes up 20 minutes of airtime?
Season 7 had so many haters but season 8 was a snooze. I don't get the love Bob or any of the other queens got for that season...I can't even remember most of them. And the standouts were so dreadfully one-note. That Madonna episode was an abomination.
I think this group is more promising than what we saw last season, by far.
I was digging Eureka all episode and then I got turned off by her on Untucked. I go through so many emotions watching these episodes!!!
I think this is a one-off with Ru out of drag, the previews show him in full geish!
I loved this premier, yes the Gaga element meant there was less focus on the contestants, but I always find the premier episode to be chaotic. Excited about Nina and Shea the most!
The Trinity / Eureka rivalry is giving me bargain basement Alyssa/Coco, Adore/Laganja rehash!
Go Sasha, that's all!
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