"Cher: The Unauthorized Rusical"

by Nathaniel R

 

S10E8 Well, so that was a perfect episode. Not at all Suspect. Sorry for the Cher pun but Season 10 has been on fire with smart casting, great episodes, rainbow colored madness, inspired mini-challenges, and memorable runway themes. The writers and editors aren't sleeping through it either. Note how well Monét's silly RuPaul mimicry (pictured above) kicked off the episode with bad celebrity impersonation and Ru's campy-funny "slap out of it" mini-challenge both dovetailed so neatly into the CHER homage maxi-challenge...

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Drag Race S10: "Snatch Game"

by Nathaniel R

S10E7 Behold the ever-divisive power of the "Snatch Game". It tends to totally shake the chess board and upend expectations about who the final three or four will be. Though some fans have called for a moratorium on the signature challenge, after diminishing returns each season, others claim that it's always been thus: half terrific, half abysmal. We used to belong to Camp A but we're back with Camp B. And if you can't hack it in the Snatch Game, you're often next on the chopping block. But the episode didn't begin with the game but with the Reading Challenge. The library opened and Eureka, still on a roll, took yet another win.

Here's a funny visual example of how divisive these episodes are. Check out these competing headlines that popped up when I was searching for images from the show...

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"Drag Con Panel Extravaganza"

RuPaul's Drag Race S10E6

Didn't u just die at that "facts are facts" /  "all right, brown cow" / "your back is ashy" / "your talent is bottom two" banter with Monique-Asia-Monet early in the episode? The season 10 queens have such sharp friendly-but-competitive chemistry. And there's so much bonafide talent that there's already no filler remaining! We revert to the often anticlimactic "Snatch Game" next week but we've been pleased to see the show coming up with new angles and challenges lately. This episode began with the hilarious "sitting on a secret" game. Asia O'Hara proved the most sensitive bottom, accurately guessing the most things she was sitting on whilst blindfolded -- even a fax machine! It ended with a hat challenge where most of them had great looks though Asia's dandelion look was tops.

Inbetween those delights the maxi-challenge was even better as the nine queens had to hold three mock Drag Con panels to shill for RuPaul's latest entrepeneurial success...

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Drag Race: "The Bossy Rossy Show"

by Nathaniel R

Do people even watch trashy daytime talk shows anymore? Haven't they all been replaced by trashy reality tv shows that follow shameless people around in their "real" life for full seasons rather than inviting them to walk on to humiliate themselves for a single episode? No matter. RuPaul's Drag Race revels in nostalgia week after week while simultaneously living in the now when it comes to drag trends (notice all the flat chests this year? An about face from the breastplate rage a few seasons ago). For this week's maxi-challenge the queens were tested on their improv skills as guests on "The Bossy Rossy Show." The show was curiously believable (i.e. it's easy to picture Ross actually hosting such a thing) but the skits were so bizarre (marrying a cactus? fear of pickles?) that it seemed less an improv challenge than a comedy skit-writing challenge. 

As a result the episode felt messy and forced as if all the contestants were nervously scrambling to reposition themselves as viable contenders given that each of their strengths and weaknesses seem almost shockingly visible now. And not just to our eyeballs at home, but there in the room, too...

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Drag Race: "Last Ball on Earth"

by Nathaniel R

You can't blame RuPaul for so many apocalypse jokes. It really does seem like the world is on fire of late. Last days, indeed. So if we're going out have a ball. Or throw one. Which is another way of saying bless this show for existing because FUN and a sense of humor are so needed and both are in such short supply. This week's maxi-challenge was runway based as the queens had to come up with three global warming end-days looks...

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