RuPaul's Drag Race S9E11 - Category Is: GAY

by Chris Feil

Happy Pride Month, everyone!! This week’s episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race was perfectly timed to the start of Pride season with gay extravaganza ball on the runway, and lots of streamers, glitter, and puppets! Andie MacDowell giving us Magic Mike XXL white wine realness!

But like Alexis Michelle’s bowl of Beautiful Turquoise Embellishments, this episode became a miss with lots of unfulfilled promise, particularly on the runway. Some queens had a significant misstep on the runway and others lacked the wow factor we expect from a top five competitor. Meanwhile in the workroom, we got a lot of dismissive interview quotes to amp up an air of contentiousness that wasn’t really there. Less an extravaganza than a passable week. Some of that manufactured cattiness probably comes down to a group of queens that genuinely get along, and the eased frustrations in the room now that Nina Bo’nina Brown was sent packing.

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RuPaul's Drag Race S9E10 - The New Ru Crew

by Chris Feil

After last week’s shocking fall from grace and resulting elimination for Valentina sent the RuPaul’s Drag Race fandom into such a tizzy, it’s a relief that this episode was largely all love.

For all the quibbles and bitching among fans of the show and the drama that inevitably comes between contestants, the show always comes from the heart. From the cruelest villains to the most resilient champions to the sad queen learning to accept herself, Drag Race loves every competitor who crosses its gates. Its a major reason why it elicits such a passionate response.

But Drag Race’s love extends far beyond the competition, and this episode showed us a little bit more of Mama Ru’s extended family. Past queens have mentioned in interviews how tight knit they become with the crew as well as their sister queens, but this challenge allowed that affection to be featured onscreen: for this season’s makeover challenge, the queens had to dragify a crew member.

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RuPaul's Drag Race S9E9 - Behind the Mask

by Chris Feil

Have you caught your breath since this week’s dramatic elimination on RuPaul’s Drag Race? Should I get you an oxygen mask?

Drag Race has always been a show that delights in shocking us. This episode was so briskly paced, it was positively giddy to get past the challenge and workroom so that it could bring the drama. This week, the queens teamed up to create their own sitcom pilots (more a commercial for one, really). The challenge is perfectly timed with the upfronts over the past week, but Mama Ru dealt us one vicious cancellation.

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Drag Race S9E8: Roasting is Fundamental

by Chris Feil

Last week, RuPaul’s Drag Race gave us a stellar episode thanks to a nearly across the board strong performance by all of the queens. This week, we got an equally great episode but for the opposite reason.

The queens are challenged with the one-two punch of the Reading is Fundamental mini-challenge and a revival of season five’s RuPaul Roast (and six's photocopy Queens of Comedy). There may not have been a Laganja-level meltdown this time, but it has its share of Roxxxy flatline drama. Until know, you may have missed that we are short a comedy queen this season - though many of them can bring the funny when needed. [extreme Patti LuPone voice] They are wonderful, you know, performers for what they do, but they are not stand-up comedians...

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Drag Race S9E7 - 9021Ho No She Better Do

by Chris Feil

[a large cardboard giftbox rolls in and after a few confusing seconds, Chris emerges] I’m back, bitches!

Forgive my Shangela moment, I’m just that excited to be back on the Drag Race beat after Nathaniel kindly took over in my absence for last week’s fantastic Snatch Game. But while that episode felt like a real return to form, this episode was the show at its peak, serving full talent, drama, and emotion the way its best episodes do. The 90210 challenge and big hair runway concept were relatively unfussy, proving that RuPaul’s Drag Race excels by keeping its focus on the queens...

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