Drag Race RuCap: "How's Your Headliner?"

No, your eyes don't deceive you. It seems the Love-Toot feud is over. Everybody say love!

NICK TAYLOR: Mama. This was ass. It’s not just that my beloved girl went home right before the finale when she definitely won the lip sync, though that would be enough to sour the episode even if it’d been better. But the sheer number of moving parts to this maxi challenge that aren’t adequately showcased and the bizarre judging make the episode’s criteria hard to evaluate and the queen’s talents minimally showcased. I have no quibbles with the episode’s winner or the final four we’ve arrived at, yet I’m surprised how much this elimination stunted my invested in seeing who crosses the finish line. I’d argue there’s a clear top 2 of our finishing quartet, yet, for the life of me, I can’t tell who’s facing off against Onya for the crown. Am I getting ahead of myself? Almost certainly, but god, I have such sour grapes about the whole thing. Are you in better spirits than I am, hun?

CLÁUDIO ALVES: Glad to know I’m not alone in my grumpiness this week. While I agree that the right girl won and loved the runway lewks across the board, almost everything else about the episode fell short…

Click to read more ...

Drag Race RuCap: “Drag Baby Mamas”

GET OUT 2 will star Onya Nurve. Start polishing the Oscar.

CLÁUDIO ALVES: It’s no secret that I don’t tend to like makeover challenges on RuPaul’s Drag Race and that the last few episodes of season 17 have led to a crescendo of grumpiness on my part. So, everything was stacked against “Drag Baby Mamas,” as far as I’m concerned. But surprise surprise, this was a rather lovely hour of reality TV, so sweet as to give you a cavity yet assembled with enough brio to develop the competition’s main characters in interesting ways. It felt raw and earnest in a way we rarely get on this program, whose manicured sentimentality usually trumps much-desired authenticity. And we even got to see Law Roach thirst over Onya’s dad which was the most relatable he’s ever been. Agree or disagree? 

NICK TAYLOR: I really liked it! Compared to how good the episode was at the level of pure characterization and emotional honesty between the queens and their parents, the actual challenge was kind of a letdown. I am reminded of one of Dawn’s many tweets from a few weeks ago saying how although season 16 had better drag, season 17 has been an even bigger serve as reality television, and she’s right on the money...

Click to read more ...

Drag Race RuCap: “Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve & Talent Monologues”

For a second there, it looked like Detox was back on the Drag Race stage.

NICK TAYLOR: As with last season’s top six challenge, we get a pairs main challenge which relies heavily on the queen’s ingenuity to spin gold from straw. Comparing this episode to "Bathroom Hunties" immediately makes me grateful for how much "Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve & Talent Monologues" allows the queens shake their shit without a safety net rather than making them literally sell something. The interpretive dance/monologue combo is still a very strange prompt, but as the best duet showed, it’s a fun platform for the queen’s creativity, trust, and improvisational skills to shine through. That’s a very generous spin on a challenge the queens and the audience absolutely should not have sat through, but even so, we got a very deserving winner and one of season 17’s stronger lip syncs. But then the lip sync winner was eliminated, and that’s not fun. How about you, did you have a good time this week? 

CLÁUDIO ALVES: Mama, this is garbage…

Click to read more ...

Drag Race RuCap: “Ross Matthews vs The Ducks”

Jewels wasn't the only one yawning through this acting challenge.

CLÁUDIO ALVES: After last week’s shitshow of an episode, the follow-up would necessarily feel like something of a disappointment. Don’t get me wrong - it’s a fine hour of reality TV, but not especially exciting in terms of drama, nor spectacular as far as the queen’s performances are concerned. It culminated in some dubious judging and a tragic elimination, fair as it might have been. Oh well, not every episode can be a winner. Overall, I’m still liking this season, in no small part, because of the contestants. It’s been a while since we had such dynamic characters on Drag Race, messy and rough around the edges, not untalented but generally unpolished. Well, most of them. If you call Samantha Star unpolished, she might just kill you.

NICK TAYLOR: It’s a genuinely great cast, and you can tell because they bring real personal stakes to such a mediocre acting challenge. And the elimination order is still surprising enough I don’t feel totally comfortable predicting a top four. We haven’t had a shocker of a frontrunner going home like Plasma last year, but neither has anyone been as generously over-protected despite some patent limitations as Q was. No one feels like they’ve snuck through the competition to make it this far, and give or take some bold judging, the track records for our seven queens (now six) feel fair to me...

Click to read more ...

Drag Race RuCap: “Villains Roast”

Villains look good in red, don't you think?

NICK TAYLOR: What a maddening episode of television this was. Don’t get me wrong, I had a lot of fun with the Villains Roast. This cast continues to surprise me, for better and worse, and season 17 continues to give us sheer entertainment at a delicious pace. But the cast’s harkening to the shady charisma of OG Drag Race has now manifested some of the most unprompted fits of delusional sabotage we’ve seen in years. Arrietty and Lexi spin out hard over absolutely nothing, falling victim to their inner saboteurs at the earliest possible second, and tearing down Jewels with a petty nastiness that kept bringing me back to Phi Phi O’Hara. They overwhelm the underdog victories of Lana and Lydia, who finally and deservedly get their first stellar critiques of the season. It’s sour enough that I’m really reconsidering Lexi’s long-assumed placement in the final four. How do you feel?

CLÁUDIO ALVES: Oh honey, I have OPINIONS on these bitches…

Click to read more ...