'...and DON'T *bleep* IT UP!' -- the RuPaul's Drag Race thread

About time for this, I figure! Fifth season premiered yesterday.

condragulations

Quite right!

this show is kind of fascinating in a "gender is all performance!" way - everyone congratulating each other (incl the judges) on how well they achieve some kind of archetypal female-ness

Okay come on, I KNOW I'm not the only person on here watching.

I promise to start now.

Marilyn Monroe should've been in the bottom. She didn't do anything.

Yeah that was an epic flop. I like Ivy well enough but that made me go "Whuh?"

Jinkx, Alaska and Roxy were the best overall, but Jinkx just owned it period.

I like Ivy too and I think she was lucky she didn't have to lipsynch against Lineysha. I didn't expect her to do so well (but her Celia Cruz was unforgiveable).

Deep clusterfuck, that. Also what WAS Detox thinking.

um hi I just started watching season 5 online having never watched and omg I'm hooked

I'll be caught up in no time :D

Don't forget to watch Untucked, an essential part of this show!

Yeah I just figured that out...gotta love these bitchy girls. MORE drag homework? *twists arm*

Very good. Join us, join us...

Shanté, you stay!

Season 2 still the best so far, I think.

I just binge-rewatched season 3 over the weekend on Netflix and I might have to vote for that one. Then again I just like Raja a hell of a lot, so.

Yes for Raja and Manila. But the rest, not so interesting. Yara-Sophia maybe...

It actually came down to the right final four I thought, Alexis was a character in her own right. But yeah Yara (Xara?) was next level.

I still haven't seen season four! For some stupid reason it's not on Netflix -- it was for about two seconds and then went away again without explanation. (Already know who won, obv., but I'd like to see it happen.)

Wait what!! Can't you watch it on logo online or something? We can't in Canada but I thought you could in the US.
Season 4 was pretty good, although they tried to create too much unnecessary drama. But I'll let you see by yourself.

You can see the Untucked episodes from season 4 on the site but not the main shows. Since you can buy all the shows from iTunes maybe they want to go that route? Who knows!

Makes sense. If RuPaul had a dollar everytime she mentions iTunes...

Hey, house payments are probably up there. (And I don't begrudge Ru ANY success and trappings.)

I don't either. At least she's very upfront and funny about it.

Fun fact we learned during the All Stars season: Jujubee's real name is actually Airplane!

Hahaha yeah I remember thinking "Wait, what?"

I also love that Manila's real name is the none-more-Minnesota Karl Westerberg.

Lol wow

Almost caught up on S5 now yay!

Every single time Alyssa glams up for the runway all I think is JOAN COLLINS JOAN COLLINS JOAN COLLINS

I don't know why but I think I like Detox. Jinkx is great but I dunno if the unglam thing is going to hold out for her or not. I love her for it, but it could wear thin.

I will say this, have started following her on FB -- win or lose she seems to be having a blast and is booked for other live appearances and things and more this year already, so I like to think of her as winning already!

Meanwhile, it's a little surprising to see such a mostly white group at this point. Not that I think the show is biased, appears to be more luck of the draw season by season in terms of who survives.

that little edie impersonation was fuckin awesome in the last ep. too bad her fashion totally sucks.

I found s2 streaming on Amazon Prime, so yaaaay

Meantime:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/02/27/drag_race_grey_gardens_and_jinx_monsoon_why_the_queens_need_camp.html

I do have to quibble with some of the assertions there -- while Sharon's success in 4 is great, in 3 Raja was more than a little disruptive herself -- as was Manila really; if anything Alexis was the one let go at the end precisely for being full pageant.

I haven't watched all the seasons, but I don't get the impression that they are only seeking pageant or necessarily favoring that. And while I noticed the lack of "camp history" in the S5 girls, isn't there an argument that maybe a lot of queens are trying to let go of that, like that cliche of teens not wanting to know about older music? I mean, I'm bummed that they don't know who Little Edie is but maybe when they see Jinkxs win they go find out. And it doesn't mean they're any more terrible for what they don't know of their history. If anything, it's kind of fabulous that they all came to that same place *without* it.
I dunno. That article seemed a little too buttclenched.

Related but I think better expressed post, linked off the official site

http://www.newnownext.com/drag-race-jinkx-monsoon-snatch-game-little-edie/02/2013/

Oh and in checking Twitter Alyssa DID apologize to Ms. Perry.

Also this exchange is interesting (notice it's everyone else BUT Jinkx and Michelle who get riled up -- and as Michelle notes, in noting the obvious, there's always editing).

https://twitter.com/JinkxMonsoon/status/306550634079977473

This is better than what they showed on the show:

http://www.newnownext.com/jinkx-monsoon-little-edie-rupauls-drag-race/02/2013/

My Top 5 Snatch Game contestants from all seasons:

1. Sharon Needles as Michelle Visage
2. Pandora Boxx as Carole Channing
3. Tatianna as Britney Spears
4. Jinkx Monsoon as Little Edie
5. Alexis Matteo as Alicia Keys

Only three eps in (S5; no previous exposure to the show). Anyone care to rank the hottest queens out of drag? So far from S5 I'm into Lineysha and, oddly, Ivy.

xpost I just watched the S2 Snatch Game, Pandora's Carol Channing was hysterical, so good.

Lineysha's gorgeous. Ivy's not a crazy answer either, that bone structure really is something else. I was thinking about her terrible Marilyn and found myself wondering why the hell she didn't do Joan Rivers. Eh. Hindsight

Yes she would've been a great Joan Rivers!

Yeah, I know this is probably the exact rongest angle to take on the show, but I'm finding it very interesting navigating my impressions/levels of attraction to certain contestants when they're in drag vs. when they're not in drag.

Alyssa's *almost* attractive but it's like her lips are too big for her and she keeps tripping over them when she talks. Beautiful eyes though.

Coco's blue contacts freak me out. I keep expecting them to shoot lasers

Haha Alyssa looks like Will Arnett in AND out of drag.

Hottest out of drag:

S1: Jade
S2: Tyra, Raven
S3: Raja, Carmen, Mariah
S4: PhiPhi, Lashauwn
S5: Lineysha

xp otm

Well, actually, in drag he often reminds me of Hugo Weaving.

xpost elmo otm! Defnitely Will Arnett out of drag. In drag as mentioned upthread I just get constant Joan Collins, lol

xp for some reason i thought they only had older seasons and crave had the exclusive rights to new seasons - thank you, just subscribed!

That was a very rushed episode, and also I think it's fine when it's Trixie and Katya or other established queens, but some of the newer acts might want to be careful about taking the piss out of straight white women who show up to meet and greets and drag brunches.

That was a very rushed episode, and also I think it's fine when it's Trixie and Katya or other established queens, but some of the newer acts might want to be careful about taking the piss out of straight white women who show up to meet and greets and drag brunches.

Thanks for posting twice, stupid internet.

i don’t think anyone’s feelings could get hurt over the piss being taken so poorly lol
i mean, that whole thing was just “wuh?”

Oh yeah, it was a deeeesaster.

ok almost all of that Snatch Game was wtf

but the untucked was really good?

it’s no secret this show suffered from bloat in recent seasons but the 1 hour edits this season are pretty off putting … it has the effect of making the episodes feel like a series of marks to be hit. the inspirational personal story segment felt especially shoehorned in this episode. the runways have been truncated all season. no mini challenges. it’s like watching the show on 1.5 speed. doing 2 diff snatch games in one episode would be a lot in a previous season but in this format it left a lot to be desired. the consultations with ru are often the best parts of snatch game episodes, just completely removed in this one. can’t imagine an extra 15 mins would kill MTV

yeah it feels very FINE HERE’S YER SLOP

of course here i am still watching anyway

the best things about this episode was
1) untucked and
2 pitstop w Bianca & Adore <3

yeah not loving shorter episodes at all, which is weird because the old format could feel like a drag at times

but they’re cutting the parts that made this show special. anticipation of the snatch game, ru sabotaging, queens changing their minds at the last minute

the actual snatch game edit was weird too. we hardly saw sasha at all?

we somehow skipped all stars 2 and watching it now and it’s funny how pitstop used to be like 10 min long

as for the bottom two i said to husband, this is their chance to have the twins lipsync and sure enough. the untucked was essential context this time and really went a long way to show the twins in a more sympathetic way.

loved the pit crew being involved though. we need a pit crew makeover challenge!

yeah that was fun having the pit crew involved

Yeah Untucked & Pit Stop were definitely necessary this time around. Whoof.

But also agreed on Pit Crew involvement, that was overdue and well done!

But anyway throwing in those extras

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP9wX5Wz-fk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz9sv0frhR0

Also earlier this week, a forever champion continuing greatness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBV6hD44hbs

Oh and I was lax -- RuView from last time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZPXArFM-bA

And Willam and Alaska in turn:

https://megaphone.link/FODP4257049036

I just rewatched the Pit Stop with Adore again because it really is so good. There are very few people who can say "NO!" and somehow still have me laughing about it five minutes later.

And she brings out the best in Bianca imo … I like them both so much when they’re together

Sugar's name necklace is very similar to the necklace that Shah Rukh Khan wears in the 1998 classic Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, except his says "COOL" because he's cool. When my obsessions collide.
https://images.news18.com/ibnlive/uploads/2018/10/kuch-kuch-hota-hai2.jpg

OMG <3

I dunno, I'm having the opposite reaction to this season. I've been exhausted by the longer format and a return to 40-minute length has been a lot more effective in keeping my attention (granted I've noticed that my capacity for patience has really gotten shallow for everything lately). Is it formulaic about hitting marks? Sure, but I also think that the twins talking about Untucked were just as pro forma and more to the point turning trauma into reality tv currency in order to fit it into the usual narratives (I fully admit that this might just be my bourgie distaste for airing familial drama in public).

I will now start a fight with you to increase ratings.

i didn't realize until this weekend that they shortened the episodes not out of any creative inspiration but just so that they could use drag race as a lead in to real friends of west hollywood while sandwiching it with untucked in an attempt, i guess, to hold the drag race audience hostage. bad!

Very bad! Willam and Alaska, Willam in particular, has been calling this out on the podcast for a few weeks now.

i watched all of last season standing in a jam packed bar i'm really sympathetic to the notion that the episodes were too lengthy but now i feel mad on principal aside from the fact that the show was noticeably losing some of its verve w/ the truncated runway edits & such. i think last week it was really noticeable bcuz they managed to accomplish the trick of double feeding us snatch game while simultaneously getting rid of all the stuff that actually made snatch game interesting (the parts leading up to it)

thinking about it more i think what was wearing on me was less the length of the episodes & more the length of the seasons. between the double premiere, no one going home until episode 4 and chocolate bar stuff last season it just felt like a bit of a sick joke. but i think when it comes to watching a discreet episode i want the extra 15 minutes

i will say that i feel swept up in the intense backlash to the west hollywood show & todrick hall in particular w/o having watched any of it just bcuz i now suspect that MTV's entire reason for picking up drag race was to try and use it to start its own real housewives franchise? it's funny bcuz i couldn't picture myself felling protective of drag race at this juncture but it all feels very offensive to me on like a molecular level

I know nothing of this (except what I read on Tom and Lorenzo), but I thought Todrick Hall was firmly cancelled for, among other things, not paying dancers?

xpost Agreed on all that. Willam's mentioned things like how half the cast are in the Valley anyway (typical, I figure) and apparently something how one almost cast member was denied because of their onlyfans? If I'm remembering that right.

todrick hall was cancelled online but not cancelled when you're trying to make a TV show about semi famous gay men in LA and you need to find a headliner who is maybe a little bit more famous than the rest of them. but it seems that MTV is learning the hard way that the intended audience for this show really does not fuck w/ todrick hall

I think this show is over, pretty decisively

Drag Race or WeHo?

(both, of course)

WeHo was over before it even started

As a WOW subscriber, I feel I should be entitled to longer episodes than MTV viewers are getting.

I think this show is over, pretty decisively

― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Monday, January 23, 2023 8:53 PM (yesterday)

i wanna feel this way but symone & willow pill are two of the greatest queens to ever appear on the show & basically justify the entire enterprise even as it's become a borderline intolerable parody of itself in many ways. elevating two performers w/ that kinda charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent is more than you could say for many hollywood or television studios let alone reality shows in their 15th season. but it doesn't feel like that kinda person is present in this season, so maybe you're right

Agree with all that; at worst, it's still around as a very popular vehicle to launch great personalities. But the show itself is ... just rote and in need of some kind of big shakeup.

I think the following two points are probably (definitely) tied together but a) Ru needs to step down and let someone co-host/lead the show and b) they need to greatly expand their parameters of their still-too-narrow aesthetic - Willow Pill and Sharon Needles should not still be outliers

I guess Willow Pill is not an aesthetic outlier as much as a personality thing but you get the gist

there are so many drag queens I know of, both local and IG-famous, who I'd love to see compete but will never get a shot in this current environment

i'm seeing willow perform on friday...

I can get on board with the "The show is too focused on glamor" train -- that's been the biggest source of enervation for me (not to mention the wallets of the contestants).

my worry is that with the new format/provider they’ll lose all the wonderful stupidity that made the show great in the first place

Michelle Visage has spent so much time in London that she was seen eating spotted dick on the left side of the road.

Roffle.

Oh and update time -- RuView!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWdKr81ZK_g

And Willam and Alaska:

https://megaphone.link/FODP4242606848

So a better episode this week. Even the quick clips of the reading challenge was smart.

lol I think I must be in Bizzaroworld because THIS last episode felt too compressed!

Ha! It all goes around:

Pit Stop w/Detox

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umDSqorytQo

Whatcha Packin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXVk54zBz_c

the latest photo fashion ruview was very funny in that it was the opposite of what the judges said on pretty much everything

Haha true. And here's that link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsq0az7m7mY

And Willam and Alaska:

https://megaphone.link/FODP4702877822