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

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

This episode felt timekillery but at least we're still winnowing down. Untucked with the Old Gays was the best part.

Pit Stop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHrMFX1umBg

Whatcha Packin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHj6IMjvhtU

maybe i’d have less of an issue with shorter episodes if they didn’t spend half of the time having an argument over who gets the metal song and the rest of the time talking about the argument

otm
seriously fucking kill me
and then the same rehashed argument in untucked ffs

also loooool @ marcia thinking she was in the top for a) no old-age makeup and b) that fucking runway look
are u joking

Ancillary note but this was fun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HvD8gaehF4

particularly because it was 10 min where they did not talk about who deserved the metal song

princess poppy: “it looks like she just threw it together”
everybody else: “she did, it was a sewing challenge”

lol back to 90 mins next month

bullying works

(or not since Best Friends of Hoes will be done by then anyway)

also I like how enough queens will have left by then that it'll feel like it's dragging

thanks MTV

If nothing else I think that'll mean they won't try stuff like THAT again.

Anyway, ancillary fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcLha7A-o-I

And Willam and Alaska:

https://megaphone.link/FODP6000169696

I mean, if I'm to be honest with myself, the reason why I don't like longer-format Drag Race is because I basically no longer like Drag Race.

A fair judgment!

Maybe I've just been successfully seduced over to the Boulet Brothers' world in Dragula.

Let a million flowers bloom

lol so they added 10 min for more #metalgate and to bring back daytona winds?

the only 2 redeeming moments were “miss vanjie” and “cue a sniper”

That last part was an amazing moment.

No minutes added though? Still only an hour.

you’re right, we get it through a subscription, so no commercials, and i misread the total time as the remaining time when we were 10 mins into it

JFC that was bad.

I hated that mincing trot when Olivia Luxx did it and I'm completely over it with Spice.

the lipsync was pretty great

the challenge was meh. malaysia & mistress were fun tho & good final moment w the special guest. but jesus, even for a dopey sitcom challenge the editing on the final video was overkill to ridic levels. embarrassing.

loosey laduca is bringing a lot of jan energy now with her “i should have been in the top” & that always leads me to pray for a spectacular flameout … so fingers crossed?

inject sasha colby’s runway into my veins so good

kandy & bianca on pitstop is a gift btw

Jax definitely turned out for that lipsync.

I kind of think that Anetra's comedy skills are overlooking something very fundamental, like she's giving total dead-face that makes the jokes fall flat, and so I was surprised that she got into the top (then we would've been spared Loosey moaning about being safe).

Oh great another lipsync smackdown next week. Can Marsha*3 or S-titties sashay away already?

I miss the chemistry and creativity of last season's group so much

Ahead of tomorrow, a little ancillary catchup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-Ox6rdesoI

And Willam and Alaska:

https://megaphone.link/FODP8350334379

Meantime: saw the premiere of Drag Race Belgique today. Rita's a solid host and the vibe was engagingly low key, and I mean that as a compliment. It felt more affable and supporting than DRAMA, and I don't mind it.

Also we've got Drag Race Sverige aka Sweden starting up in a little over two weeks...

Loved Sasha's stone cold professionalism: "I know the song, I know the stage."

Respect to Anetra for choosing not to steamroll Spice but that would've been entertaining.

Mistress doing the titty pop once was cute, doing it twice in the same song makes me question how deep her bag of tricks is.

The Untucked montage of all the acrobatic moves with Salina's belly flop was perfect.

Selena’s lipsync made me finally come around on enjoying her

Love Anetra, so classy, very badass. Sasha Colby ICON LEGEND AMAZING

When it comes down to it, I just really hated every single one of jax’s wigs and i never got past it. She always looked like she had no neck. Impressive performer tho!

loocey is going full jan with her delusion levels

Her Joan Rivers was great but said delusion is honestly her next best, most watchable quality.

Episode was great, but I feel like a lot of the wins were awarded according to producers' pre-decided storyline. I agreed with the girls in the werkroom, I thought Jax killed it against Mistress.

Sasha is just in a league of her own for me. Talented, likeable, professional, sickening, I hope she wins.

Easily in the top four. Who else at this point, you think?