What do you get when you cross about a dozen drag queens, awesomely bad puns, sequins, shade, more sequins, product placement extravaganzas, and a whole lot of pink? If you said ‘a good time’, you’d technically be correct, but the answer I’m looking for is ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’, the most fun hour of television week in and week out.
The hit Logo reality show is something like American Idol meets Project Runway meets America’s Next Top Model by way of a bad ecstasy trip. The queens have to have charisma (as well as uniqueness, nerve, and talent) and know how to work a stage, but they’re responsible for providing/making their own costumes and being able to accomplish all of what makes a drag queen true royalty. In addition to the considerable skill set that one must have to make it far in the competition (in a nutshell, sew, strut, and sell), all challenges based on Ru’s career highlights, you have to be able to hang with the big girls in terms of dishing out catty one liners (if you let it break you, you’re done) and overshadowing that chick while lip syncing for your life.
The prize? $75,000, a lifetime supply of Kryolan makeup, and a spot on the Absolut Drag Tour.
Now in its third season, the show has ramped up the number of contestants (13), celebrity guest judges (Vanessa Williams, Chloe Sevigny, and Lily Tomlin, among others, have already stopped by), and ridiculous challenges (exercise videos, red carpet scandals, campy sci fi movie trailers) to the point where 42 minutes with Ru and the ladies is a big ball of positivity at the end of a long Monday night. Joined on the judging panel by Project Runway alum Santino Rice and multi-talented Michelle Visage, Ru is a warm, gracious host who can spit out Paris is Burning references and her signature ‘don’t f-ck it up’warning with as much aplomb as tender words of praise to the more fragile queens. While Drag Race is the ultimate reality three ring circus, there’s enough emotional stories there to keep you personally invested in what happens; it’s not like other reality shows where it’s used as a crutch to keep someone on a show, though. Many queens have had a moment, shrugged it off, and went about their business, keen on proving whoever did them wrong with their strength of character and resolve.
In celebration of just how good the show actually is, I thought I’d run down the contestants in terms of who I like and who I think will make it to the final three, eventually winning the title of America’s Next Drag Superstar.
As per usual with any reality show, who I like isn’t necessarily who I think will make it into the top three. Right now,Raja, Manila, and Shangela are the top three contestants and two of those I agree with. Raja, also known as Sutan the make-up artist from America’s Next Top Model, is the oldest and by far the most professional queen there, consistently giving the judges this kind of couture sophistication that Drag Race doesn’t normally see. He’s got a runway walk for the ages and has been a frontrunner since day one, but his personality is a little much and sometimes it’s hard to root for the one who knows they’re the best and passes judgment on everyone else out there (could this be a Raven edit?). As much as I respect Raja’s work, I’m also not sure if he’s as much of a drag queen as he is a fantastic model; I’d like to see him lip sync for his life once to find out how much performance talent is in that gazelle-like body, but for now, he’s definitely the one to beat.
Manila, boyfriend of last year’s Sahara Davenport, faces the opposite problem where she’s a dynamite performer (her runway is graceful and her acting has been magnetic) but a little spotty in terms of fashion. Her fashion ‘offenses’are relatively minor and she still dwarves some of the other queens in that area, but I’m just afraid that she’ll pull a Jujubee/Pandora where the performances consistently crackle (the stereotypically Asian accent gives me mixed feelings — I hope she goes back to it sparingly) but the style is meh. All I know is that I would liked to have seen her performance as Tweaker the Space Monkey a little more, so Logo, get on that.
Shangela was the first queen eliminated last season, but after co-starring in an episode of Terriers and getting a year of experience under her belt, she reauditioned and made it back into the house. Halleloo! She’s kind of in the same boat as Manila where her fashion has been okay at best (so. many. nip slips.), but she’s won two challenges for how charismatic and fiery her performances have been. I personally don’t even really see Shangela in the traditional sense of a Drag Queen who performs in nightclubs and tours; I think she could easily be an entertainment reporter (her gossip segment on the QNN News was charming) or actress because when she’s on, she’s so likable. Ru obviously likes her enough to keep her around, so I think she’ll get far. I just hope she doesn’t get in her own way.
The next pack of ladies (Alexis, Carmen, Delta) are the ones who I could see turning it on and making a charge for the top but they’ve not been able to shine as much yet. Alexis has won two challenges, but how much camera time has she had? I know when you have a bunch of big personalities it’s hard to get everyone in there equally, but you’d think someone as bubbly and nice as Alexis would have a little spotlight. This worries me because Drag Race likes the big personalities and if Alexis is left with, say, Raja, Shangela, and Manila, I have a feeling she would fade a little in the judge’s mind. I adore her, though, because she just seems like a good person who stays away from the drama and she’s talented enough to be able to stand on her own two feet.
I’m not a big fan of Carmen, but I think she can do well for herself in the competition. Above all else in RuPaul’s Drag Race, you have to be a beauty and Carmen has never failed to show off her assets. That’s actually my main problem; at least from what we’ve seen so far, all Carmen has is a nice body and nothing else. Her performance in the challenges has been very flat and with three of her four runway outfits not leaving anything to the imagination, it seems that she may be aware of her limits. I do give her credit because she tried a longer dress in a recent episode, so she may simply be taking longer to show off what she can do, but as of right now, she’ll get the Tati/Rebecca edit of ‘gorgeous but not great’and scratch the top 4-5.
I go back and forth on Delta and she’s the competition’s wildcard for me. She has everything to be fantastic, but she’s not really clicked for me during the competition. The judges seem to like her and she doesn’t have a whole lot of enemies in the house, so it may just be that she’s slipped under the radar, but she’s never had a moment where I’ve been bowled over by her fashion or her choices in performance. Now’s the point in the competition where you sink or swim, so Delta needs to start making bolder choices and asserting herself before she’s swept out of the show without a chance to show who she is.
The bottom ladies (Yara, Stacey, Mariah) all have their strong suits, but I think the odds are stacked against each of them so much that a deep run would surprise me. Yara has made me oddly proud the last two weeks because she was such a non-entity in the opening couple of episodes that all you knew her for were the off-putting blue contacts that she wears on the runway. After slaying in the exercise video challenge and performing solidly in the QNN News challenge, I think she has some talent. She’s just inconsistent and I worry that she may be seen as one dimensional by the judges. Yes, queens with thick accents have a rougher time adapting to the tasks on the show because it’s hard to really take them as more than the ‘Latin Queen'(either Alexis or Yara mentioned that on the premiere, wanting to be known as more than that). If Yara can find a way to stretch her talent a little and keep her fashion mistakes down (her outfit last episode was phenomenal), she could challenge for a spot in the top three, but I’m just not seeing it as this juncture.
I like Stacey but the potential she has isn’t great enough to overcome a spotty performance. There are moments where she just has It, that X-factor where you believe she could rock any venue she steps in, but they fade quickly and her inexperience shows. In a way, I hope she goes out next only to have a ‘redemption’arc like Shangela; Stacey needs some serious drag bootcamp in a bigger city where she hones her craft and matures every aspect of her performance. I think she could be a serious threat next year if she gets a little more refined, but now she’ll last a week or two more at most.
Oh, Mariah. You are so beautiful and yet…there’s nothing there. At all. Mariah’s lack of personality should ultimately do her in during the upcoming Snatch Game episode where the queens will break out their best celebrity impressions. It kills me how poorly she’s done because of how glamorous she is on the runway, but her talking heads have had infinitely more zest to them than anything she’s done so far in the competition. I could be completely wrong and she has a hell of a lot of talent that hasn’t gotten a good chance to be shown, but if you told me she was in a LSFYL with any of the remaining queens, I would assume the other queen would win. If she (or any other queen) proves me wrong in the upcoming episodes, though, more power to her.
Personally, I’m rooting for Manila, Shangela, and Alexis to make it to the final three because Raja doesn’t have the drama of a drag queen, so to speak. She would make an absolutely stunning model, but to me, her fashion sense is almost too polished to be a queen; drag queens are supposed to be outrageous and these fun, larger than life figures. I don’t get the sense that Raja can do that and I’m not sure why she hasn’t went to that well yet. We know you can put a killer outfit together and we know you have legs for days, so why not go a little quirky and out of your comfort zone in order to show your range?
RuPaul’s Drag Race is the most fun hour of television in my week, no questions asked. It’s an hour that you will leave feeling better than you did heading into it, whether it be through Ru’s positive affirmations (‘If you don’t love yourself, how in the hell are you gonna love anybody else?’), the bright lights, the color, the music, the talent. Drag Race knows what it is and it’s not afraid to let its freak flag wave high in the sky for all of the other channels to see. Trust me, Ru, I am truly jealous of your boogie.
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