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

i've actually liked this season better than i thought i would even tho too many of the challenges were poorly conceived or presented... the dual personalities one from a few weeks back was a complete trainwreck. but i think there were some rly good out of drag personalities this season... i got a huge kick out of monet, asia & monique's confessionals for instance. and then as far as the onstage talent goes... in most seasons -- even the classic ones -- there's maybe three queens who can really do it all so i didn't find this season to be a let down in that regard. i don't find there to be a huge gulf in quality between the final 4 here and what it was last season.

also generally i think the show always peters out towards the end... especially because you can really feel the producers bending the show in a certain direction, as they are to aquaria here, who they clearly see as someone who can really extend the drag race brand. im thinking back to season 7 when violet chachki beat ginger minj, kennedy davenport, katya, trixie etc... it is what it is

generally i think the show always peters out towards the end

A flaw inherent the entire reality competition series model, really.

Why is Todrick always so cruel? Like is he EVER nice or fun? Or even, like, respectfully critical?

really? I love that about him. he’s so intense, he doesnt take no nonsense.maybe it’s bcz he’s a choreographer first?
he has that Debbie Allen thing like
ONE AND TWO
AND TURN AND KICK
👏🏻WHAT👏🏻 IS 👏🏻WRONG
👏🏻WITH 👏🏻YOUR 👏🏻FEET

like there’s no grey. get it right we move on, get it wrong i burn you with my eye lazers until u stop being a fuckup. cool? cool.

maybe i just watched too much Fame as a kid lol.

and omg i looooooved that dance routine.

now that I think about it I think all of S9's top 4 are better than anyone in S10

true

S9 was epiccccccc

yeah this season felt more like the last allstars than a fully fierce competition

Sorry bout it. Just not feeling this season at all. On any level. (Except Vixen.)

Why is Todrick always so cruel? Like is he EVER nice or fun? Or even, like, respectfully critical?

I saw him on something else recently and he seemed a lot nicer than he does here.

haha i kind of love him on the show. idk this time he was being tough on queens who clearly have a lot of talent and can handle it.

I found a lot to like about this season and have been through enough of the rodeos now that every season gets nitpicked or (dare I say) dragged in ways that in future don't always hold up. (But overpraise is a thing too.) That we did see more design challenges in general was welcome.

Honestly what I'm really wondering about is with the eleventh season. We are, presumably, having another live lip sync resulting in eliminations for the crown as the final episode. But they have to find some way to change it up next year in order to avoid the understandable 'so all that matters is to make the final four' repeat process. But what direction can they go in? Go back to three? Expand to...five?

But what direction can they go in? Go back to three? Expand to...five?

Something that I've waited for a reality competition to do is to have no eliminations, just have the same number of queens compete over the course of a whole season.

communist

It could be like Taskmaster.

Comrade thruuuu. xp

Welllll that was an intense reunion.

The Vixen's every moment was expected. Was not quite as aware the girls were all going to turn on Kameron, Valentina-style. There's always gotta be one, huh.

Good read, I think:

https://tv.avclub.com/tears-flow-and-tempers-flare-on-an-explosive-drag-race-1827037523/amp

(alfred) Soto voce: https://www.slantmagazine.com/house/article/rupauls-drag-race-recap-season-10-episode-13-queens-reunited

Ready for Asia's Drag Race. Ready for Ru's Ru-tirement. This show as-is is harmful and stale and Ru doesn't seem to be aware just how much so.

Um, I think we're still at the point where the show's benefits are outweighing any harm.

I'm speaking in terms of the show itself, not the online actions of its fanbase. "Stale" is a separate issue that's worth bringing up, tho.

i found the discussion between ru and the vixen to be very interesting in that it encapsulated the widening generational divide in how to deal with serious structural problems within society. ru saying “i swallowed discrimination to get here” and the vixen essentially saying “fuck that” sits next to, like, debates about appropriation or no-platformimg vs “debate”... it would perk the interest of middle aged male columnists if they had any idea

otm

i love when Ru loses his shit. He hasn’t been that loose & fired up since the S2 reunion with Tammie Brown “i dont see you walking children in nature”

Asia was pretty otm, but Sarge is right, it def showed up the gap in thinking, generationally, between Ru & Vixen

otm [2]

For many people, but esepecially younger generations, enduring tone-policing, bullying and outright abuse in order to 'make it' just doesn't cut it anymore. There's nothing empowering about smiling and nodding while you're forced to endure horrible behavior from someone who wields so much control over your life. Ru needs to crawl out of his ass and try to understand this new context Drag Race has found itself in, instead of fighting it. If behaving like a "professional" meant Vixen sitting there and apologizing while Eureaka wasn't reprimanded as well, then they can keep it and she had every right to walk out of there.

I don't think many writers would touch on this issue because honest self-relfelction is hard, especially when it's about your career trajectory.

My next post is a SPOILER for tonight.

Has an attempted stunt ever backfired as sadly as those butterflies did?

For the record, the moribund nature of this thread this season matches my own feelings about the show at this point.

It’s dead.

That...was not a good ending.

And yeah I was all "Was something supposed to happen?" when Asia did those moves.

A statement from Asia.

murdering butterflies in a failed lip sync stunt is some of the funniest shit to ever happen on this show. not for the butterflies obviously but....

For the record, the moribund nature of this thread this season matches my own feelings about the show at this point.

It’s dead.

When I first saw Asia’s costume I assumed her boobs were going to shoot fireworks or something. Even if the butterflies had ‘performed’ they would have been pretty invisible on a stage like that. Really bad idea (though the audience reactions were hilarious).

Poor Asia. She was my favourite out of the final four, and she messed that up so badly. I cannot imagine why she thought that would be a good idea. Where did she get it from? Is this a thing people do?
I really hope they bring in a "no live animals of any kind" rule after this. As if they ever thought they would need one.

More than two queens lipsynching at one time is always a disaster, imho. And that final lipsync was bad. Kameron and Aquaria both looked wound up and desperate, and Eureka was way out of her league.

Interesting that they had picked a song with three singers for the final lip synch. It’s almost as if they knew...

Absolutely.

Eureka's reveals were fine, and everything, during "If." But I clocked her not knowing the lyrics multiple times during that song. It was rigged to feature 3 queens at the end.

wow yeah that was underwhelming. Filming all the queens "winning" and then not revealing it til the finale actually airs sucks ALL of the energy out of the room bcz we are left with these weak-ass feigned reactions, ugh.

Interesting that they had picked a song with three singers for the final lip synch. It’s almost as if they knew...

Exactly what I thought too. And that way the audience at the taping only knows about one queen who doesn't win.

They haven't ever come up with a satisfactory way to wrap up seasons. Either they capture a genuine reaction in a studio vacuum, or they pre-tape multiple canned possible endings that are ragingly false.

This is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time.

Asia’s butterflies trying to decide who’s going to fly first pic.twitter.com/yffBcexic9

— ces (@cexargaga) June 29, 2018

the final episodes are never good

it’s surprising to me that they’ve never tried a live show

I think its too expensive for a show like this.. I think its low production value is part of its selling point to the network

Well also you can tell ALLLL the edits that go into the finales, every time.

They should have done the lipsync to this version of the song at least.

https://youtu.be/UlPsybmaNmA

Yeah, the sheer number of costume changes and the like prevent a fully live show

what a trainwreck that was.