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

Naomi lipsynced against Acid Betty. Yeah, I didn't remember that either.

...that was bogus.

Yup.

I love Naomi so much and she's a Virgo, so

whut

(whut re the results not fgti)

that result felt super lazy imo

Based off the whole season, I would have given the prize to Trinity. But based off the final challenge, runway, and lipsync, it should have been Monet on her own. Trinity's final dress was really amazing, but you put that dress on any queen and she will look fabulous. Monet wore something that was about her, and she looked like an absolute queen in it. Also I just love Monet.

Based off the whole season I would've easily given the prize to Manila.

Trinity was so unlikeable. Her entire vector seemed less about "I want to contribute to drag culture" and more about "I want to win this competition". Every speech she gave about trying to be fair with her elimination choices felt emotionally manipulative. Her dresses and wigs were exquisite but looked like money spent... basically I felt the same way toward Trinity as I did toward Aquaria: money will hack this competition.

Naomi in her lip-syncs revealed herself to be not just an assassin but, like, uh, one of the best performers I've ever had the privilege of watching? I watched her Judy Garland performance three times and will watch it again

And I love Monique so so much I wish we were friends

Based off the whole season I would've easily given the prize to Manila.

Oh yes. I was only going on the four who were in the final. Definitely Manila.

xpost I have been having a hard time watching all of this all stars because I dislike Trinity so much.

I liked Aquaria fine tho. The queen where I thought “the money is being put to excellent use” was by far Miz Cracker, who has my favourite collection of runway looks over any other queen I’ve seen, whoever her designer is they should win an award

oh god i HATED Aquaria!! She was the most boring

She made me like The Vixen more, at least

yeah I feel like the producers knew they had an issue with all the all star winners being white. at least they didn't split the prize money in half.

Based off the whole season I would've easily given the prize to Manila.

Echoing that!

Lotta good points here:

https://www.dailyxtra.com/how-can-rupauls-drag-race-become-great-and-gay-again-144820#.XG77vEeokK4.twitter

Also it was interesting to hear Race Chaser grapple more directly with race in the wake of last week's ending. And Jinkx, who was on the line, was particularly pointed on that! As was Willam, who's close with Latrice.

Now this is great.

Shangela performed at the fucking #SpiritAwards. I loved it almost as much as Barry Jenkins does <3 pic.twitter.com/rIZstgrqEA

— Jarett Wieselman (@JarettSays) February 23, 2019

fuck she is the best

There we go.

Drag queens are at the #Oscars because a movie they’re in is nominated for Best Picture. That is so fucking epic. So proud of Shangela and Willam 💕 pic.twitter.com/8oiwKn6UdM

— Jarett Wieselman (@JarettSays) February 24, 2019

Must admit I haven’t had a chance to catch up on @RuPaulsDragRace, but wishing Ben all the best in raising money for a great cause @SandsUK. https://t.co/9WtToSrsFb

— Theresa May (@theresa_may) February 28, 2019

I appreciate how the first response is Aquaria trashing her.

Anyway, not a bad first episode all in all -- an actual sewing challenge from scratch, more or less! -- but both it and Untucked sure felt like "The Miley Reclamation Project" at times.

I got diagnosed with tendonitis

i have literally now heard everything

i’ve been a Miley stan from the Disney channel days, i love her so much & i thought she was awesome <3
(just quietly tho she should maybe get a restraining order against silky nutmeg bc jesus)
the hannah montana lipsync was hilar, such a weird shitshow

i love all the davenport girls but esp Honey, i love nina west, i’m into Canadian Detox Brooklyn whatever
i am here for them

i already hate Scarlet Envy she looks like the nightmare child of Tammie Brown & Violet Chachki.
and she’s Pearl’s drag daughter so it’ll be negligeès all the way down i guess

I’d have put Ms 3rd Last in the bottom two because her photoshoot was such a disaster and what a booooring outfit she made. But she probably would have stayed because it would be hard to do worse than that dire lipsynch.

I really, really, really wanted to love Silky but she makes it v hard
I did not hate Ariel nearly as much as I thought I would based on the 15 min preview
I really loved the *idea* of Soju and wanted her to stay for a minute but it was clear she is just not that good, also lmao at those overdrawn lips???

yeah, Soju seemed cool but was really just not ~together~ or ready enough for the show.

I enjoy Vanjie & her look but lord she needs a body glitter intervention. girl looks like she’s doing Goldfinger cosplay - she could use half as much & still look good

i was getting a good Nicole Byers vibe off Silky when she walked in. i def want to like her! i just hope she doesnt get booted before she eases up on the gas pedal

I have a feeling La Visage will say something about the Vanjie body glitter if it continues.

The conspicuous desperation is so off-putting, though, like if you're gonna play the game try to maybe be a bit more clever about it? It feels so artificial

wait so.....

it was very clear that soju was not ready to be on the show. the other queens were calling it out on air etc. they tried to edit into a storyline -- soju attempts to prove that she's an actual drag queen! -- but she's prob the least prepared queen in the show's history. i found it embarrassing and i feel bad for her... i see she's trying to make a meme out of going on national tv and talking about how a cyst on her taint exploded while she was on an airplane, and like yeah you can certainly make that kinda thing your brand but i don't think that's how she saw this going. anyway i find it hard to believe the producers didn't realize all of this beforehand and though i don't *think* they cast her with the intention of making a fool out of her, i wonder what they really thought was going to happen

also i find it extremely lame that they cast a fuckin RECAPPER to be on the show. drag race has this myopia about its own mythology that i find to be kinda suffocating at this point & between soju and vanjie and the summoning or invocation of like two dozen old queens this episode really started to push the limit for me

oh & the cast is like a third queens whose drag mothers are old drag race queens. it's just a lot

I sometimes wonder if the ultimate goal of the show is to create a mega All-Stars season where it's all the past champions in a fight to the death, and then Ru finally retires.

Yeah, the show's reached peak Marvel Cinematic Universe monocultural insularity. I too don't know what they were getting at with Soju.

Also, have a feeling its trajectory is going to mirror The Simpsons'.

Pretty sure the producers decided to say fuck saturation we’re riding this thing into the ground.

Ru's early career certainly gives her all reason to make the most when the iron's hot.

I mean we've already reached the 'people who grew up on the show win' stage with Aquaria. Next season should just be recappers, and then Ru sends them all home immediately and then it does finally become the Best Friend Race with Ru and the main three judges just sitting around talking trash.

the producers are tanking the show, intentionally or not. imo.

i still watch project runway and top chef so it's not like im gonna stop watching this... at its core it's still an amazing show. any show that makes it that long eventually worms its way up its own ass. but drag race is coming out the other side at this point

I still watch Top Chef and PR too (love Top Chef so much still). I didn't watch the last regular season or finish the All Stars that Trinity And Trixie won (I am not a fan of either of them). I saw the holiday special in its entirety (terrible). I may just wait until the british version comes out before picking this back up.

Has anyone seen the Thai version? I really should.

In many ways, the ancillary programming the show has resulted in is where the real fun is these days.

What’s a Recapper? Who was it?

Has anyone seen the Thai version? I really should

I feel like instead of maxing out the brand with more all stars and more regular seasons they should just air the international versions of the show

yeah the thai version is surpassing the american one at this point

That was a mess -- but a thought provoking mess because it broke certain conventions, and breaking points illustrate the rules of reality tv as a genre.

Reality tv hates ambiguity, and narratively important moments need to demonstrate clear causality. I think that's partly why Mercedes's reticence to talk about her religion feels so frustrating; in a genre where everything needs to be legible, not be forthcoming is undermines audience expectation. And legible causality is also why the fight between Silky and her team doesn't feel rewarding -- we don't really get a chance to hear Silky explain herself (and that's something I noticed in the previous episode, too, where people cut her off before she's done talking), which is then capped off by the non sequitur of her saying that she's ready to lipsync. When people on reality tv fight, we usually want to know who's in the right and who's in the wrong so that we can take a side, but when that's not clear, we're left confused and unresolved.

Sorry for waxing critical, I'd rather think about the above than gay Urkel or budget Aquaria.

Vanjie was awesome though.

Vanjie is such a joy to watch

That lipsync was bananas. In a bad way