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

See, this is why I often don't bother with Untucked. I don't need to watch twenty minutes of some not-very-bright person screeching about how she doesn't care that she was called arrogant, when she clearly cares very much. It's not entertaining.

I have zero desire to see Untucked and I wish the main show would move away from this contrived drama and focus more on the art/craft/performance of drag. It's also really hard to watch when they bring in so much context from out of the show, who's following who on Instagram etc, I want to enjoy a TV show not live inside a self-contained universe.

LaLa’s lip sync was fantastic,

I loved how she carried herself throughout the whole critique and lipsync process, from her mock-shock at being in the bottom for having paper bags glued to a bodice, to agreeing with the judges' critiques without breaking down, to just going for it in the lipsync. She was a star.

The one thing I did like about Untucked was the observation that if you keep being safe, you get no face time with the judges, no chance for your little moment on the runway, and those moments are a very important part of the show.

LaLa has definite star power and I would have been gutted to see her go so soon, that lipsync was also one for the ages, how lucky we have been!!

Now that Joey's gone, the rest of the cast truly feels filler-free and I cannot for the life of me figure out who's going to go home next, like all of them feel like they could be top 5 and none of them feel like they deserve to go home 3rd.

Kandy is clearly stressed out and does not know how to handle stress v well, like... if someone calls you out, they're wrong, but if people DON'T call you out, they're also wrong??? Tamisha also went a little too hard, she's not wrong but she's also old enough to know better and should know when to cool it. She too feels like she's stressed out and taking a bit of it out on Kandy, it was nagl for either of them.

(as a person who hates confrontation in all forms i love watching Tamisha & Kandy just plant their feet & go at each other with full direct eye contact, no flinching)

reading btw the lines here a lot so thiis isnt in any way known just me speculatin

obv Tamisha is playing out her anger at “Kandy thinks I’m not competition” from last week by picking the fight this week.
Shes in her feelings being in the bottom & then Kandy + Tina running the room as soon as she walks in clearly worked her last nerve. She is prob panicking a little because the competition is harder than a pageant, and calls for a vitality & energy level that she’s maybe worried she can’t draw from as much as she used to.

And Kandy is in her feelings about being safe, because she is surrounded by competition & the only thing she knows how to do when she’s scared is be loud & attack. She knows deep down that improving ~slightly~ is NOT enough to make you a top queen & she knows she’s self-deluding & Tamisha calling her out for being arrogant cuts to the heart of her fear - that she’s not enough.

i love watching Tamisha & Kandy just plant their feet & go at each other with full direct eye contact

Worth noting though that on the couch Kandy was looking everywhere BUT at Tamisha.

vg v otm imo

My impression is that Untucked was all about Tamisha feeding producers drama so that she wouldn't be in the bottom two.

Oh btw Joey Jay's nudes went up this week.

Honestly, tho, if Symone can survive the sewing challenge without even knowing how to sew, she's got it ... all sewn up.

i see what you etc

pic.twitter.com/dgG6W8uluO

— UticaQueen Stan Account 💜 (@companerode5) February 4, 2021

lmao

reflecting on last week's episode... joey jay struck me as this year's jan -- tryhard new york white gay w/ questionable taste and median talent level who had zero chance of actually winning. it prob reflects well on this season that joey went home so early while jan made it to episode 8. joey wasn't nearly as detestable as jan (who could be, really?) but i'm happy to no longer see her dumb hair or stupid headbands

fact check joey is from phoenix but you get my gist

i have complicated personal relationships w/ the freaky queens but utica's sleeping bag look was completely stunning ... i had the same reaction as michelle and now i'm borderline obsessed w/ her

lala ri is a perfect successor in line in the very important drag race archetype that is "queen w/ no fashion sense who kind of flops every challenge but should be kept around as long as possible just for her confessionals" (monet x change we acknowledge your contributions) so i was glad to see her win that lip sync ... i liked it better than denali's bizarrely celebrated lip sync from the previous episode

symone is immediately one of the most captivating queens in the history of the show -- her every movement is art. she's also lovable in a real way like you'd want to legit hang out w/ her compared to some other legends like alaska or bianca who i'm very fond of but would not want to spend more than 10 mins around

idk Joey seemed way more devoid of talent than Jan who could kinda do pretty much anything

Joey could:
a) dance
and
b) be Gay

I feel like LaLa is like the newer sleeker model of ChiChi DeVayne (RIP)

LaLa has a naive & kinda country way about her like ChChi but she comes readymade with a huge amount of confidence that ChiChi had to work to achieve just a fraction of

Like they said on RaceChaser pod today, she walks out in those fkn gift bags & acts like its no big deal. Doesnt even remotely acknowledge her trash-ass outfit. Naomi-ing down the runway like she’s in Chanel. THAT is her secret weapon. Idk how long it’ll work before her polish becomes a problem,but i will watch the hell out of everything she does bc she is charming as fuck

she’s much more interesting in her talking head segments, she needs to bring that energy to her runways somehow.
like, she could’ve played more just how utterly ridiculously horrible her bag outfit was, make it even more ridiculous,
she’d get read anyway but at least she could play it for laughs.

simone is like the opposite of denali, effortless charm.

I actually didn’t hate Jan and don’t find her hateable?? And she’s way more talented than Joey, who was clearly out of her league and really didn’t have a ton to offer

Anyway based on the UK episode today I must assume, VG, that all Australian weather reporters are like that.

And uh...THAT was an ending.

ftr i am not watching UK drag race
it’s all just too much! . esp when theyre running simultaneously, it’s nuts! choosing to limit my bandwidth to just one

#oldVGyellsatclouds

tia kofi and awhora developing friendship was a delight to watch

I cheered when Ellie Diamond pointed out RuPaul's blatant favouritism, and I was creased at Sister's rendition of the opening credits to Veronica's Drag Race.

Yes to both of those!

OK, these queens CAN'T BE THIS OBLIVIOUS ABOUT DISCO SONGS AND ARTISTS!

Yes but what about Charles Nelson Reilly?

That I'll let slide...

Yeah I am with Eric, that aspect was v hard to take. ❗️‼️⁉️❓

I was a bit whelmed by the disco fashions too, I think I was expecting more?

I agree that the challenge winner was so clearly out front that even a meh runway look couldn’t hold her back.

god that challenge and the contestants performance in that challenge was really fucking abysmal, so underwhelming, and Kandy was so clearly not the second-worst of the week, the thing abt egregious producer manipulation is you're supposed to be able to frame it as like remotely plausible and they completely failed to do so here, and also she also clearly should have lost that lip sync??? The whole thing felt like such a dumb charade.

also incredibly sad to see Tamisha go, it feels way too soon, but it seems we've (quite prematurely) already gotten to the point where it's shifted from sending home the worst to sending home the least-great and I mean given the episode it made sense. Also prob one of the most graceful departures in the show's history, what a fucking professional

I can get behind who won the lip sync based on the facial expressions, but ... the LSFYL song clearly should've been a disco song? So much so that I wouldn't be surprised if the producers pulled out one of their patented last-minute song switches once they realized who the bottom two were going to be.

CLEARLY should have been a disco song!!! And the winner had no restraint or nuance, it was just like, uncomfortable desperation

I was not aware of these patented last-minute song switches!!

I was v sad to see the loser go home.

But what she revealed in interview & afterwards about her physical situation definitely showed how hard she had pushed herself to be on the show. Like, to a crazy degree imo! And you could see how much it meant to her to just get there.

I'm not really sure HOW often it's happened, but the story of how they switched the song to Yma Sumac just the day Detox and Jinkx had to go head-to-head --
a song Jinkx had done many times before in her routine, when the song (can't recall which now) they were originally told to prepare would easily have been Detox's to lose -- is now Drag Race folklore.

yeah jinx talked about it on the Race Chaser pod

I definitely got the impression that the situation had been manipulated to give someone a graceful exit.

And to keep Utica's upswing storyline intact for at least one more episode.

this was a terrible, terrible episode.

- The machinations of production hands are so obvious. I don't watch Untucked but from the first five minutes of this episode I knew Tamisha and Kandy were going to be bottom two.
- Gottmik's outfit would have been annihilated in previous seasons.
- Olivia's runway dress was really basic too.
- The LSFYL song was not just completely out-of-place for the theme, but blatantly obvious a ruse to keep Kandy in. It was barely minutes after Michelle said that Kandy's drag relies on the persona that "Hit Em Up Style" inhabits.
- The girls not knowing disco that well is fair enough - they're mostly 20-somethings who work full-time to entertain current audiences, I wouldn't expect them to have a deep detailed knowledge of a culture that's now nearly 50 years old. I do think that RuPaul's ability to read the room and adapt with the times is lacking, and I think the show suffers from the narrow parameters of what RuPaul and Michelle think drag must be. That said, it was embarassing watching the queens struggle to fake even a basic knowledge of Diana Ross and Donna Summer.
- I hated that they framed disco as Studio 54 and completely skipped over Paradise Garage, and the part about Disco Sucks being borne of discrimination felt like an afterthought. I know I shouldn't come to this show looking for deep detail and politics but there's a disconnect between how they want to celebrate sisterhood but they don't want to acknowledge class and racism.
- Of course the team who were given the hula hoop to dance with was the team with the member with physical limitations. At least in ANTM when they're being actively cruel to contestants they make everybody do the same level of challenge.

I feel like I'm at the point with this show where I don't really enjoy it but I feel obliged to watch it so I have a clue what anyone I know is talking about.

I think running both the US and UK seasons at the same time — which, networks in two different countries have their own obligations and don’t need to work to stagger them — has ended up making the US one look worse as well. Much as I liked the slow TV start of this season here it’s really starting to feel like there’s just too many people in the room still. Meantime UK started later but is just keeping up a crisp no-nonsense pace and the dynamic between everyone is more fun to hang around with at this point.

I'm only watching the UK version, but from what I've read here, it sounds like the most recent endings of both shows have a marked similarity....?

Weirdly enough there is a connection!

If only

Prior to tonight you were asked to prepare a lip sync performance of “Silent Shout" by The Knife.

— Liam Walds (@LiamWalds) February 6, 2021

Goddammit

Six queens stand before me. Ladies, this is your last chance to impress me and save yourself from elimination. pic.twitter.com/iwNICXj4di

— jay bee (@mexicanpony) February 8, 2021

lol

omg I just caught up with UK!!!

• I love Lawrence tho he's started to grate a bit over the course of 4 eps, boxedjoy otm abt him being able to dish it but not being able to take it. Other faves are Tia Kofi (what a name), Ginny Lemon, and Sister Sister

• Bimini Bon-Boulash's name completely baffles me, I cannot parse it, it's like, bibbidi-bobbidi-boo, but not really, and then also... goulash???

• Joe and Asttina both getting sent home so early is like legitimately shocking, they are both incredibly talented, but I guess EVERYONE is really talented this season, there is not much filler to go around

• Asttina was at once so arrogant and cocky but also like... really kind and warm? It was an unlikely combo and she handled her departure WAY more gracefully than most anyone else as arrogant and cocky as her would.

• The Tia/A'Whora lovefest was truly a delight to watch and it felt so organic and genuine, and A'Whora's vulnerability made me love her so much, I also like how much she reminds me of Adore

• Veronica is weird as shit, have we ever had someone so nerdy and awkward and uptight on RPDR before?

• I was not a fan of Ginny's departure, like why did you come on this show if you hate competitions and didn't want to compete? She said in an interview that she finds the concept of pitting queer ppl against each other to be distasteful, so like girl why bother