On another week we might complain that this episode was so straightforward and formulaic that we have nothing much to say about it, but we’re grateful to the fine folks at RuPaul’s Drag Race for serving up such a quickly recappable episode on Oscar weekend AND Daylight Saving Time weekend. Let’s do a speed run through this one.
Personally, we would like to see these formats shaken up just a bit more because everything about each challenge becomes so expected and rote. Here are the queens struggling over their lyrics. Here are the queens struggling to record their vocals. Here are the queens struggling to learn the choreo. It’s not that we don’t want to see these things. It’s just that they’re presented in exactly the same way, over and over again.
But look, the bitches actually turned this one out. It may be a formulaic format, but RPDR is still a fun variety show when the queens put the work in. We had serious doubts about the performing chops of – honestly? – most of these queens, but we were pleasantly surprised by how hard some of them worked to pull it off.
We might even have considered these three the potentially weakest of the lot, but Mhi’ya and Dawn both served up high energy and polish. Morphine was the real shock here. We couldn’t take our eyes off her. We’d never have predicted that she would be one of the ones to command the stage.
Ironically, the two frontrunners each gave the weakest performance of the week. Plane’s costume was kind of awkward and unflattering, which didn’t help her while she was giving such a timid performance. Nymphia vamped her way through it hard, but there wasn’t much there. They both felt like they were counting the seconds until their spotlight ended.
She just yelled a lot. That’s her drag in a nutshell. Great looks, lots of yelling.
We laughed with delight all the way through Sapphira’s performance; not because it was funny, but because it was so clearly a mile ahead of what everyone else was doing. The moves, the attitude, the facial expressions that you could read from the back row – it was all super-polished and clearly the best of the lot.
The runway category was “True Colors” and we think some of these looks were a little bit of a letdown at this stage of the game.
We agreed with the judges that this was one of Mhi’ya’s better looks of the season, but it still felt like something we’ve seen her wear before. Nymphia’s banana thing got stale weeks ago. Plane’s look is pretty enough, but like we said, this is the point where the looks should be getting more sickening. Sapphira understood the damn assignment. This was stunning.
We thought this was cute, unique, and evocative. It felt like she was really showing you something about herself and her drag. She had a good week, but she keeps getting outdone, time after time.
We thought this was genuinely hideous and we have no idea why the judges were praising it at all. The hat is a ripoff of a Billy Porter meme and every piece of the outfit is ugly and unflattering.
This was pretty, but we don’t get why the boobs are glowing so much brighter than the rest of her.
Because the worst two performances of the week were from two of the frontrunners, the producers decided not to send anyone home. We’re not entirely sure why Plane gave Nymphia her immunity potion, but it seemed to have thrown everyone off. Still, it was such a fun number that we don’t mind the non-elimination. The lip synch for the prize should have been a bit more epic. Nothing against these two, but there’s not a queen alive who can make a Meghan Trainor song entertaining or listenable.
C’mon, girl. Let’s wrap this up and bring that crown home to Philly.
Legendary Children: The First Decade of RuPaul’s Drag Race and the Last Century of Queer Life, a New York Times “New and Notable” pick, praised by The Washington Post “because the world needs authenticity in its stories,” and chosen as one of the Best Books of The Year by NPR is on sale wherever fine books are sold! It’s also available in Italian and Spanish language editions, darlings! Because we’re fabulous on an INTERNATIONAL level.
[Photo Credit: MTV via Tom and Lorenzo]
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