RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE: Drag in a Bag

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Well, they did it again and we find ourselves a little taken aback by it, if we’re being honest. Drag Race served up another delightful episode of television, you guys. We guess we’ve become so used to complaining about how stale or formulaic it’s become that we aren’t quite sure what to make of an episode that had us laughing and ooohing in equal measure.

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Here’s the thing, though: an episode like this really doesn’t negate any of the criticisms we’ve had of the show over the last few seasons because the reason it was successful has nothing to do with the reasons why the show’s been on a decline. It just overrode the show’s somewhat lackadaisical approach to things. We are, of course, referring to this season’s cast.

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They may not comprise the most sickeningly talented crop of queens to ever compete, and they may not even produce a real star in the vein of some of the show’s more notable alumnae, but they’re genuinely fun to watch and as this episode proved, the show once again narrowed the field down to some very talented competitors. But first…

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Hello.

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But the Library challenge revealed the downside to having such a high level of camaraderie in the Werk Room. Drama is the name of the game in reality television and while there’s always a point at which it can become unpleasant to watch, the fact remains that some of the most memorable moments in Drag Race herstory arose out of drama, grudges, or vendettas of some sort.

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Which isn’t to say that we want to watch any of these queens tear chunks off each other, but the downside to a reality competition running as long as this one has is that everyone knows the pitfalls and everyone comes in with a game plan as to how they’re going to avoid them. The fandom can be especially toxic to shady queens, so most of the competitors come in very clear-eyed about how they’re going to behave. Result: everyone gets along for the most part.

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Ciara was probably among the shadier of the queens this season and it actually had a hand in her elimination, since she over-manipulated the queens to the point of them backing away from her. The little time-bomb she left in her suitcase was pretty funny, but it also just proves our point that the queens all know the show too well.

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Two things kept this episode from lapsing into blandness: the queens are funny when you just let them fool around in the Werk Room and the challenge resulted in some of the most consistently excellent across-the-board entries we can remember seeing. In other words, this was a rare reality competition instance of camaraderie and talent producing a great episode.

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We’ll cop to the fact that we’re old-time Project Runway bloggers and we’ve been asking the show to do an all-DIY drag season full of designers and sewers, so the results of this episode tended to push our little blogger buttons of delight. If everyone walked out in a disaster — or even if more than one of them did — we might be writing a different recap right now.

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It was very crafty of Darlene to reveal her fashion design degree at the exact moment it made the most difference in the competition. This look is fantastically designed, executed and styled. Her drag is very character-based so it’s nice to see her get away from the country gal stuff. Discord seemed genuinely clueless about how far outside the rules she’d strayed. Then again, the judges didn’t see fit to send her home for it or even to reprimand her for it. There was a time when Ru gave a shit about such things, but she’s too checked out to care and besides, the producers are probably hoping to stir up drama. Discord seemed pretty down about it, but she doesn’t seem like the kind of queen who gets too in her head about these things. She shrugged it off when Ciara tried to manipulate the girls against her, but this may be the straw that breaks this queen’s back. It really is a fantastic design. It just didn’t fulfill the brief and we think the other queens were right to mention it.

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Juicy’s look was cute, stylish and well-executed. Like a lot of the entries this week, it had a strong point of view to it, which seems to be the result of asking a bunch of drag queens to envision a party that they want to go to. Jane’s dress is a masterpiece of construction and she looks amazing in it. Ciara’s plotting backfired. Nini’s look is just on the border of being a little clowny, but she had to work with the materials she was given and she did something unexpected and interesting with them. We might have recommended a more Club Kid style of wig and makeup, though.

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Myki also came up with a strong and unexpected concept with some challenging materials. It’s probably our least favorite of the looks, but she gets points for being creative about it and executing it fairly well. Kenya redeemed herself with this entry. It was excellent and completely unexpected.

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We agreed with the judges that no one deserved to go home this week and we also agreed with the choice to pit these two queens against each other for the win. It wasn’t exactly an epic lip sync, but it was fun to watch and we thought the outcome was fairly obvious. Kenya still can’t nail a lip sync, which is genuinely shocking for a queen on Drag Race.

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Condragulations once again to the obvious front runner. With her many wins and the whole situation with Discord, the cast’s ability to avoid drama may finally reach its limit in the coming episodes.

Girl, if you ever thought we were going to stop plugging our book, you weren’t paying attention: 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 (like at this link)!   It’s also available in Italian and Spanish language editions, darlings! Because we’re fabulous on an INTERNATIONAL level.

[Still Credit: MTV]

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