‘Ru Paul’s Drag Race 15×11’ Review
I have to say that last week’s episode of Ru Paul’s Drag Race was one of my personal favourites. I don’t know if it is the fact that I thought that I could have done better in the challenge than ninety per cent of the remaining competitors or that we saw the full scale of success (from queens absolutely nailing it to very obviously struggling) or a combination of the two but I think this was one of the better hour-long episodes! The queens were grouped together to complete a series of interviews with some of TV’s most eccentric personalities and saw Sasha Colby excel after throwing her queue cards in the air during an interview with the queen of the “cuchi cuchi” Charo! On the bottom end of the competition however, we saw Malaysia Babydoll Foxx and Selina Estities battle it out to the iconic “Single Ladies” by Beyoncé (which completed the Beyonce-inspired runway category perfectly!) Sadly, Malaysia was told to sashay away which means we will never get that Malaysia vs Mistress Isabella Brooks lip-sync that has been teased since the beginning of the season.
Before this week’s episode had even begun to air everybody knew that something was going to be different. After the flooding amount of backlash, Ru Paul’s Drag Race has finally returned to ninety-minute episodes! I personally have seen hundreds of videos mocking how quickly the runway sections of each episode were and a plethora of angry statuses about how the queens and the teams behind them have not been able to showcase themselves to the same extent previous competitors had. We as the audience caused so much uproar that the producers had no power but to re-introduce the longer episodes! This week’s HOUR AND A HALF-long episode began with a ballroom-inspired mini-challenge that celebrated the art form of voguing. The problem with this challenge, however, is the fact that if the queens are not experienced in this style of dance then their performance quickly becomes a parody of ballroom culture. This is why as soon as Selina began simply rolling around on the floor, I know there would be some form of clap back from the ballroom community due to it being shown as unhinged and a lesser art form. Apart from this one little blip however, I think the majority of queens were able to respect the style with Mistress even paying homage to one of the most famous voguers Ninja with a compact mirror gag. However this challenge we’re clearly made for Antrea and Sasha (the dancers of the seasons) as they both pulled out tricks galore and Antrea showcased her famous duck walk. While I personally could never ever think about doing this move, we have seen it multiple times this season and I am afraid that soon it will lose some of the impact it once had! Regardless of this, Antrea was still awarded a ridiculously oversized trophy and the win in this mini-challenge which also grants her the opportunity to choose the order for this week’s maxi challenge!
I am always extremely sceptical when Ru Paul tells the audience that the queens are going to be randomly assigned teams but as this week’s challenge was sponsored by the drink company Bubbly, the queens had to dive into a cooler and pull out a canned drink that would decide their partners. It seemed way too coincidental that not only were the two dancers of the season paired together but also the two queens who were arguing earlier in the episode (namely Loosey and Lux) also ended up working together. As there is an odd number of queens remaining in the season the last queen, who happened to be Selina, was given the option of stealing someone’s partner or performing on their own. She opted for the former option creating a pair with Mistress and leaving Marcia, Marcia, Marcia to open the show on her own. I have to say that Marcia’s set was extremely low energy as she compared her time on the show to going through a second puberty. I was also incredibly disappointed that she decided to leave out a joke about Ross and Carson fictiously featuring in the latest Magic Mike movie after receiving direct feedback telling her to do so during her workshop session earlier in the episode. It must have been very difficult to not only be the only person performing on their own but also to open the entire show but it was painfully clear that comedy was not one of Marcia’s talents! Throughout the episode, we saw that despite winning the mini-challenge and deciding the running order, Antrea was experiencing some intense health issues that caused her to at one point leave her partner Sasha on their own. However, there is no excuse for that terrible wig that Sasha decided to wear during the challenge! We could see the wig peeling off the back of her head and unintentionally exposing her natural hair which was something that caught my eye every time she turn to face the camera. This duo decided the lean extremely heavily on the fact that they are both stoners in real life but this character element did not build into any sort of punch line which was very disappointing! I did enjoy the canned bits section of the routine where they shared a selection of crude jokes but the highlight of the routine would have the be a joke by Sasha when she said Michelle’s balls are so big they call them Latrice and Eurica except Michelle’s balls can make it through an entire season! Closing the show was Mistress and Selina who performed a long-winded routine about hook-ups gone wrong which I sinister they had both been having relations with the same man. While I thought this was very clearly structured, I do think it lost its wind after a while due to the long individual stories.
The runway category this week was ‘Rip her to shreds.’ I really enjoyed the different direction that Loosey LaDuca decided to pursue for her look with a Victorian/Nosferatu-inspired look that was unlike anything we have seen from her this entire season! As Loosey was very clearly not the worst performer this week, it was very strategic for her to take a gamble with the runway category which just so happened to work extremely well for her… but more on that later! Lux decided to recreate a look made famous by Ru Paul during her 1986 punk rock phase. The Mad Max style shredded jacket looked wonderful and led to Ru Paul getting extremely emotional when talking about the original look. It comes as a surprise to absolutely no one that Sasha Colby yet again looked absolutely incredible in her wonderful ripped jeans look with dropping diamonds that looked absolutely stunning and showcased her body flawlessly! My favourite look this week however would have to be Mistress who decided to do a version of the iconic pink material girl outfit. Not only was the outfit ripped to fit the category but there were sections of padding flooding out of the look that added a wonderful sense of camp to the beautiful look! The proportions on the look were absolutely flawless creating a beautiful silhouette that treads the like between camp and glamour excellently!
The two winners of this week’s episode were Lux and Loosey and when compared to everyone else in this challenge they were by far the best of the bunch! It was fairly obvious that Marcia was in the bottom this week, which meant that either it was going to be a bottom three lip-sync and the producers decided to split up the bottom pair which in my head didn’t really make sense. If the top two won as a pair because their performance was the best then surely the bottom two queens should both be in the bottom as their performance was the worst? However, the actual lip-sync between Marcia and Antrea was quite possibly one of the best lip-sync for you life performances we have ever seen! Both these queens are clearly very talented dancers but I don’t think anyone was expecting Antrea to do a diving roll over Marcia as she was in a back bend position. Antrea also managed to pull out that move where the performer throws themselves onto the floor as their legs fling behind their bodies that was perfectly timed to the music! Marcia held up her end of the battle however showcasing incredible spinning, leaping splits. If it was up to me this would have been an obviously double save however Ru Paul announced that Marcia would sadly be leaving the competition!
Overall, stand-up challenges seem to really struggle on Ru Paul’s Drag Race with only two queens doing fairly well when paired up. I did enjoy the attempt of a coherent through line of Bubbly drinks with the ‘random’ team selection being done through cans and Ru Paul wearing a dress made entirely of can tabs but I didn’t get why the brand itself would want to be associated with a comedy challenge! I think that the runway theme could have been better connected to the sponsors also to create an over-arching theme for the whole episode rather than just select parts. However, that lip-sync at the end was one of the greatest performances we have ever seen, but I don’t think many people agree with the decision!
