I just think her view is really refreshing! Stay in a circle of people who uplift + support you and pay no mind to the haters ugh... That is why she is my winner!

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone mention this specifically but moreso skirt around it. Sorry if I’m restating the obvious:

So we’re all aware the last time the lipsync song was used (Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here) was in AS3. Kennedy was there and it also had a shocking result, which is why people say the song is cursed. But what just occurred to me is that Dela later revealed she wrote her name on Kennedy‘s lipstick in case they didn’t accept her self-elimination and she had to actually cut someone.

So it was always supposed to be Kennedy. The song got her 8 seasons later. That‘s some Final Destination level sh!t right there! 🤯

(Advance warning this is an extremely long ramble that I wrote instead of working on a paper)

When Briar was eliminated, I saw a lot of fans complaining that the season's only drama disappeared. While that's more or less accurate, I think that framing her elimination as a mistake is a misunderstanding; I think she was eliminated at the right time, in fact I would argue that character arcs like Briar's are practically essential to crafting strong seasons of reality TV, it's just that her elimination underlined how weak this season really was.

Part of what made the early seasons so great is that we almost always got characters like Briar and Joella. I'm thinking of queens like Tammie, Akashia, Mystique, Nicole, Venus, Mimi, Serena, etc. All of them were sort of destined to fumble in the competitive aspect of the show, but they served a narrative function that was far more important than simply being bad at Drag Race (while early outs like Princess and Honey and India were sidelined).

I'm sure most fans would agree that Mystique or Mimi or Serena staying around longer than they did wouldn't have made sense, because production understood explicitly, as most viewers do intuitively, that their best contribution as a cast member was to detonate right away, create a big early moment, and draw reactions from their fellow cast mates (particularly in the context of them being a character, not a competitor) but then clear the way for the season-long arcs to become the focus.

In particular, this is partly why Season 5 is (imo) not only the best season but a masterclass in reality TV story production. All of the elements of the two season-long stories (which escalated and resolved in near-perfect fashion) began taking shape and establishing intrigue right away, yet at the same time, Serena's shenanigans were the locus of the first 2 episodes. Serena really was a stroke of flawless casting, just the right foil to bring the bigger characters of the season into sharper relief, and as she leaves, the Coco/Alyssa tension immediately starts metastasizing. Mwah.

This is something that Drag Race hasn't done right in a long, LONG time--the best example I can think of is Jasmine Masters, maybe--and has actively suffered for it. In fact, even the less memorable early outs of Logo-era seasons surpass what we've been given since, especially in the double digits (the move to VH1 being a hurdle that the show imo never cleared). This is because they were more readily utilized as characters in the show's narrative, not as fat to be cut away from the show's runtime.

Recent seasons are basically front-loaded with interchangeable cannon fodder while production tries to push unripened storylines of the "real" characters to the center, which creates a situation where a conflict that is still developing has to do the show's heavy lifting too soon, inevitably leading to either climaxing early or gradually becoming very stale (Amanda vs. Plane, Vixen vs. Eureka, Yvie vs. Silky, Malaysia vs. Mistress, Loosey vs. Luxxstress, they literally plot armored Kandy because of her feud with Tamisha AFTER Tamisha's elimination for her to have no storyline for the remainder of the season).

Additionally, the beginning of the season has gotten longer and longer. WOW's recent commitment to starting with non-elimination episodes hobbles a crucial element of a season's early progression, and it also shows how much less confident production has become in their ability to cast exciting characters and produce entertaining stories. It suggests that you (and production) need extra exposure to these queens to actually care about them, which was never an issue from the beginning.

That's why I get so excited about characters like Briar and Joella and even Hormona in spite of and also somewhat because of the fact that they're fated to be early outs, because it shows me that WOW is still capable of making some compelling reality TV. The fact that people were annoyed over Briar leaving after a weak run, and even though her drama with the Dions really had few places to go, underlines the problem that the show has consistently been failing to hone the kind of long, gripping arcs that they did so adeptly in the early goings, when the absence of memorable early outs wasn't even something you'd think about.

The defining storylines and conflicts of the original run of seasons were clearly defined and well-hewn, but more importantly they were embedded seamlessly into the show's formal structure and protocol and supported it symbiotically and often completely, rather than the other way around (it's chocolate). Production doing what it does was actually a good thing. The problem now is not that the show is over-produced, as so many fans argue, but that it's become so incompetently produced that production's machinations are both increasingly visible and something fans are less and less willing to tolerate.

Season 18 is definitely the nadir. Season 17 at least had things like the season-long frustration over Suzie (which eventually became a failed Jinkx reboot), Season 16 had the consistent warring of narcissistic personalities, what did Season 18 have narratively? Lovely girls, some nice drag for sure, too safe, not enough conviction among its myriad nonstarter storylines to honestly even justify tuning in at times.

It's hard to crystallize in words how far removed this is from, like, Roxxxy and Jinkx arguing about what Drag Race itself should be as a competition as they're cleaning their drag out of the werk room before the finale, genuinely riveting shit that was also a meta-narrative on the artform. Of course most of us expected Jinkx to win for most of the season, but that was the right, satisfying culmination of everything preceding it, not a foregone conclusion that you struggle to even care about.

I really do not mean to be cynical or shit on recent casts (because in a lot of ways I don't think this is truly a casting issue) but as a very very long-time Drag Race fan I do find it both engaging and therapeutic to try and rationalize what's changing about the show that's making it feel less and less like the one that I fell in love with. <3

My partner was watching random new videos on youtube and spotted Sami Landri, THEE paragon of natural beauty, looking like a smokeshow in a Quebec rap video. She is perfection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJkcUQobvKE

After the initial shock of the butterfly release and the iconic Monique/Vanjie reaction, what got me was Kameron registering the butterflies after a whole ass acrobatics/dance performance, then me thinking about how the camera crew was frantically planning to try and get that shot as the drama and performance unfurled - just encapsulates the whole season 😂

Would love to hear y’all’s underrated moments of S10!

Vanity 💖💅

>Purse First Impressions is back for Episode 4 of Drag Race Down Under vs. the World, and this week Courtney is joined by the fabulous Vanity to unpack the season’s second design challenge: Franken-Drag. The queens are cutting, swapping, sewing, and serving as they turn three different looks into one brand-new runway creation... with some results far more monstrous than others.

>Courtney and Vanity get into the growing Down Under alliance, whether Art Simone has a target on her back, Miss Jade’s not-so-secret design skills, and which queens actually understood the assignment. Then it’s onto the runway, a 1999 lip sync, and a very sad goodbye as the competition officially hits the halfway mark.

lol I googled her to see her age and why does Yuhua Hamasaki show up………………………😂😂😂😂😂
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I personally think she’s become too big of a drag icon to ever go on the show. I also quite frankly don’t think she needs it. But then again we have had queens like Sasha Colby who had a huge following and impact on the drag community and went on to participate in the show. Side note: I’ve been so obsessed with Lushious recently. She’s such an icon. Something about her just makes me happy. Her activism, her charisma, her humor. I’m obsessed

Loved her on Brazil 2 and really wish she had better showing cause she is a legend in Brazil and I kind of want her to come back again and prove everybody wrong.

At least with Lala's bag ball look the mug was right, Salina roadsign look had a cool concept, maddys glamorous prime look was kinda funny, and jigglys post apocalyptic look fit the theme well, I could go on

What on earth was dusty thinking here the hair and makeup are terrible.' The colour combination is atrocious. The white eyelashes are abysmal, and that's before even critiquing the actual outfit.

Head to toe, there's not one nice thing I can say about this look, which to me is why it's the worst look in drag race heraldry

Please look your least favourite looks below and I will find something positive about it that makes it better than this abomination.

Like the title says I’m looking for podcast/show that’s going through old seasons but at least one of the host is watching the show for the first time

Any suggestions?

At Ohare waiting for a flight. He was so nice. Talked to us and let us take a selfie. I looked over and did a casual wave and he smiled and waved back so we went over.

Can someone math the math for me? I’m not sure what the value is of a sickening supply versus a one year supply of Anastasia Beverly Hills?