Maybe the Queens Aren’t the Problem with ‘Drag Race’
Last night’s installment of Snatch Game on RuPaul’s Drag Race started with a video message from the one queen who best exemplified the spirit of the Snatch: Bianca Del Rio. Talking to the queens before RuPaul’s introduction of the challenge, Bianca said pointedly, “I’ve got one tip for you. You’re a Drag Queen. BE FUNNY.” Somebody’s been bitching backstage…
Which brings us to the biggest critique of this season so far: These queens ain’t funny. They’ve been botching lines in acting challenges, missing jokes on the runway, and just generally struggling to give us the tongue-in-cheek camp we’ve come to love from the show. It’s been a lackluster season so far, and no reintroduction of an eliminated queen can make up for that.
But can we really blame the queens? Sure, there are no lovable underdogs like Adore Delano this season. And there are no unintentional characters like Alyssa Edwards, or joyfully clueless foreigners like Yara Sofia. But these queens don’t suck, guys. Ginger is a pro, Katya is a one-liner factory, and Kennedy is unexpectedly hilarious. Her quip about Max’s “dusty ass, gray ass wigs” comes to mind.
And Snatch Game was, miraculously, not a total train wreck. Adele, Little Richard, and Suze Ormand were all expectedly great, and Pearl’s Big Ang was a welcome surprise. “I had a rough childhood, okay? I wasn’t watching fucking Batman & Robin.” Ru: “What’s your bra size?” Big Ang: “It’s a medical mystery.” OKAY, PEARL! I SEE YOU, PEARL!
Even Violet Chachki pulled off a hat trick, not realizing that she had a spot-on perfect Alyssa Edwards impression sitting in her back pocket. She wasn’t especially clever or quick, but credit where it’s due: she had the manic ticks of Alyssa down pat.
Yes, there were a few clunkers in the bunch. Miss Fame, bless her heart, was never gonna pull a clever line or creative take on Donatella out of that chicken head of hers, Raven Symone was one good idea stretched thin and beaten into the ground, and Max’s Sharon Needles was honestly just terrible and completely off the mark. It was Beetlejuice meets Leave it to Beaver, and Max deserved to go home for it.
But there are always three or four clunkers in the gang, so when you think about it, this was a pretty good, or at least perfectly average showing for Snatch Game. SO WHAT THE HELL IS THE PROBLEM WITH THIS SEASON?? Allow me to float a theory:
The producers of Drag Race, along with the editors, are trying to recreate the glory of past seasons. In the course of doing that, they completely missing the different crop of queens they have in front of them. They’re trying to shoe-horn these queens into performance challenges, haunted by Shade: The Rusical, but there are no Courtneys or Adores to make that material sing.
They’re trying to muster up drama from constant team challenges, but there’s no amazing history a la Coco and Alyssa to make that pay off. They’re trying to awkwardly feed one-liners to Ru and the other judges at every available opportunity, but they’re funnier when they come up with them on their own. I’ve listened to the podcast, okay?! I know Ru and Michelle are hilarious without a team of crap writers constantly referencing old catchphrases from their own show!
Essentially, they’re taking all the humanity out of the show in favor of quotable lines and over-the-top, hastag-able moments. It hit me when I was watching Katya break down about her insecurities to Miss Fame. That was a beautiful moment of connection, and one that finally showed Katya for who she really is, not just how she may or may not fit into the idea of a Drag Race Queen.
Why can’t we have more of that?
Maybe if the producers stopped trying to cram these girls into a formula they obviously assume is fool proof, and instead cut the show around what these specific queens are good at, we’d all have a much better time. I remember reading that Jasmine Masters brought along three suitcases full of food. WHY in God’s name would we not get to see that on the show?! Is it really more fun to see her being nasty and cutting than silly and genuine? Why can’t we have more challenges where the queens have to get creative, drawing on their own experience and skill, rather than reading cheesy script after cheesy script?
Kitty girls, Drag Race is an institution at this point. It was trending on Facebook last night, for God’s sake. But the show became a mainstream pop hit in the first place because it was a fun slice of life of a community many viewers had very little information about. Well, now we know what drag is about, and we love it, so keep showing us something new. If Ru and Crew really want to make this show last, they’re gonna have to stop “resting on pretty,” as Michelle would say.