RuPaul's Drag Race, Episode 1: "Whatcha Unpackin'"
It feels like only yesterday we were watching Ru wuss out and crown two queens the winners of All-Stars 4. Oh wait. It was like two weeks ago. We can wash that away though, because we are leaving the scheming and lipstick pulling of All-Stars, for the arbitrary whims of RuPaul in a regular Drag Race season. We have 15 queens, the most of any season of Drag Race, so let's go.
My favorite part of any Drag Race season is the queens entrances into the Werk Room. You get this great idea of what their aesthetic is, their personality. It's wonderful. Let's do a quick rundown.
Returning queen Vanessa Vanjie Mateo looks beautiful. Entering the room backwards is a great callback to her famous season 10 exit, but the clumpy body glitter is a choice. Producers instruct Vanessa to hide in the opposite corner of the room and the next like five queens pretend they can't see her even as she literally pops her entire head over the top of the screen or shakes it. An acting challenge right off the bat! Great job, girls.
Nina West is right up my alley. I love a comedy queen and that "eleven-gendary" pun is great. Shuga Cain is next. Fine. Pretty. Not a fan of the pink sculpted hair or the spider eyelashes, though. Plastique Tiara looks beautiful. Vanjie isn't lying when she tells you that your eyes aren't deceiving you. She is stunning. Mercedes Iman Diamond enters next "ululating" according to my closed captioning and she's holding a necklace? Sure. Scarlet Envy is next and that is a man Maury. I know that Scarlet can be pretty, but there are just so many baffling choices that she makes here. A nude lip? The hair. Her outfit doesn't have a bottom. Just a fake diamond banging against her Barbie crotch. No ma'am.
Honey Davenport is one of three Davenports that pop in and for a drag dynasty none of the three really make great first impressions. For such a polished queen who does so much, what is up with Honey's look? Her dress is fine, but that hair. It looks like she tried finger waves for the first time and then just gave up and hair sprayed it to death. Ak'eria Chanel Davenport is a current Miss Gay Universe, which I assume is a big deal, but her Express dress and flat wig aren't super impressive. Ra'jah D. O'Hara (the D is for Davenport) is the third and most unimpressive of the bunch. Her barely there paper maché newspaper dress is meh, her braided bun feels like it could slide off her head at any moment and her earrings won't stay on.
Yvie Oddly makes her entrance preceded by an RC car (not a Hot Wheels, Honey Davenport. Get it right.) And her snake inspired dress does look very homemade, I feel like Yvie is going to be one of my favorites. Silky Nutmeg Ganache is next. I really like her look. The halter and the pants are very chic. She looks beautiful and it's clear from the jump she's going to be a lot. Brooke Lynn Hytes is the show's first Canadian queen and she takes full advantage of that with her chic mountie inspired entrance look. Ariel Versace looks like one of those Barbie toilet paper covers and she's annoying. Kahanna Montrese, daughter of season 5 and All-Star's 2's Coco, is this season's muscle queen, but unlike Kameron Michaels, Kahanna doesn't seem to understand how be a muscle queen and be feminine. Soju comes in her gi and I love that. I just wish she had fitted it a bit more. I like that she stoned it, but it's not enough because it doesn't catch any of the lights in the Werk Room.
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| Legend... and Honey Davenport |
Ru announces the return of the photo challenge. I love these classic Drag Race challenges. I don't think we've had a photo shoot since season 6. The twist is that the gals will be posing with Drag Race alumni. This is a great challenge and a lot of the queens do OK. It can't be easy directing a photo shoot with someone you've probably looked up to. There are some definite highs. I loved Brooke Lynn and Ongina's photo. (The real winner. Sorry, Silky.) Vanjie was brilliant turning Farrah Moan to face the wall and then standing in front her. And would you look at Manila. Ugh. I take it back. She is the actual winner of this mini challenge. Other queens don't do as well. Pairing Scarlet with Raja when she is actually trying is borderline homophobia. Mercedes was completely lost and unable to pick up on any context clues given by Delta Work or Ru. Silky is named the winner of the mini challenge for her photo with Mariah Balenciaga.
Ru announces that the first maxi challenge will be for the queens to interpret their drag style through material left by previous Drag Racers. As the mini challenge winner, Silky disperses the trunk and then immediately gets to work, studiously crafting a killer look. JK. She spends most of her time complaining and aiming herself at the first camera that she can see. I don't think it's a controversial statement to say that Silky is team too much. There is a fine line between being entertaining and being obnoxious and Silky is firmly on the wrong side of that line. This may be who she is. She may suck all the air out of any room she's in, but if she can't course correct, it's going to continue to be off-putting. I don't think there is anything wrong with trying to get your camera time. All the girls are. Queens in the past who got a lot of screen time weren't being so blatant about it and maybe that's what Silky needs to focus on. Not trying so hard to be the center of attention. Silky picking up Miley Cyrus donning the least convincing boy drag and running around the Werk Room with her on his back was the cringiest thing I've seen on Drag Race in a while. She's already rubbing a lot of her fellow queens the wrong way and it's only a matter of time before someone says something. And it's probably Ariel who I'm sure coming in thought she'd have the market covered on being annoying.
It's time for the first runway and it's a pretty big letdown. Maybe the least interesting runway since season 7 and they were "naked." There were lots of bodysuits and not a lot of imagination. That being said, there were some decent looks and here's the tops and bottoms of the week:
The winner of this week's challenge is Brooke Lynn and deservedly so. Getting Detox's box was a blessing and she constructs this gorgeous catsuit with cape. This material can't have been been easy to sew but there's no puckering and it looks like it came straight from a fashion week runway. If Brooke Lynn can excel in the acting challenges, she'll definitely be a contender.
Ak'eria didn't wow me when she walked in but she proves why she's a force with this look. The star is clearly those five wigs that she worked into a pony hawk. It was super smart to work the wigs into a makeshift ombre effect and her costume complements the whole thing.
Vanjie shows that she definitely learned from her mistakes last season. She has a silhouette. Her makeup is flawless. I love the dark hair. The colors look so good on her. She's confident. She's still using a ton of body glitter and I'm not sure if it's to cover her tattoos or what, but there has to be a better way. Overall, great work from the returning queen.
Plastique Tiara is an honorable mention this week. She feels just outside the top 3. Her looks is well constructed, but it's basically a carbon copy of her entrance look, promo look and season 11 reveal special look. I get that sometimes you can get stuck on a silhouette and it's fine (hello Bianca del Rio), but if Plastique doesn't have the chops in the challenges, this could be bad for her.
On the flip side, Nina is just outside the bottom three. Nina struggled. She was clearly in her head. She's worked so hard to be on the show, the idea of failing seemed to overwhelm her. The result was a dress that looked like it had sores all over it. I'm really hoping that this will be a wake up call for her and she will flourish. I think Nina can do well and I hate to see her be her own worst enemy.
Mercedes barely dodges being in the bottom two with this snooze fest of an ensemble. It's not special. It's something we've seen a million times and she doesn't have a personality to elevate the look out of mediocrity. Her makeup was a mess. Along with the photoshoot, Mercedes could be in trouble next week.
Kahanna's look was the worst for me. She missed the point of the entire challenge. There doesn't seem to be a lot there she's made. I don't know what her point of view is or what her style is. She seems confused. She's not interesting at all. I don't see her making it much further.
And then there's Soju. Poor thing. As soon as she said she was going to make a formless, fabric project, I knew she was done for. Vanjie tried to tell her. I appreciate her trying to weave her Korean culture into the challenge, but this was just a hot ass mess. I do wish Soju had stayed over Kahanna. I think Soju is weird. And I like that. I mean, she fully talked about a taint cyst on national television. I would have loved to see her in her actual drag.
That brings me to my main takeaway. I really don't think that an make something challenge is the best idea for the first challenge. I think the queens should have a chance to show who they are with what they've got, before they are constructing whole garments.
So, season 11 is here. I do think these queens have a ton of potential, and I hope we start seeing a little more of it. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this group. Please leave your top picks, most annoying, least favorites in the comments.
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