Have you seen "Legendary" on HBOMax? Let's celebrate its best contestants

And now for something completely random. Word of mouth is everything in streaming culture since we're all on different timetables. Please welcome guest contributor Allen Nguyen (of the beautiful Oscar site Statuesque) to discuss a show we meant to watch this summer but didn't get around to. Now just might be the time!

by Allen Nguyen

In case you haven’t already heard, HBO Max’s glorious ballroom competition show Legendary is now casting for its second season. I was turned on to Legendary a few months after its debut, my interest piqued partly by way of its ecstatic word of mouth and partly because I was in desperate need of queer quarantine content after enduring the five month bender that was RuPaul’s Drag Race, Secret Celebrity Drag Race, and All Stars 5. What I wasn’t expecting with Legendary was the return of that same enthralling high I felt when I first watched Drag Race a decade ago. Think of Legendary as the show Drag Race fans didn’t know we’ve been waiting for — the natural next step in the venn-diagram that intersects these two queer worlds... 

Ballroom has been underground for so long. We've fought so hard to be seen. We have fought so hard to be respected. We have fought so hard to be loved.

...Such is the creed of judge (and ballroom icon) Leiomy Maldonado in episode five — one that dually serves as the show’s call to action. At face value, Legendary follows eight houses as they compete in nine balls for a shot at $100,000. But at its core, the show is a festive celebration of self, filled with enough pageantry and queer bravado that you can’t help but feel swept away by osmosis. A bench of contestants across all walks of life lends the show an infectiously unifying and celebratory spirit. To watch the talent on display in Legendary is to be reminded of how the Drag Race empire has done itself a disservice throughout the years via its exclusionary casting preferences. 

So whether you’re already a fan or have never watched an episode, please allow me the opportunity to belatedly honor Legendary’s rousing first season by gratuitously celebrating my favorite contestants (***Mild Spoilers Herein***):

8. CHRISTIAN, HOUSE OF ST. LAURENT
Category: Face (Episode 2)

His house may not have been long for this show, but Christian St. Laurent’s god-given face still occupies my mind rent-free. Serving amazing cheekbones, flawless skin, and an arresting smize, Christian walks out onto the stage with total conviction, while also knowing exactly how to angle, touch and sell his face to his onlookers. That Christian ekes out a victory in Face via a tie-breaking vote from none other than supermodel (and guest judge) Tyson Beckford is a further testament to his beauty. 

7. LOLITA LEOPARD, 007 (No affiliation with a House)
Category: Runway (Episode 7)

Lolita Leopard — who, alongside Honey Balenciaga, challenge Makayla and Pack Rat Lanvin for a $10,000 cash prize in a tag-team runway/vogue category — makes more of an impact out of her guest appearance than most other contestants manage to do across their entire show runs. If you’re not immediately taken by the way in which Lolita Leopard pounds that catwalk with all the chutzpah in the world, watch how blissfully unbothered she is in managing her rival’s rogue cape. This is a star!

6. CARLOS, HOUSE OF LANVIN 
Category: Hands (Episode 7)

When I first watched RuPaul’s Drag Race, the concept of celebrating female impersonators as they lip-synced “for their lives” was so beyond the realm of my own reality that it felt equal parts absurd, novel and invigorating all at once. Legendary is cut from the same cloth, happily placing a magnifying glass onto niche talents that stir and perplex you. Case in point: the remarkably bonkers Elastic Fantastic category in episode seven, in which arms and hands are dizzily spun into different angles, lines and circular motions. Enter Carlos, who handles it all like performance art. The movements! The grace and control! The music! Leiomy Maldonado repeatedly exclaiming “work, bitch!” at increasingly excited decibels! It’s all so bizarre, so engrossing, and so right. 

5. CHISE, HOUSE OF NINJA
Category: Vogue (Episode 3)

When the House of Ninja is up for elimination in episode three, Chise is selected to defend her house in a voguing redemption battle. She shimmies out onto the stage, with a mischievously cocksure smile on her face, visibly thriving off of audience cheers. Fully pleased by the opportunity to take on her competitor, she carries herself as though she were a Harley Quinn / Bangerz-era Miley Cyrus hybrid. It’s hard not to be hooked on her effervescence. You feel fuzzy and happy inside whenever she’s around. But for me, the vision of an Asian woman who personifies uninhibited exuberance, fire and sass is a wholly irresistible one — all of these qualities combine to make Chise one of the most delightful contestants on the show. 

4. MAKAYLA, HOUSE OF LANVIN
Category: Vogue (Episodes: 6, 8)

Makayla is season one’s top stunt queen, the perfect answer for a show rife with high-stakes one-to-one battles. Marvel as she breaks out of an egg in full extraterrestrial regalia and launches into a series of backflips before sticking the landing (in stripper heels, mind you) and seguing straight into a duckwalk. Clutch your pearls as she proceeds to climb up and jump off a wall before launching into a dip without skipping a beat. Seconds after the wall stunt, Makayla runs to emcee Dashaun Wesley, grabs his mic and yells, “this is my house, bitch!” And we, as intrinsically lesser mortals, are all forced to agree. 

3. FATHER JARRELL, GORGEOUS HOUSE OF GUCCI
Category: Body (Episodes: 4, 8)

Any red-blooded man or woman with an affinity for generous helpings of beefcake can and will appreciate the glory that is Father Jarrell from the Gorgeous House of Gucci. Rumor has it that HBO commissioned FEMA to be onsite during filming as a contingency should the sight of Jarrell cause the audience to suffer from collective basement flooding (rumor also has it that I’m a liar). 

Body is the one category that, for obvious reasons, makes you flush with schoolgirl euphoria. Jarrell, with his perfect physique, is here to give us big Magic Mike energy, to which we are all his shrieking admirers. Known in ballroom for walking the realness and sex siren categories, Jarrell marries both when presenting himself onstage — as stunning as he is, he’s surprisingly understated when he could easily be more arrogant or exhibitionist. That’s because the man already knows that he stands above everyone else, that our rapturous gaze is on him and that magnificent muscular body. Say it with me: daddy! 

2. FATHER JAMARI, HOUSE OF BALMAIN
Category: Body, Vogue, Runway (Episodes: 4, 7, 8, 9)

At first blush, Father Jamari strikes as calm and soft-spoken — but once he’s onstage, Jamari walks with a flagrant supply of ego and flair, making each of his performances exciting to watch. 

What I love most about Jamari is the way he moves his body, which can vary differently depending on the category. In episode four’s Body challenge, he emulates the eroticism of the macho go-go boy from your local gay bar. In episode seven’s Queen Titans category, he walks the runway with the stiffness of a high fashion male model before ripping off his suit a la Clark Kent to throw down some hyper-feminine vogue moves. By the time he steps out in full devil dominatrix drag in the season finale, throwing out high kicks while swerving and twirling his body with ferocity, you come to realize how invaluable a performer Jamari really is. 

Early on, the House of Ninja’s Mother Dolores rightfully warns that Jamari “can do everything.” And for me, he’s season one’s MVP. 

1. MOTHER EYRICKA, HOUSE OF LANVIN
Category: It Doesn’t Matter (Episodes: All of Them)

I knew I was destined to be Mother Eyricka’s hopeless stan the moment she first appeared on the Legendary stage. A voluptuous vision in red, Eyricka walks out voguing just as the track hits its ominous crescendo, her gaze equally penetrating and poised. You know that feeling you get when you lay your eyes on an extraordinarily beautiful woman? That sentiment of which I can only describe as a visceral mishmash of “yass!” and “we are not worthy!”? That, to me, is what Eyricka embodies. 

Eyricka’s not as vigorously mobile as her Legendary counterparts, but she doesn’t need to be. Oftentimes, I’d find myself transfixed by a shot of Eyricka, seemingly for no reason at all. The power she holds lies in her aura and her unmatched presence — even when static, she’s naturally skilled at seizing our attention and dominating every frame she’s in. 

Look no further than when the House of Lanvin experiences its first poorly received performance in episode five, and judge Law Roach remarks to Eyricka that he’d have been “more excited and more happy if you just stood in the middle of the floor and been a goddess.” A divine deity idolized for her beauty — such is the exclusive class of women to which Mother Eyricka rightfully belongs. 

Legendary season one is available to stream on HBO Max. Casting for season two is currently underway, and will debut in 2021. 

Comments

[Santy C.]

WHO ELSE COULD HAVE BEEN NUMBER ONE!!! Lanvin was my favorite from the get-go and they did EVERYTHING except.....THAT!

Eyricka is the definition of MOTHER.

[NATHANIEL R]

#8 -- damn.

[Robert G]

I still think about Eyricka's performance in the first face battle. She's beautiful and just has this stage presence that none of the other contestants came close to. Lolita Leopard had that same energy and confidence.

I loved everything about this show except the weekly format shifts because the producers had no idea what they wanted to do and the questionable judging caused by the producers having no idea what they wanted out of the show. Judges fighting over what the actual rules of the contest over is not good reality TV.

You watch Legendary as a platform for talented artists to do what they do best.

[Glenn Dunks]

Haven't watched this yet so I skipped the rankings, but it's on the list (alongside dozens of other shows, naturally).