Drag Race RuCap: “Drag Queens Got Talent”

Like in the last couple of years, Nick Taylor and Cláudio Alves are following and recapping the new RuPaul’s Drag Race season…

Condragulations, LEXI! You're a winner, baby.

CLÁUDIO: Call me Nostradamus because I foresaw the bitchtrack epidemic, an autotune apocalypse, crunchy dips as far as the eye can see. This is the state of the Drag Race Talent Show industrial complex, and I am not happy about it. Or call me Old Methuselah because being in your thirties now means having one step in the grave, according to a bunch of drag babies who dare call Lexi Love a grandma. I can’t wait to see the 34-year-old diva crush those brats’ dreams under her hooker heels. Or her rollerblades, as the case may be. She’s now my pick for season 17 winner, a choice I come to out of spite but also admiration. Because, make no mistake, “Drag Queens Got Talent - Part 2” was Miss Love’s episode, and all those other whores were fighting for runner-up honors. Call me Grandpa Grumps because this episode got me grumpy as fuck, almost as much as it entertained me. 

NICK: Lexi Love fuckin’ owned this episode. No one touched her in the talent show or the top 2 lip sync. I’m honestly glad she and Suzie Toot did their performances on different nights, even if tonight’s portion of the talent show was much less entertaining on average than last week. Would I have loved to see Suzie tap to “Alter Ego”? Obviously. And thank fuck Lexi Love didn’t have to settle for “Woman’s World”. But we’ve now got two top-tier divas at the head of the pack with a win under each of their belts…

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Drag Race RuCap: “Squirrel Games”

Like in the last couple of years, Nick Taylor and Cláudio Alves are following and recapping the new RuPaul’s Drag Race season…

Are you ready for this new crop of queens?

NICK TAYLOR: How do you measure a year? Do you base it on a fixed temporal quantity, like daylights or sunsets? Or do you go by something more nebulous, more personal, like cups of coffee? Hugs given? Lives lived? How about a secret third option: basing all existence on the schedule of an increasingly productive, internationally-minded media franchise like RuPaul’s Drag Race? 2025 has barely begun and here we are, Cláudio, ready to once again offer our unprecedented and unrequested takes on the latest US season of Drag Race. It’s season 17, baybeee!! With a new twist on the split-premiere structure of seasons past and an opening mini-challenge arguably more culturally relevant than the show it’s spoofing, I say this season gets off on the right foot.

I certainly had a lot of fun with it. Did you, diva?

CLÁUDIO ALVES: I did, Mr. Larson, I really did…

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Drag Race RuCap: Season Sixteen's “Grand Finale”

Nick Taylor and Cláudio Alves watch and recap RuPaul’s Drag Race season sixteen. This week, it’s time for the grand finale…

Look at those ponytails! Sasha Colby's impact is immeasurable.

CLÁUDIO: Better late than never, amirite? Well, even if I’m not, please pretend. 

Many days have passed since season sixteen drew to a close, with Taiwan goddess Nymphia Wind crowned America’s next drag superstar. It was a conclusion I wished for but wasn’t expecting, thinking Philly had the win secured up until those final minutes. After all, nothing in the season’s edit positioned the Banana Buddha as a threat, mostly ignoring her to the point she was invisible for a couple of episodes in the middle. On the other hand, Sapphira had winner energy from the go, a notion bolstered by the judges’ unvarying praise and four wins to her name. It’s easy to see why Miss Cristál’s stans feel a bit flabbergasted, though I wish some of them weren’t so quick to invalidate RuPaul’s chosen champion.

NICK: It’s still a shock! A pleasant one, but an odd one, and one I can understand folks feeling snaked by. As gaggy as Nymphia’s finale lip sync was - and I do think she won that battle - Sapphira gave a winning performance too! She was winning the whole episode, the whole season, until she didn’t. . . .

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Drag Race RuCap: “Reunited - LipSync LaLaPaRuZa Smackdown”

Nick Taylor and Cláudio Alves are watching and recapping RuPaul’s Drag Race season sixteen. This week, it’s time for episode fifteen…

This week, Megami pulls a Silky and a star is born.

CLÁUDIO: After weeks of complaining about the season’s declining quality, the Drag Race producers shut me right up. This spin on a reunion episode is the best of the year, a super-charged queer Super Bowl of lipsyncing that serves as a respite before next week’s finale. Most of the girls brought their A-game, fighting for their Ru-demption with everything they got, and even the losers seemed to have a good time. Well, most of them. More important, still, was how the hour felt formed around the arc of one particular queen, subverting folks’ expectations both among the audience and the contenders themselves. To paraphrase Mother Jinkx, anyone saying Megami isn’t a star after this episode is so full of shit the toilet’s jealous.

NICK: As far as sports analogies go, I feel more partial to Sapphira calling this the gay Kentucky Derby, though perhaps I was swept up by the fantasy her gigantic hat inspired. But this was a total joy from the first second to the last. Megami’s superstar ascendancy is a Rudemption for the history books, bolstered in every way by how tough the competition was. I loved this episode, and I hope we get this format again in future seasons. . . .

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Drag Race RuCap: “Booked & Blessed”

Nick Taylor and Cláudio Alves are watching and recapping RuPaul’s Drag Race season sixteen. This week, it’s time for episode fourteen…

Ronan Farrow has that All Stars glow-up.

CLÁUDIO: Just when we were starting to think the season had turned into a two-way race for the crown between Sapphira and Plane, here comes a new episode to shake things up. After years of top fours and a one-time fiver, RuPaul’s Drag Race has returned to a triadic finale, using this fourteenth chapter to boot its fourth-placer, fragilize one of the frontrunners’ bid, and bolster another contender’s narrative. A well-produced piece of television, this game-changer hour felt like a gift to Nymphia Wind fans everywhere, making it look like she might stand a chance after all. Considering her strange edit, I’m skeptical, but this episode gave me some much-needed hope. Were you similarly enthused, or is this season’s sagging energy getting to you?

NICK: The sagging energy is definitely getting to me. As much as I’ve been eager for this particular queen to get the boot, and as rewarding as this challenge was, I wouldn’t have minded a top four for the sake of wrapping it all up a little sooner...

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