RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars E8 - Finale

by Chris Feil

Can you believe that this season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars was only eight episodes? It feels like we have been gagging over the seemingly endless stream of drama and twists for much longer, but now the season must come to a close. After last week, the internet was vocal about Alaska's tantrum and even I took some flak for considering her run otherwise unsatisfying - but Alaska did play it smart with the fallout.

For the queens final challenge, they put on a supersized showgirl musical number with original raps written around their personas. Before the performance, the girls also visited Ru and Michelle Visage for a mini segment of their podcast "What's The Tee?", narrowly avoiding the podcast's shucking for SquareSpace ("you know it really is so easy") and Casper mattresses in a tweaked version of the old Tic Tac lunches...

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RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars E7 - Yes Gawd Mama!

by Chris Feil

Let's just call RuPaul's shocked expression pictured here the official facecrack of the century. Let the image on your left burn into your memory, because Mama Ru does not normally crack. I guess that's just what happens when you're given the most infuriating elimination in Drag Race herstory. But more on that shortly.

This week, the queens were all visited by their mothers and sisters with the challenge being to make them over with a drag family resemblance. Alyssa Edwards and Detox were coming on the anniversary of the death of their parents, so emotions were already running high outside of the competition/drama. However, this episode was more than a little frustrating for all but pushing the actual challenge aside. Sure, the shade has got us talking this season, but these girls are the best of the best and more attention must be paid to their actual drag!

Best Mom - Katya's mom Pat - Well we see where Katya gets her absurd humor. Pat was more memorable than some of this season's contestants (sorry bout it, Ginger) and so ready to have a ball. When she discussed watching Katya's anxiety struggles on season 7, it just made us feel all the more proud of Katya's ongoing journey...

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RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars E4 - Drag Spoof-quels

By Chris Feil

First thing's first: a hearty condragulations to RuPaul on that Outstanding Reality Host Emmy! The win felt richly deserved after nearly ten seasons of giving us the best competition reality show and her long legacy as a television personality. Now if we can only get the show itself recognized, as well.

After the immediate fallout of Alyssa sending Ginger home last week, the heat was on Miss Edwards for flipping the script on sending the queen with the harshest critiques home. Her defense on keeping Katya on the basis of consistency (being top 2 the previous week, whereas Ginger never registered) fell on deaf ears. Here's the thing: even if they're basing it off judges critique, it's still open to interpretation by the deciding competitor. These girls are acting like their given hard data on who to send home and ignoring how the narrowed field may require them to rethink that strategy.

This week's challenge paired the girls off for drag movie sequels to some of our favorites here at The Film Experience...

... except don't expect anything too familiar to the originals. Licensing sure is expensive!

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Red Carpet: Creative Arts Emmys

Purse first. Purse first. Jose here. First things first: congrats to RuPaul on his first Emmy! The iconic entertainer won on his first nomination as Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program for RuPaul's Drag Race. It only took him 8 seasons, but that's another story, Emmy as we all know is a notoriously slow learner who only starts liking things once they've stopped being cool, or once the uncool things they love have ended and they have no other choice but to reward cool things, which is why over the weekend Amy Poehler and Steve Buscemi also became Emmy winners <3

Keeping up with their tradition of loving the same things, the Creative Arts Emmys (which this year were awarded over two nights after hitting a record 82 categories!) also perpetuated the same red carpet trends, as the stars showed up in gowns that were either beaded or Grammy-esque, or both. Unlike the Oscars which continue being the epitome of glamour, or the Golden Globes which are its more playful cousin, the Emmys are usually about restraint and stars often show up in the same designers they did the previous year. This becomes even duller in the Creative Arts ceremony which isn't televised, which is my way of saying that coming up with looks worthy of discussion was quite the feat...

See the notable looks after the jump. 

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RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars E3 - Herstory Lesson

by Chris Feil

RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars just refused to let up. After last week's twisty, drama-fueled Snatch Game episode, you'd maybe expect the show to pump the breaks on the intensity as it builds the season narrative and character arcs. But no, this week doubled down on making this the most brutal competition in the show's history with unexpected results from the queens.

What was missing from this week's episode was an underdog to root for - *tear* Tatianna's exit still stings a little.

This week's challenge was a musical parody of Bad Girls from Herstory...

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