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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RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars E2 - Snatch Game

By Chris Feil

How was Rupaul's Drag Race All Stars going to follow the all-timer quality of last week's premiere? By diving right into the show's biggest fan favorite challenge and ramping up all sorts of drama, of course!

Yes, this week is already Snatch Game, the show's most legendary challenge that has been seeing increasingly diminishing returns in past seasons (dare we say that we've considered the show should just eliminate it entirely *gasp*). But the actual challenge was more than just hype this time around with even the weaker performing queens producing more memorable celebrity impersonations than some of season seven and eight's strongest. I guess that's why this bunch are truly All Stars.

But the main challenge and runway drama weren't the biggest showdown this week...

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RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars E1 - Let's Get All Star-ted

By Chris Feil

RuPaul is bringing back some of the biggest names in Drag Race herstory and honey she is not holding back.

The premiere of this new season of All Stars (let's full-stop forget the team-based first All-Stars existed, shall we?) is a new benchmark for the series, providing more drama and unexpected twists than ever before while still keeping the focus on the queens' personalities. Even the evolution of the contestants' personas provides some refreshing surprises with past villains like Phi Phi O'Hara and Roxxxy Andrews out to prove that they should be known for something more than their past bitchery. In fact, assumed early frontrunners took a back seat in this premiere in favor of the girls looking to battle perceptions on their way to the crown.

But Drag Race is quite eager to shake up the formula this season, something that the show desperately needs in order to raise the stakes on these powerhouses and to combat the diminishing returns of series staples like Snatch Game. And the first big twist is ruthless: the queens that perform best in the main challenge will Lipsync For Their Legacy, and the winner gets both $10,000 and the right to eliminate a queen. Oh, y'all wanted a twist? The genius here is that the very structure of the show is built to bring more drama.

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Drag Race All Stars Begins Aug. 25!

Get ready for the return of your favorite drag queens because later this month RuPaul's Drag Race is giving us another All Stars season. Can you believe we are already getting more eleganza when it feels like season 8 just ended?

In case you haven't seen the cast, here's our returning queens:

• Adore Delano (Season 6)
• Alaska (Season 5)
• Alyssa Edwards (Season 5)
• Coco Montrese (Season 5)
• Detox (Season 5)
• Ginger Minj (Season 7)
• Katya Zamolodchikova (Season 7)
• Phi Phi O'Hara (Season 4)
• Roxxxy Andrews (Season 5)
• Tatianna (Season 2)

That is an overload of season five realness, but if it means the return of Rolaskatox, we are perfectly okay with that. Tatianna is the only returning early season competitor and maybe the season's underdog - don't forget she was the original Snatch Game winner with her Britney Spears ("I got lost!"). Overall this cast is heavy with strong performers ready to bring the drama. This round is forgoing the first All Stars season's drama-undercutting teams concept in favor of a new twist:

You heard that right: the best performers will lipsync against one another and the lipsync winner will choose the queen that sashays away. Could it lead to another Rolaskatox domination? Does it stack the deck against lipsync assassins like Alyssa Edwards and Coco Montrese that were never strong performers in actual challenges?

Season 2 of Rupaul's Drag Race All Stars begins Thursday, August 25th. Whose return has you most excited and what queen do you wish was in the cast?

And the Season 8 Drag Race Winner is...

Last night, our favorite reality not-so-guilty pleasure wrapped up it's eighth season. RuPaul's Drag Race definitely came back strong this season after the underwhelming seventh stumbled. This crop of queens was among the most talented and dynamic, resulting in the show's best top three ever. Whether the eventual winner would be the boisterous Bob the Drag Queen, the heartwarming and inventive Kim Chi, or the glamazon Naomi Smalls, we the adoring audience could hardly complain.

After each of them performed fun lipsyncs to original tracks (available on iTunes *wink*), their individual interviews provided the night's best entertainment: Bob got a video message from Carol Channing praising her Snatch Game win to Bob's aghast tears; Kim dished on her relationship with her mother (who still has no knowledge of Kim's success) and delivered the night's best read aimed at the Pit Crew; Naomi gushed about the approval from her idol Naomi Campbell and shared hugs with her giant family.

But which queen is America's Next Drag Superstar? We'll avoid spoilers (if you haven't yet watched) and save the crowning for after the jump!...

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