RPDR: Social Media Kings/Queens

by Nathaniel R  

Let us begin by bowing down to the writers on RuPaul's Drag Race for so many new and witty mini-challenges for Season 10. They knew this season was important and they're clearly reinvigorated. In a tenth season when most writers rooms have given up. This week's "Rough Trade" opener was truly funny as the six remaining queens had to summon their inner neanderthal in straight drag. Naturally Kameron with her muscle body and ripped tee most looked the party but Eureka won with her outlandishly butch slob "BJ" (Being a Jokester). Asia, Aquaria, and Miz Cracker couldn't really leave the femme behind and Monét memorably struggled to stop the swivel in her hips.

On to the maxi-challenge, drag makeovers for "Social Media Kings" all of whom I was personally unfamiliar with save Tyler Oakley and Frankie Grande. Hmmm, I might be gay and not in my *cough* twenties? Shut up!

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Drag Race S10E9

by Nathaniel R 

A very very quick runthrough this week as we were busy with Cannes mania and Drag Race basically tread water with no one drowning this week. The episode peaked early with a mini-challenge involving a supersized Pit Crew and lots of ass. RuPaul was right when she suggested it should be its own spin-off. In this matching underwear game, Aquaria proved the most adept at remembering butts. Hmmmm... 

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"Cher: The Unauthorized Rusical"

by Nathaniel R

 

S10E8 Well, so that was a perfect episode. Not at all Suspect. Sorry for the Cher pun but Season 10 has been on fire with smart casting, great episodes, rainbow colored madness, inspired mini-challenges, and memorable runway themes. The writers and editors aren't sleeping through it either. Note how well Monét's silly RuPaul mimicry (pictured above) kicked off the episode with bad celebrity impersonation and Ru's campy-funny "slap out of it" mini-challenge both dovetailed so neatly into the CHER homage maxi-challenge...

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Drag Race S10: "Snatch Game"

by Nathaniel R

S10E7 Behold the ever-divisive power of the "Snatch Game". It tends to totally shake the chess board and upend expectations about who the final three or four will be. Though some fans have called for a moratorium on the signature challenge, after diminishing returns each season, others claim that it's always been thus: half terrific, half abysmal. We used to belong to Camp A but we're back with Camp B. And if you can't hack it in the Snatch Game, you're often next on the chopping block. But the episode didn't begin with the game but with the Reading Challenge. The library opened and Eureka, still on a roll, took yet another win.

Here's a funny visual example of how divisive these episodes are. Check out these competing headlines that popped up when I was searching for images from the show...

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Infinity Tweet

LOL 

A timely reminder for all print-publishing folk errywhere: Beware the Gutter™ pic.twitter.com/ANVMmGKFb3

— Adolfo Aranjuez (@adolfo_ae) April 26, 2018

That's definitely a print lesson lost in the age of online media. After the jump warrior unicorns, a Clouds of Sils Maria / superhero fantasy that made me laugh out loud, Janelle Monae and Tessa Thompson, and various bon mots from twitter in general and film fanaticism in particular... 

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