There are very few things in this world that this critic hates.
One of those few things, however, are YouTube personalities. It’s nothing personal, and I wish no ill will towards them, but more often than not I find their over-the-top personalities grating, and the cult-like fan base that surrounds them to be entirely off-putting. So you can imagine my disappointment when this season’s “make-over” challenge would find the queens pairing off with YouTube stars and trying to turn them into their drag partners. You can also imagine my surprise that the episode with these YouTube stars turned out to be the most entertaining of the season (so far).
Coming off of last week’s gag of an ending, which saw Ru deciding not to eliminate anyone from the Top 6, tension was high in the workroom, as the queen’s disagreed about who truly deserved to be there. At this point, the Top 6 is an interesting bunch because each of the queens are strong competitors, but no one can truly be seen as a front runner. So while Eureka seems to have the closest thing to a “winners narrative,” Aquaria, Asia, and even comeback kid Kameron all seem to be putting up a fight. This week’s challenge took even more unexpected turns, however, with a particular queen who had been flopping in recent weeks unexpectedly hitting it out of the park. Without venturing into spoiler territory, this week really helped raise the stakes in the competition, creating a genuine feeling of suspense as we approach the last four weeks.
One of the best things about this week’s episode, however, was getting to see the queens interact with people who weren’t their competition. While I can’t say that any of the guest contestants convinced me to watch their YouTube channels, it was genuinely amusing to see them all learn what it takes to be a drag queen and build relationships with the queens. They even had time to build genuine arcs over the course of the episode. For example, Kameron and Miz Cracker were paired with straight YouTube stars, and they had to figure out how to introduce these men into the LGBTQ+ community and make them comfortable walking the runway in heels, a dress, and, perhaps most importantly, tucked. But watching these two queens develop genuine friendships with two straight men and, eventually, walk the runway together, felt truly cathartic. Meanwhile, Asia and Monet had a beautiful bonding moment during this week’s Untucked.
But, of course, it’s hard to view an individual episode of Drag Race without taking a look at the overall context of the season, and this entire episode could be redefined once we get a better idea of who could take the crown. To be totally honest, the decision to send one of the weaker queens this week to the bottom three, but not make her lip sync for her life, felt far too staged for its own good. Similarly, the way the show frames Eureka is strange – she’s easily gotten the most screentime of the bunch this year, and much has been made about her comeback story after injuring herself during season 9. But almost all the queens complain about her in a way that goes beyond shade; they seem to genuinely hate her, and the rare glimpses at backstage drama we see on Twitter suggests that they may not all get along. Intentional or not, Eureka comes off as a villain, and if we’re supposed to want her to win, it would feel like a miscalculation on the editor’s part.
All in all, this was just a fun episode of Drag Race. Again, it’s difficult to review individual weeks of this series since it could be entirely recontextualized once a winner is declared. For example, I personally liked the quen who was sent home this week, but, right now, her departure makes sense. But, if a winner I don’t like is crowned in about a month, I’ll look back at this episode with anger. But, at the very least, I’m more than excited to keep watching.
Overall rating: 9 out of 10
