RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars enters the Ryan Murphy-verse with a lackluster acting challenge
The queens give it their all, but not even a Trinity/Eureka showmance can make up for bad writing and paint-by-numbers producing
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Screenshot: Paramount+
There have been exactly zero seasons of
RuPaul’s Drag Race that have not, at one point or another, felt at least a smidge over-produced. Sometimes it works out great Bebe vs. Ongina in season one, for example, when Ru had to “leave” the judges’ panel because the decision was too difficult. That was exactly the right amount of extra, leading to a heartbreaking elimination that didn’t seem completely out of left field. There have been many such moments Sharon and Phi Phi being forced to team up on their season, some of the RoLaskaTox vs. Jinkx drama, “Wait, Kandy, come back,” etc. They’re an unavoidable element of reality television. The problem with this season of
It becomes increasingly clear, week after week, that this
All Stars cast is among the show’s best to date. And that’s not due to drag excellence, although there’s plenty of that. It’s because there are so many grown-ups in the room. From the very beginning,
Drag Race has been interested, sometimes too interested, in the emotional lives of the queens. This show just loves the vanquishment of an inner saboteur, a step necessary to achieve that most precious reality TV qualities:
authenticity. The show has often pursued those arcs and moments relentlessly (and, ironically, often inauthentically.) Fans love to joke about Michelle and Ru patiently waiting for the queens to trot out whatever trauma they feel like sharing that day, and while that’s led to some incredible moments, it’s made for some uncomfy ones as well. There’s capital-D Drama (heathers vs. boogers, Derrick vs. India, etc.) but there’s also real pain, and it’s not always handled well by the show.
Screenshot: Paramount+
With a strong cast and no clear frontrunner, what happens to
All Stars when everyone does a good job? Rigga Morris, that’s what. Arriving as it does in the wake of one of the best
All Stars episodes in years, “Halftime Headliners” was always likely to be a bit of a letdown. Thus, it’s not a total surprise that despite or perhaps because of the fact that no one bombs, this season’s ersatz Rusical episode falls flat. It’s the
why that’s surprising. It’s not because the queens aren’t serving, but because the judging and critiques seem so arbitrary. Ru, Michelle, Carson, Jamal: y’all, were we watching the same halftime show?