I feel like I caused all this drama...AND I LOVE IT
Added 2021-02-21 02:05:51 +0000 UTCHappy Saturday, Patrons! How are we this February 20th? I just heard that tonight ends Mercury retrograde! Where are all my basic witches at?! To be honest, I had to Google what that means. And from what I read it basically means that after tonight you can no longer blame your regrettable behavior on Mercury in retrograde. Bummer. But on the flip side it also means that we're releasing any confused and stagnant energy we've been sitting in! It's like releasing astrological gas! Wahoo!
Speaking of gas, let's get on to this weeks Drag Race episode!
This week's ep starts after the tragic loss of Miss LaLaRi. And, oh what a loss it is. As Kandy put it the 'bald brigade' is down to two. It's not the most glamorous sounding group, but it's even sadder that the shiny headed heroes are reduced to two.
The ladies ask Utica how she's feeling after some harsh critiques and she goes all Utica by saying how much she loves each of them. But when they politely roll their eyes and tell her she doesn't have a mean bone in her body she goes all Utic-unt (pardon my language) and points at Olivia and says “You want a mean bone, I can’t believe she won with that hairline!” I SQUEALED! There is a tiny backbone in that wiggly seemingly boneless body!
Denali is still all PISSED BOOTS about not being recognized and before I could finish my yawn she got me good when Kandy mentioned she had a womanly figure and she immediately muttered “You got a womanly figure like Mr. Potato head.” I'm not here for body shaming, but this seemed all in fun and made me giggle.
The next day Ru walks into the werkroom in a psychedelic Ask Jeeves get up and I had to double check Elliott didn't slip me mushrooms before we went to bed. I kid. We had a sensible dinner of Boston Market and watched "You've Got Mail" and I got angry at how terribly that movie has aged.
Speaking of the INTERNET. Ru announces it's time for the goils to perform in Social Media: The Unverified Rusical! This is when I realized watching UK Drag Race and US Drag Race at the same time might be too much for me to handle. When I realized they were singing and dancing AGAIN this episode my reaction was ... meh. Which is totally user error on my part. I still have UK Hun on a loop in my brain so I had to pump myself up to watch ANOTHER Rusical. LOL WHAT A TERRIBLE PROBLEM TO HAVE, HELBIG. I know, I know. But anyone else feel like it's been a lot of singing and a lot of dancing this season? Maybe my wires are crossed, or maybe it's Mercury in retrograde?! I still have like 6 hours to blame it on that so I'm going to blame it on that!
Anyway! They divvy up the parts and Utica's teeny tiny backbone sprouts into almost a full SPINE when she claims the part of Lady Tweets and doesn't back down! Huzzah! I was so proud! With Utica scooping up Lady Tweets, Denali and Rosé are left to fight for the part of Foxy, which leads to them each auditioning in front of the group which leads to Utica whispering "I feel like I caused all this drama...AND I LOVE IT" which lead to me SQUEALING AGAIN! Someone check her new found spine for scoliosis, because that was a bit TWISTED....and I love it.
Rosé gets the part which leads Denali FRUSTRATED BOOTS which leads to me wondering HOW MANY PAIRS OF BOOTS DID YOU PACK!?
Then we get a sweet skype cameo from Anne Hathaway to give the ladies some musical theater tips! I thought this moment was incredibly cute. One, because I also get full hives whenever I talk to ANYONE and two, because she gave some nice advice! Anne Hathaway more like Anne Has-a-way...with words! I'll see myself out.
I'M BACK! THEY DIDN'T LOCK THE DOORS. HA HA!
Then we get to our vocal recordings and Olivia gets the runs, Symone can't sing and Utica's mouthHOLE can't handle it. Fun! (*drink*)
We move on to dance rehearsal and it's a bit all over the place, but exactly what we expect at this point. Olivia is crushing it, Rosé slays, Symone struggles, Mik isn't quick, Denali is determined, and Utica .... 's spine must have slipped out on her way up to the stage because she's back to her spastic self. It's anyone's game at this point!
We're back in the Werkroom and the ladies talk social media. We learn that Tina dated Graham Norton (which doesn't help my already UK/US crossed wires!) and that Kandy is the legend behind the "sitting alone in the VIP" meme. Ugh, WHAT A GIFT. We also learn that Denali is attracted to Hercules and Aladdin...or as Symone put it... "like, animated people?!" ... another WONDERFUL GIFT
Okay, performance time! I thought the show overall was pretty okay. Again, I was in a meh mercury retrograde mindset. That said, I thought Rosé and Olivia were wonderful, Utica pulled it off just enough, Kandy accidentally absorbed a bit of Utica's usual spastic-ness and Gottmik WAS JUST A GOD DAMN SURPRISING JOY TO WATCH! I thought Denali matched Gottmik (though I preferred Mik's look) and Tina was ... fine. Also, I know Elliott didn't get a lot of recognition this episode but I loved her look for the musical and thought she did great with what she was given.
On to the runway! YELLOW GORGEOUS! Here's my rundown!
Tina: The taxicab look was fun but kinda expected from here...and there's something about her wigs and makeup that I just can't get behind!
Olivia: A glaaamorous big bird
Symone: A sexy, badass big bird
Utica: A performer at Portland's Medieval Times?
Kandy: Love a Beyonce moment, but there was something about her wig that I didn't love
Elliott: Unfortunately another taxicab theme, but I thought she did it fresher than Tina
Rosé: an omage to Jim Carrey and The Mask?? How unexpected! How fun!
Denali: Gorgeous but I kept thinking her snakes looked like a spaghetti head
Gottmik: Latex Test Dummy!? Another woooonderful runway look
Then the judging came in and, honestly, I had no idea what to expect! BUT I was so happy that Rosé finally won! And at a challenge that was built for her! How nice! Then Ru gave a line to Symone that kicked me in my retrograded ass ... “You weren’t overshadowed… you forgot to shine.” UGH WHAT A GREAT LINE!
To my surprise Kandy and Symone were in the bottom two! Truly, I was shocked. But I guess that's how you know the competition is getting f-f-f-fierce! They lip sync to 5th Harmony's Bo$$ and ohhhhh did I OOGLE over their performances. I kept muttering that Ru had to keep them both but she chose to send Kandy home. And I got sad. And then she changed her mind and told Kandy she wants her to stay! And then I got excited! And then I got tired! Because this season feels like a long ass season already and she just extended it! Oh well! It was a very sweet moment regardless.
And the best part of the whole episode is that they announced that SNATCH GAME IS NEXT WEEK!!!!!! At this point, I have no idea what to expect. I barely know where I am anymore! But, I'm keeping my expectations in check. I feel like it's really anybody's game at this point! What do y'all think?? Gimme them good insights, observations and sweetly shady commentaries! Enjoy the rest of your retrograde-free weekends! ❤️G
Comments
If you ever wanna kiki about drag race, feel free to hit me up! I’m in the same boat where I don’t have many people to actually talk about it with, and yet it’s like my favorite thing to do 😂 I agreed with literally EVERYTHING you said, I think we’d have great chats lol can’t wait to see the next review!
2021-03-05 23:30:34 +0000 UTCI LIVE for these rundowns. I can’t watch but I feel like I’m kept in the loop anyway.
Trooper
2021-02-23 04:13:56 +0000 UTCGrace I so appreciate your commitment to doing these reviews each week. My dream will be you and Mamrie doing one together for a podcast or a video at least once! I won’t hold my breath though lol. I also appreciate the outlet to share my thoughts on drag race. I don’t have many people physically around me during this pandemic to watch the show with, which I think the EXPERIENCE of watching it is just as good as the content itself, to be honest. I’m from New York too so I’m familiar with a lot of the New York queens usually when they get cast. For me, I’ve got to say that I am thoroughly shocked that no one else is talking about Elliott with two T’s performance. That was the only one I dropped everything to really stare at. I think I stood up at one point, lol. She gave me Janet Jackson. That was incredible. I think she’s so accustomed to the identity of being in the background that she doesn’t even realize what she did was incredible. The performance was COOL. There was a time where I thought that no one would compare to the original queens from the first couple seasons of drag race. But to be honest, watching this Rusical, it feels like I’m watching seasoned Broadway performers. They are so polished it is incredible to me. I love the UK drag race, as well, and I liked it more than the US one for a time. But dang, in terms of performance value and costuming and production, these queens seem to get better every season. I think you could pay top dollar to watch these queens for a world class performance. I thought everyone was great this week except Symone. Which pains me to say because she I think is my favorite this season. She has heart, she has personality, she seems very smart, and would be a great ambassador for LGBT+ And the Rupaul brand, I think. That lip-synch was incredible. I got more timid from Symone actually. Kandy turned it OUT. She was consistently at 10 for me, well where is Symone peaked in and out of 10 value. It seems like she was more conscious of Kandy on that stage than Kandy was of her. To me that’s the mark of the winner. But double Shantay was completely appropriate because they both killed it to be honest. I love Simone‘s subtlety. With that nuance and charming personality. There are some really iconic moments and moves she did. I don’t like reading comments about viewers opinions because to me it’s very common to hate on big, loud, colored queens. Some kind of collective societal projection, I think. I think we see big loud and colored and we project people who made us feel small in our past onto them, as if we REALLY know them. It is crazy as hell that people see someone and they really believe they know exactly who that person is at their core. Enough to threaten them and their family and loved ones. That is some thing I will never understand. We are so much more multi-dimensional than one outburst or expression filtered through a VH1 reality television show... And it’s difficult for people to show all of their colors in one pocket of time under a high pressured environment like this. I think Kandy is a lot smarter than people give her credit for. And low-key, although Simone killed it and she is my favorite, there was no way in hell Rupaul was going to get rid of her. I get the sense that Ru sees a shade of her past self in Symone. I see that twinkle in her eye when she watches her. She wants her to win. I’ve seen some of Denali online and wow she really has yet to show what she’s capable of. If you’ve seen any of her stuff online you’ll know what I’m talking about lol. She seems like all star material and I’m sure she’ll be on the next season of All-Stars if she doesn’t start peaking right now. I am also a figure skating fan since Michelle Kwan in 1998 lol. So I just love that aspect of her as well. I know Rose from New York and she is delivering exactly like you would think. She seems like top three for sure I’m not sure she’s going to win though. I thought Tina was incredible actually and they gave her a hard time. I also can’t get over that she dated Graham Norton. I saw the photo and I still can’t picture it LOL. Once again, Grace, I appreciate your consistency. It always comes across like you genuinely take the time to consider your fans and supporters here and Patreon with each piece of content you share. For how fun and frivolous the content is, it always feels laced with genuine care and appreciation. Hope all is well and looking forward to more! Stay healthy! ~Cody
Cody Singh
2021-02-22 00:58:07 +0000 UTC
