I was nervous at the start of the challenge. I thought this would be another performance disaster for this crop of drag queens who have no exactly impressed when it comes to putting on theatrical productions. The Shakesqueer episode a few weeks ago was disastrous and I was anticipating a repeat of that carnage. Fortunately, two of the three teams put on something of a good show. And not just a good show but a clarifying show. I think there can't be any doubt as to who the favorites are to be on the final show after this week's episode. On to the rankings!
7.) Miss Fame (OUT) - Rarely has there been a more deserving elimination than Miss Fame. She was the clear weak link, if not in this episode then in general. She had been among the worst queens for three weeks in a row prior to this episode and had shown all the wit of a brick wall. I eagerly anticipate her appearance on a Bravo reality show of some sort, but she is clearly not cut out to be America's next drag superstar. When her turn at lip sync finally came, Miss Fame, who has bitched about everyone else's effort, barely put up a fight. Even a mediocre lip sync might have defeated Pearl's languid effort. I actually thought Ru Paul might send them both home, as she has done in the past. But this time it was only Miss Fame.
5.) (tie) Pearl & Trixie Mattel- It's hard to talk about one without talking about the other. Pearl eliminated Trixie in a lip sync and then brought her back with a spectacular performance last week. Now both seem the least likely to make it into the top three. I don't think either of them have any real glaring weaknesses, but neither of them have shown a real capacity to amaze. They may well outlast one of the other queens here because of their capacity to not screw up but i don't see anyone wanting them for the finale. Pearl this week was completely unremarkable as Divine, one of the more iconic characters in the history of drag, and Trixie seemed to be going through the motions, adding nothing to her scene with Ginger. Both were fine enough to escape elimination but it's not going to be the type of performance that will lead either of them into the finals.
4.) Violet Chachki- I was going to give the bottom remaining queens a three-way tie for fourth place, as they all seem to be of equal quality and clearly below the top three queens. But for you readers I pushed myself. I asked "Who is most likely to break into the top 3 if an upset were to happen?" I think the answer is Violet. Trixie is completely blocked out by Ginger Minj as a comedy queen, and I can't see Ru choosing Pearl over any of the top three queens. Violet, however, has the capacity to amaze and shock under the right circumstances. If I were the top three queens I would definitely prefer to see either Pearl or Trixie in the final four rather than Violet. You can sort of expect what's coming from Pearl and Trixie, but Violet has had potential, she has had some of the better moments on the show so far: the stunning plaid dress in Week 1...the vanishingly tiny corset. She has the capacity to upset.
3.) Kennedy Davenport- Similarly, for the top three, I wondered "Who among the top 3 is most likely to screw up?" I think it's Kennedy. She make me nervous when she forgets her lines at some points, and makes ...interesting clothing choices, like her rooster suit for the "death dress" runway challenge. Overall Kennedy has been very solid throughout and is clearly better than at least three of the remaining queens, but she really inches close to a big mistake at times.
2.) Katya- I actually though Katya outperformed Ginger in this challenge, and outperformed Pearl last week, so she's very hot, but it strikes me that she's probably a slight underdog to win the whole thing. Ginger is such a big personality and Katya is subtle. I think big plays better in a competition like this. So while Katya is my personal favorite, i think we have to slot her slightly behind Ginger.
1.) Ginger Minj- Yeah, gut feeling, I think any watcher of Drag Race has to be thinking that Ginger is the favorite to take the crown. Although I think the race is close, it's hard to imagine Ru choosing one of the other queens over Ginger. She's had the biggest personality and the best story of the competitors. If she continues turning in strong performances she will remain THE FAVORITE.
Friday, May 01, 2015
Thursday, April 23, 2015
RuPaul's Drag Race Power Rankings (Week 8)
Well, I thought that episode was great. It was quite a surprise to see all the old queens come back simultaneously to interact with the new queens, and it retrospectively changed a my opinion of a bunch of them. I think Ms. Kasha Davis showed more than she ever had during the competition, and it's a shame we didn't get to see more of this side of her. I also thought that Max showed himself to be a little....boring.? I still think he was eliminated too soon, but we may have seen the crest of the Max wave. I thought his and Violet's effort was a little ho-hum when a big win was needed. Of course, the big winner this week was Trixie Mattel...but we'll get to that.
8.) Jaidynn Diore Fierce (OUT)- I thought Jaidynn put in quite a good effort during this competition. She stuck around as long as she could have expected to, and knocked out a few good queens in the lip sync competitions. Her lack of imagination on the runway and her pairing with the awful Tempest DuJour finally did her in, however
7.) Miss Fame- Ru protects Miss Fame once again. This is the third week in a row that Miss Fame has placed in the bottom, and Miss Fame still hasn't been made to lip sync for his life. Her inane narcissistic banter is really starting to get on my nerves as well. It's time for Miss Fame to go. With Jaidynn's exit she is the only queen remaining who hasn't one a single challenge, and she hasn't really distinguished herself in any way.
6.) Violet Chachki- Violet is hanging in there and got high praise for his attitude adjustment from Ms. Kasha Davis. I've noticed the change too. However, I can't shake the feeling that Violet is slightly closer to being on the outs than making a big leap into the final three. While Violet has been pretty competent throughout the competition, she hasn't impressed since the very first week. Kennedy was correct to note that the corset thing is getting kind of tired. If that was Violet's big card to play, she should have saved it for the end when it could make an impact in the tough rounds, but, then again, maybe she doesn't have any other cards to play? That's my fear with Violet.
4.) (tie) Trixie Mattel- Trixie made quite the leap back into the competition, not only winning this challenge but one upping Pearl on the runway. Now that Trixie's back, she suddenly seems dangerous where she seem moribund at the time of her elimination. If Trixie can realize her promise as a genuine comedy queen, she'll be a definite threat to get into the top 3. Ginger has shown more talent than Trixie through this competition, but she's also shown signs that the pressure is getting to her a bit. A newly energized Trixie, with nothing to lose, could overtake Ginger in the comedy queen lane if Ginger isn't
4.) (tie) Pearl - Pearl has been spot on since out performing Trixie in their lip sync competition. Pearl has been one of the funnier queens since then, and her growth is reminiscent of Adore Delano last season. Unfortunately Pearl doesn't have the huge singing voice that Adore did, otherwise I think Pearl would already be in the top three. Before we can consider Pearl a serious contender, I think we need to see him nail something on his own.
3.) Ginger Minj- I'm kind of worried about Ginger. Her ability should make her a shoe in for the top three, but her flagging confidence threatens to put her out. I thought she was simply out of it for this competition. While Sasha Belle was one of the worst queens to be paired with, Ginger still should have been able to pull something decent off without getting rattled. I thought Ginger's effort was the worst of the queens. I think it was entirely her fear and self doubt that wrecked her and not her ability.
2.) Kennedy- In contrast to Ginger, Kennedy's best asset is her unflappability. It might just be all the pot. She seems to always be in control of the room. She showed confidence by pairing the queens in a way that way just rather than rawly strategic. Her talent and sense of humor is not quite up to Ginger's but she doesn't seem to get as easily discouraged or rattled.
1.) Katya- Katya is a weak number one, but she is the one I can most envision in the top three. After misremembering her lines in week 2, she hasn't taken a wrong step since, and seems to be the funniest queen in the competition. I thought her runway look this week was hilarious, and of a piece with her sense of humor. Katya's doesn't have Ginger's bawdy one-liners nor does she mug for the camera like Trixie. But Katya has a sense of the subtly hilarious that none of the other queens do. I think she is the most oroginal and, therefore, the favorite at this point.
8.) Jaidynn Diore Fierce (OUT)- I thought Jaidynn put in quite a good effort during this competition. She stuck around as long as she could have expected to, and knocked out a few good queens in the lip sync competitions. Her lack of imagination on the runway and her pairing with the awful Tempest DuJour finally did her in, however
7.) Miss Fame- Ru protects Miss Fame once again. This is the third week in a row that Miss Fame has placed in the bottom, and Miss Fame still hasn't been made to lip sync for his life. Her inane narcissistic banter is really starting to get on my nerves as well. It's time for Miss Fame to go. With Jaidynn's exit she is the only queen remaining who hasn't one a single challenge, and she hasn't really distinguished herself in any way.
6.) Violet Chachki- Violet is hanging in there and got high praise for his attitude adjustment from Ms. Kasha Davis. I've noticed the change too. However, I can't shake the feeling that Violet is slightly closer to being on the outs than making a big leap into the final three. While Violet has been pretty competent throughout the competition, she hasn't impressed since the very first week. Kennedy was correct to note that the corset thing is getting kind of tired. If that was Violet's big card to play, she should have saved it for the end when it could make an impact in the tough rounds, but, then again, maybe she doesn't have any other cards to play? That's my fear with Violet.
4.) (tie) Trixie Mattel- Trixie made quite the leap back into the competition, not only winning this challenge but one upping Pearl on the runway. Now that Trixie's back, she suddenly seems dangerous where she seem moribund at the time of her elimination. If Trixie can realize her promise as a genuine comedy queen, she'll be a definite threat to get into the top 3. Ginger has shown more talent than Trixie through this competition, but she's also shown signs that the pressure is getting to her a bit. A newly energized Trixie, with nothing to lose, could overtake Ginger in the comedy queen lane if Ginger isn't
4.) (tie) Pearl - Pearl has been spot on since out performing Trixie in their lip sync competition. Pearl has been one of the funnier queens since then, and her growth is reminiscent of Adore Delano last season. Unfortunately Pearl doesn't have the huge singing voice that Adore did, otherwise I think Pearl would already be in the top three. Before we can consider Pearl a serious contender, I think we need to see him nail something on his own.
3.) Ginger Minj- I'm kind of worried about Ginger. Her ability should make her a shoe in for the top three, but her flagging confidence threatens to put her out. I thought she was simply out of it for this competition. While Sasha Belle was one of the worst queens to be paired with, Ginger still should have been able to pull something decent off without getting rattled. I thought Ginger's effort was the worst of the queens. I think it was entirely her fear and self doubt that wrecked her and not her ability.
2.) Kennedy- In contrast to Ginger, Kennedy's best asset is her unflappability. It might just be all the pot. She seems to always be in control of the room. She showed confidence by pairing the queens in a way that way just rather than rawly strategic. Her talent and sense of humor is not quite up to Ginger's but she doesn't seem to get as easily discouraged or rattled.
1.) Katya- Katya is a weak number one, but she is the one I can most envision in the top three. After misremembering her lines in week 2, she hasn't taken a wrong step since, and seems to be the funniest queen in the competition. I thought her runway look this week was hilarious, and of a piece with her sense of humor. Katya's doesn't have Ginger's bawdy one-liners nor does she mug for the camera like Trixie. But Katya has a sense of the subtly hilarious that none of the other queens do. I think she is the most oroginal and, therefore, the favorite at this point.
Friday, April 17, 2015
RuPaul's Drag Race Power Rankings (Week 7)
Wellity wellity wellity, this was certainly an eventful week. I will get to the shocking news in a paragraph or two, but there are two items of note that may be interesting to fans of Drag Race. First, RuPaul came out with an app call RuPaul's Drag Race Keyboard that allows you to insert Drag Race emoji's, stickers, and gifs into your texts. If you are friends with me in real life, look for these soon.
ALSO, I was on twitter and noticed an interesting tweet from Bianca Del Rio, last year's winner. In it, she calls Detox, a drag queen from Season 5, her "boo." Does this mean that Bianca and Detox are dating? I looked up "boo" on urban dictionary just to be sure my understanding of boo wasn't mistaken, and it appears that "boyfriend or girlfriend" is the primary definition. Interesting! I wish them the best of luck if this is true. They were both excellent competitors on Drag Race. Now, on to the rankings.
8.) Max (OUT?)- It's a travesty that Max was eliminated this week. You can defend Ru's decision on the margins, but by any consistent strain of logic either Jaidynn or Miss Fame deserved to go. Yes, Max was one of the two worst performers on the Snatch Game, a huge choke, but Miss Fame was quite a bit worse and deserved to be eliminated for his totally uninspired and boring performance. Miss Fame chose a character that Violet also chose, got his way by being able to play that character, and still totally whiffed. It appeared as if they put Jaidynn in the bottom two because of how weak she had been overall, because her Snatch Game performance was not one of the two worst. Yes, she only had one gimmick, but at least she had something. Neither Max nor Miss Fame had anything. So if Jaidynn was included in the bottom two, they had to be considering past performance as part of the judging equation. If that's so, then there's no way Max's strong performance deserved to land him in the bottom two.
Almost immediately after Max's shocking elimination came the announcement from Ru that she had prematurely ejected one the queens. It's clear to me that either Max or Trixie is coming back. Hopefully it is Max, as he is much more promising performer. However, I have a nagging feeling that it is Trixie we will see back. Max was portrayed as a sort of villain on the show recently, and if Ru wanted to keep Max around she could have taken the very easy step of simply eliminating Jaidynn Diore Fierce, which was the obvious move.
There's also a narrative in favor of Trixie: Ru saw how poorly the current cast did at Snatch Game and realized she needed the funny one back. Incidentally, I saw this tasteless but very funny video of Trixie auditioning with her Snatch Game character of Anne Frank . Ru mentioned on the show that Trixie's audition tape, which featured this Snatch Game character was among the funniest he has seen. Thus it makes sense that the Snatch Game was the venue for Ru's reconsideration.
7.) Miss Fame- I have to say, I think Ru is protecting Miss Fame. There is no universe in which Miss Fame didn't belong in the bottom two. The character choice was unoriginal and the execution was worse than that. Also, the scene between Miss Fame and Katya was clearly staged. Notice how the camera was perfectly set up for that scene and captured every moment of dialogue. There is no way that Katya would go to Miss Fame for advice, it's as ridiculous as various people going to the Cookie Monster as a life coach. I think we're being encourage to think of Miss Fame as deeper than she actually is, and so I'm moving her back to #7 as a bit of mild protest.
6.) Jaidynn Diore Fierce- The Raven Simone impersonation was not as bad as I thought it would be, but the runway look was very so-so. I hope Jaidynn can hold on for another week.
5.) Violet Chacki- Violet is just sort of hanging around, she fell into a surprisingly good Alyssa Edwards impression (I think her Donatella Versace would've landed her near the bottom) and continues to impress on the runway. Violet is beginning to remind me of the Rex Ryan Jets whenever they would play the Patriots. At first they seem completely overmatched, but then they just keep hanging around until you realize that, despite everything, the game is actually going their way. I would've thought that Violet would be on her way out by now based on her past performance, but here she is, and she may have an outside chance to make it into the top 3.
4.) Pearl- Pearl might be the one who benefited the most from Max's unceremonious ejection. Now she just has to upset one of the top three to get into the finals. She had a strong week. Her performance in Snatch Game was excellent and her runway look was very good. Kennedy and Ginger have been consistent performers, and I think the world of Katya, but Pearl might have a higher ceiling than all of them. Pearl continues to be the most intriguing one of the bunch.
3.) Katya- I thought her Suze Orman was good but a little disappointing. Her runway look was excellent though. Of all the queens, I'm probably rooting for her the most.
2.) Kennedy- Little Richard was a gamble that improbably paid off. And she has been a good performer all along, although not as consistent as.....
1.) Ginger Minj- Ginger was clearly the best in Snatch Game with her hilarious Adele impression. I'm not even sure why she had to share it with Kennedy. With Max gone this race is Ginger's to lose. Whatever you do, Ginger, don't fuck it up!
ALSO, I was on twitter and noticed an interesting tweet from Bianca Del Rio, last year's winner. In it, she calls Detox, a drag queen from Season 5, her "boo." Does this mean that Bianca and Detox are dating? I looked up "boo" on urban dictionary just to be sure my understanding of boo wasn't mistaken, and it appears that "boyfriend or girlfriend" is the primary definition. Interesting! I wish them the best of luck if this is true. They were both excellent competitors on Drag Race. Now, on to the rankings.
8.) Max (OUT?)- It's a travesty that Max was eliminated this week. You can defend Ru's decision on the margins, but by any consistent strain of logic either Jaidynn or Miss Fame deserved to go. Yes, Max was one of the two worst performers on the Snatch Game, a huge choke, but Miss Fame was quite a bit worse and deserved to be eliminated for his totally uninspired and boring performance. Miss Fame chose a character that Violet also chose, got his way by being able to play that character, and still totally whiffed. It appeared as if they put Jaidynn in the bottom two because of how weak she had been overall, because her Snatch Game performance was not one of the two worst. Yes, she only had one gimmick, but at least she had something. Neither Max nor Miss Fame had anything. So if Jaidynn was included in the bottom two, they had to be considering past performance as part of the judging equation. If that's so, then there's no way Max's strong performance deserved to land him in the bottom two.
Almost immediately after Max's shocking elimination came the announcement from Ru that she had prematurely ejected one the queens. It's clear to me that either Max or Trixie is coming back. Hopefully it is Max, as he is much more promising performer. However, I have a nagging feeling that it is Trixie we will see back. Max was portrayed as a sort of villain on the show recently, and if Ru wanted to keep Max around she could have taken the very easy step of simply eliminating Jaidynn Diore Fierce, which was the obvious move.
There's also a narrative in favor of Trixie: Ru saw how poorly the current cast did at Snatch Game and realized she needed the funny one back. Incidentally, I saw this tasteless but very funny video of Trixie auditioning with her Snatch Game character of Anne Frank . Ru mentioned on the show that Trixie's audition tape, which featured this Snatch Game character was among the funniest he has seen. Thus it makes sense that the Snatch Game was the venue for Ru's reconsideration.
7.) Miss Fame- I have to say, I think Ru is protecting Miss Fame. There is no universe in which Miss Fame didn't belong in the bottom two. The character choice was unoriginal and the execution was worse than that. Also, the scene between Miss Fame and Katya was clearly staged. Notice how the camera was perfectly set up for that scene and captured every moment of dialogue. There is no way that Katya would go to Miss Fame for advice, it's as ridiculous as various people going to the Cookie Monster as a life coach. I think we're being encourage to think of Miss Fame as deeper than she actually is, and so I'm moving her back to #7 as a bit of mild protest.
6.) Jaidynn Diore Fierce- The Raven Simone impersonation was not as bad as I thought it would be, but the runway look was very so-so. I hope Jaidynn can hold on for another week.
5.) Violet Chacki- Violet is just sort of hanging around, she fell into a surprisingly good Alyssa Edwards impression (I think her Donatella Versace would've landed her near the bottom) and continues to impress on the runway. Violet is beginning to remind me of the Rex Ryan Jets whenever they would play the Patriots. At first they seem completely overmatched, but then they just keep hanging around until you realize that, despite everything, the game is actually going their way. I would've thought that Violet would be on her way out by now based on her past performance, but here she is, and she may have an outside chance to make it into the top 3.
4.) Pearl- Pearl might be the one who benefited the most from Max's unceremonious ejection. Now she just has to upset one of the top three to get into the finals. She had a strong week. Her performance in Snatch Game was excellent and her runway look was very good. Kennedy and Ginger have been consistent performers, and I think the world of Katya, but Pearl might have a higher ceiling than all of them. Pearl continues to be the most intriguing one of the bunch.
3.) Katya- I thought her Suze Orman was good but a little disappointing. Her runway look was excellent though. Of all the queens, I'm probably rooting for her the most.
2.) Kennedy- Little Richard was a gamble that improbably paid off. And she has been a good performer all along, although not as consistent as.....
1.) Ginger Minj- Ginger was clearly the best in Snatch Game with her hilarious Adele impression. I'm not even sure why she had to share it with Kennedy. With Max gone this race is Ginger's to lose. Whatever you do, Ginger, don't fuck it up!
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