RuPaul's All Stars Drag Race: Snatch Game
September 3, 2016 5:13 AM - Season 2, Episode 2 - Subscribe
The queens impersonate celebrities in a quick-witted TV game show and burn rubber in a latex runway. With guest judge Ross Mathews. (synopsis from logotv.com)
Alaska killed it. Killed it and mounted it over the fireplace. Didn't care for her runway as much but her Mae West...
I agree Alyssa was good but like Ru said "well that made no goddamn sense but it sure was entertaining" which is pretty much Alyssa in a nutshell really.
Katya was good, she wasn't really Bjork but whatever. Her runway look was perfection.
I get that not everyone has the benefit of a latex outfit just lying around, but doing a basic black latex garment is so... expected. Detox mixed it up, looked great, but her Nancy Grace was not so graceful. Whatever it was Ginger was wearing wasn't expected, but then again, neither was it good.
Everyone else, meh.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 2:18 PM on September 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
I agree Alyssa was good but like Ru said "well that made no goddamn sense but it sure was entertaining" which is pretty much Alyssa in a nutshell really.
Katya was good, she wasn't really Bjork but whatever. Her runway look was perfection.
I get that not everyone has the benefit of a latex outfit just lying around, but doing a basic black latex garment is so... expected. Detox mixed it up, looked great, but her Nancy Grace was not so graceful. Whatever it was Ginger was wearing wasn't expected, but then again, neither was it good.
Everyone else, meh.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 2:18 PM on September 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
First things first, the stuff with Adore leaving was really sad, because I love her and I love her drag, but it really seemed like this was the best decision for her mental health. I hope this doesn't affect her morale and confidence in her work outside of Drag Race.
Snatch Game:
Lipsync: Both queens were great. Katya's my favorite in this competition, but Alaska deserved that win. Still, these two showed the rest of the queens where the fucking bar is for this competition.
P.S. The fact that was Alyssa "safe" after that amazing Snatch Game performance just shows what level these queens are working on.
P.P.S. "An Icelandic toddler on LSD" - Carson Kressley describing Bjork. Hah!
P.P.P.S. Watching Ru announce the lipsync winner is really a joy, because the one who loses doesn't have to go home! There are two happy people on stage! And one of them gets lots of money! Hooray!
P.P.P.P.S. Oh yeah, forgot to say anything about Tatianna leaving. Oh well.
posted by duffell at 6:19 PM on September 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
Snatch Game:
- I was actually excited for Detox's Nancy Grace, after Acid Betty's complete failure of imagination last season, but this one fell flat for me. At least Detox actually seemed to know who Nancy Grace was. Her "What did you do to the dog's body?" thing was pretty good.
- Ginger as Tammy Faye: Okay, sure, fine. Not sure about the accent really. The crying was kind of obvious. Serviceable.
- Alyssa: Even as a breeder with only a passing knowledge of the cultural touchstones of gay camp, I fucking LOVED this, everything about it. The makeup, the crazy-eyed stares, all of it, so so so good.
- Katya as Bjork: As soon as I heard she was doing this I was super excited, and yesssss. I mean, I feel like this was almost too easy for Katya, but she was having so much damned fun up there, and was so delightfully odd.
- Phi Phi's Long Island medium was fine, whatevs. Like... okay. She had a good handle on the character, but wasn't really that funny.
- Roxxxy's Alaska was just a mystifying choice. And not good at all.
- Alaska as Mae West, however, was pretty fun. Like, she was probably my #3 choice after Katya and Alyssa, but her zingers and comebacks were super, always at the ready, and her makeup and hair were amazing.
- Tatianna as Ariana Grande: ok I barely know who the fuck that is, and even if I did, I get the feeling it wouldn't have helped. Bah.
Lipsync: Both queens were great. Katya's my favorite in this competition, but Alaska deserved that win. Still, these two showed the rest of the queens where the fucking bar is for this competition.
P.S. The fact that was Alyssa "safe" after that amazing Snatch Game performance just shows what level these queens are working on.
P.P.S. "An Icelandic toddler on LSD" - Carson Kressley describing Bjork. Hah!
P.P.P.S. Watching Ru announce the lipsync winner is really a joy, because the one who loses doesn't have to go home! There are two happy people on stage! And one of them gets lots of money! Hooray!
P.P.P.P.S. Oh yeah, forgot to say anything about Tatianna leaving. Oh well.
posted by duffell at 6:19 PM on September 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
Ginger's Tammy Faye only hit on the most obvious note - mascara - and missed every other funny/interesting thing she could have done. And her outfit, as far as I could tell, wasn't latex. It moved and looked like tight shiny satin. She should have been in the bottom.
Adore broke my heart with her sadness. I've not been a huge fan of how Michelle goes after girls with a different aesthetic and this just solidifies for me that she holds the show back.
posted by donnagirl at 5:48 AM on September 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
Adore broke my heart with her sadness. I've not been a huge fan of how Michelle goes after girls with a different aesthetic and this just solidifies for me that she holds the show back.
posted by donnagirl at 5:48 AM on September 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
Fwiw, Adore said in a recent Periscope that it really wasn't just Michelle. Adore was having a rough year (her dad died, her boyfriend broke up with her abruptly over text with no explanation, she was exhausted from touring) going into AS2. At first she thought the challenges could be a useful distraction from what was going on in the rest of her life, but she actually started to feel like she'd made a mistake by accepting even before the talent show. Then, apparently Raven Symoné said something she found really personal and hurtful that wasn't aired (and Raven being pretty unpleasant was corroborated by a couple other queens at a viewing party). Carson also called her something along the lines of "sloppy," also not aired. And that's before the harsh critique from Michelle, who it sounds like she'd had more of a collegial relationship with on tour despite clashes about her aesthetic. Her decision really made a lot more sense after hearing all that.
posted by en forme de poire at 12:04 PM on September 4, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by en forme de poire at 12:04 PM on September 4, 2016 [4 favorites]
Tati wasn't the worst in Snatch Game and did land a few jokes unlike Roxxy, but her outfit was pedestrian compared to the other girls up there, lots of whom killed it dead (Detox especially, Alaska, Katya, Alyssa). Her outfit also wasn't the worst, though: what the duck, Phi Phi. Autocorrect did that but I'm keeping it. Bummed Tati got eliminated so soon after her great showing last week. I think she isn't as practiced at improv as the other queens, despite having some natural talent, and that makes her a bit more inconsistent.
No problem with the top 2 or the winner. I frigging loved that lip sync, too, even though I think they didn't really show some stuff Katya was up to. Alaska's parody death drop will never not be funny to me, plus she kept changing it up in interesting ways, and the cutaway reveal was cute. Really excited to hopefully see both of them LS again.
posted by en forme de poire at 12:13 PM on September 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
No problem with the top 2 or the winner. I frigging loved that lip sync, too, even though I think they didn't really show some stuff Katya was up to. Alaska's parody death drop will never not be funny to me, plus she kept changing it up in interesting ways, and the cutaway reveal was cute. Really excited to hopefully see both of them LS again.
posted by en forme de poire at 12:13 PM on September 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
you know who else was a big fan of Katya's Snatch Game performance?
BJÖRK.
posted by heeeraldo at 8:41 PM on September 5, 2016 [10 favorites]
BJÖRK.
posted by heeeraldo at 8:41 PM on September 5, 2016 [10 favorites]
Adore. : (
Roxxy as Alaska = bad bad bad. I too was rooting for Tatianna and was looking forward to what she'd do with Ariana Grande (I loved her Britney in her original season) - but what a disappointment. Alaska definitely deserved the win, though. And my boyfriend couldn't stop laughing every time Ginger as Tammy Faye came on screen - though that was more for the look than anything she actually did during the Snatch Game.
I was half expecting that there wouldn't be an elimination since Adore left.
posted by SisterHavana at 1:23 AM on September 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
Roxxy as Alaska = bad bad bad. I too was rooting for Tatianna and was looking forward to what she'd do with Ariana Grande (I loved her Britney in her original season) - but what a disappointment. Alaska definitely deserved the win, though. And my boyfriend couldn't stop laughing every time Ginger as Tammy Faye came on screen - though that was more for the look than anything she actually did during the Snatch Game.
I was half expecting that there wouldn't be an elimination since Adore left.
posted by SisterHavana at 1:23 AM on September 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
I feel like there's now an opportunity for a non-elimination episode as decided by the winning queen, since Adore left... Which would cause crazy drama and I heartily approve. I could imagine Katya winning a lipsync and refusing to pull out her lipstick.
The girls did Snatch Game live as part of the Battle of the Seasons tour and I watched several of them on YouTube because they would occasionally do different celebrities. Ginger has a Michelle Visage that I thought was even better than Sharon Needles's, it's magical, so I was disappointed in her Tammy Faye, she was a very weak character in comparison.
I started rewatching S5 because it's been a while and in the first episode, Roxxxy puts on this little sundress thing while she's doing her makeup and calls it her makeup dress... So now I'm thinking that's what she was wearing when Ru came into the workroom and asked her about her character. I couldn't figure how she was going to play a flat-chested Sophia Vargas. She just wasn't entirely dressed. So we'll never know how that would have turned out. Her Alaska was painfully bad -- you'd think that you'd be able to imitate one of your best friends pretty easily. She didn't even really get the voice right. I was listening to a recap podcast yesterday and the three hosts lapsed into Alaska impressions while they were talking about Roxxxy, and all three of them (one a biological woman) sounded better than Roxxxy did.
I feel like Alaska should have taken the opportunity to eliminate Roxxxy here -- she's way more dangerous to Alaska considering how far she got in S5 and how much she's improved since then. Detox has peaked (imo, she's kind of a lazy look queen most of the time, who occasionally turns out something amazing like this week's runway) and there will probably be another acting challenge to take care of Tati, so she didn't need to worry too much about them. I love the strategy elements of this season.
posted by possibilityleft at 4:48 AM on September 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
The girls did Snatch Game live as part of the Battle of the Seasons tour and I watched several of them on YouTube because they would occasionally do different celebrities. Ginger has a Michelle Visage that I thought was even better than Sharon Needles's, it's magical, so I was disappointed in her Tammy Faye, she was a very weak character in comparison.
I started rewatching S5 because it's been a while and in the first episode, Roxxxy puts on this little sundress thing while she's doing her makeup and calls it her makeup dress... So now I'm thinking that's what she was wearing when Ru came into the workroom and asked her about her character. I couldn't figure how she was going to play a flat-chested Sophia Vargas. She just wasn't entirely dressed. So we'll never know how that would have turned out. Her Alaska was painfully bad -- you'd think that you'd be able to imitate one of your best friends pretty easily. She didn't even really get the voice right. I was listening to a recap podcast yesterday and the three hosts lapsed into Alaska impressions while they were talking about Roxxxy, and all three of them (one a biological woman) sounded better than Roxxxy did.
I feel like Alaska should have taken the opportunity to eliminate Roxxxy here -- she's way more dangerous to Alaska considering how far she got in S5 and how much she's improved since then. Detox has peaked (imo, she's kind of a lazy look queen most of the time, who occasionally turns out something amazing like this week's runway) and there will probably be another acting challenge to take care of Tati, so she didn't need to worry too much about them. I love the strategy elements of this season.
posted by possibilityleft at 4:48 AM on September 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
What this episode taught me is that I would check twice if PhiPhi told me my face was on fire.
posted by Jilder at 10:49 PM on November 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Jilder at 10:49 PM on November 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
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When Ru asked Tati to sing, my idea is that she should have launched into a squeaky falsetto where you can't understand a single syllable. Then say something like, "I'm better than Mariah." That would have brought the house down and kept her safe. But instead she slinks down in her chair? No. No.
Also, her reply to what she did with her dog could have been she used it for her hair extensions. Come on, these write themselves!
Her Ariana look was really good. Really good. But it was the look she uses when she lip-synches to Ariana in clubs. It wasn't a look for parodying her in a comedy segment. Already you're not in the comedy mindset. It's the same problem Morgan McMicheals, for instance, had doing Pink, also in season 2, which put her in the bottom 2.
PhiPhi should have been in bottom 3 instead of Detox. Her runway was some messy Katy Perry thing. But the producers wanted some Rolaskatox drama. The other queens all knew Detox should leave; Roxxy even said it was between her and Tati.
Alyssa got the Pandora Boxx treatment! Like Pandar's Carol Channing, Alyssa's Joan Crawford had Ru busting a gut with everything she said. But no win.
Alaska's Mae West was probably my favorite Snatch character of all time.
posted by riruro at 11:11 AM on September 3, 2016 [3 favorites]