RuPaul's All Stars Drag Race: All Star Super Queen Variety Show
December 14, 2018 3:32 PM - Season 4, Episode 1 - Subscribe
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars is back back back back back again!
The Queens' first challenge is a salute to LGBTQ troops in an All Star-Spangled Variety Show; extra special guest judge Jenifer Lewis joins.
10 queens vie for the crown and $100,000 in the debut episode of All Stars 4, featuring Farrah Moan, Gia Gunn, Jasmine Masters, Latrice Royale, Manila Luzon, Monét X Change, Monique Heart, Naomi Smalls, Trinity Taylor, and (it's her!) Valentina.
The Queens' first challenge is a salute to LGBTQ troops in an All Star-Spangled Variety Show; extra special guest judge Jenifer Lewis joins.
10 queens vie for the crown and $100,000 in the debut episode of All Stars 4, featuring Farrah Moan, Gia Gunn, Jasmine Masters, Latrice Royale, Manila Luzon, Monét X Change, Monique Heart, Naomi Smalls, Trinity Taylor, and (it's her!) Valentina.
So happy to have SOMETHING new to watch in this dead space between the holidays and Feb sweeps. And it includes Latrice who I adore? YAYAYAYAY!! I still hate Gia and hope she goes home ASAP, although her number was quite good.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:34 PM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:34 PM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
I won't be able to watch this for a while but if Latrice doesn't win with Manila as a runner up, I'm setting fire to everything.
P.S. I hope Gia Gunn goes away as quickly as possible, too.
posted by elsietheeel at 8:04 PM on December 14, 2018
P.S. I hope Gia Gunn goes away as quickly as possible, too.
posted by elsietheeel at 8:04 PM on December 14, 2018
Tsk tsk, I hope Naomi payed Milk some royalties for that talent act. Mighty, mighty, familiar.
Gia Gunn was deeply irritating in her season, and is deeply irritating now. Snipe snipe snipe. I'm so bored right now.
posted by Jilder at 5:11 AM on December 15, 2018
Gia Gunn was deeply irritating in her season, and is deeply irritating now. Snipe snipe snipe. I'm so bored right now.
posted by Jilder at 5:11 AM on December 15, 2018
Wow did the two queens from Season 10 ever have seemed to chosen a one-dimensional snapshot of themselves and clung to that as their "thing", at least for talent. I love Monique Heart but so far she seems kind of like a caricature of herself and Monet bringing back the sponges? Again? We get it.
I think Latrice and Manila will go far in this because both are well rounded and have done a lot since their original Drag Race seasons. Gia's act was really well done so she deserved to stay on but she really cannot possibly go far this season, nor can Farrah Moan (who I think is really nice and great but not quite an all star). I think Trinity will continue the performance quality we saw in her season and will go far.
At this point I'm cheering for Monique Heart and Latrice, with Latrice as my preference to win. PLUS SIZED QUEEN WINNER FOR ONCE, PLEASE.
posted by urbanlenny at 7:43 AM on December 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
I think Latrice and Manila will go far in this because both are well rounded and have done a lot since their original Drag Race seasons. Gia's act was really well done so she deserved to stay on but she really cannot possibly go far this season, nor can Farrah Moan (who I think is really nice and great but not quite an all star). I think Trinity will continue the performance quality we saw in her season and will go far.
At this point I'm cheering for Monique Heart and Latrice, with Latrice as my preference to win. PLUS SIZED QUEEN WINNER FOR ONCE, PLEASE.
posted by urbanlenny at 7:43 AM on December 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
LATRICE ROYALE is my favorite drag queen out of every queen on the show. She is SO FABULOUS, and I've missed her on previous All Stars seasons. I hope she wins.
I would rather have Gia as the season's villain over Valentina. I find Valentina an exceptionally ugly person: cruel, narcissistic, duplicitous, and vain. Gia is just...annoying and mean in a try-hard way.
I find Naomi overrated. Her looks on her season were repetitive and unimaginative, and each week it felt like she just went "oh hey here's my rockin' bod" and everyone was like "wow you have SUCH a rockin' bod!" which is totally true, but that's a runway option that's only open to the tallest and skinniest of girls. When everyone else is inventing new looks and new silhouettes each week, wearing a leotard with a few drapey pieces of fabric trailing behind doesn't compare. She is very sweet and works hard, so it's not that I dislike her, I just don't feel we've seen much from her. Her "talent" was just going "oh hey here's my rockin' bod" until she did something with it at the very end.
I enjoyed Manila's Matisse moment, especially with a matching quick change at the end. The editing (always SO spectacular on this show) of everyone's confused faces had me cackling. The variety show was fun to compare everyone's stage presence -- these girls lipsync and dance for a living, and to watch some of them keep the crowd (Monique) or lose them (Valentina) was interesting.
posted by missmary6 at 12:18 PM on December 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
I would rather have Gia as the season's villain over Valentina. I find Valentina an exceptionally ugly person: cruel, narcissistic, duplicitous, and vain. Gia is just...annoying and mean in a try-hard way.
I find Naomi overrated. Her looks on her season were repetitive and unimaginative, and each week it felt like she just went "oh hey here's my rockin' bod" and everyone was like "wow you have SUCH a rockin' bod!" which is totally true, but that's a runway option that's only open to the tallest and skinniest of girls. When everyone else is inventing new looks and new silhouettes each week, wearing a leotard with a few drapey pieces of fabric trailing behind doesn't compare. She is very sweet and works hard, so it's not that I dislike her, I just don't feel we've seen much from her. Her "talent" was just going "oh hey here's my rockin' bod" until she did something with it at the very end.
I enjoyed Manila's Matisse moment, especially with a matching quick change at the end. The editing (always SO spectacular on this show) of everyone's confused faces had me cackling. The variety show was fun to compare everyone's stage presence -- these girls lipsync and dance for a living, and to watch some of them keep the crowd (Monique) or lose them (Valentina) was interesting.
posted by missmary6 at 12:18 PM on December 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
I'm not sure Valentina really lost the audience. I dislike her, but as Latrice said, she clearly deserves to be in this All Stars competition. I think that was just Gia being nasty.
The problem with being toxic to everyone in the Werk Room is that the second you're on the bottom, you are toast. I'm not sure Gia has really thought this strategy through.
Her talent performance was exquisite, though, so I can't fault her there.
On the other hand, as much as I love Monet, I thought her entrance look was underwhelming (I mean, she wasn't sweeping the floors, but a leotard is not much of a step up). And I am SO over the sponges. It's fine if they make occasional Easter egg-style appearances, but if every outfit she has is covered with scrubbers I'm going to throw a tantrum.
Speaking of which, I thought Farrah looked gorgeous in her number, and although she was visibly nervous it was all going pretty well until her fall. I'm kind of shocked that someone who performs onstage regularly in Vegas doesn't have the presence of mind to deal with a stumble: surely that can't be the first time it ever happened to her?
Monique's entrance was fine, but I wouldn't have put her in the top two. I really thought Gia was outstanding, and Latrice Royale rocked her flag waving routine. I dug Manila's art show, but can see why some didn't find It gripping. Monique was just okay compared to those three. Maybe she got extra credit for her upgrade from giraffe to actual cow print?
posted by Superplin at 3:22 PM on December 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
The problem with being toxic to everyone in the Werk Room is that the second you're on the bottom, you are toast. I'm not sure Gia has really thought this strategy through.
Her talent performance was exquisite, though, so I can't fault her there.
On the other hand, as much as I love Monet, I thought her entrance look was underwhelming (I mean, she wasn't sweeping the floors, but a leotard is not much of a step up). And I am SO over the sponges. It's fine if they make occasional Easter egg-style appearances, but if every outfit she has is covered with scrubbers I'm going to throw a tantrum.
Speaking of which, I thought Farrah looked gorgeous in her number, and although she was visibly nervous it was all going pretty well until her fall. I'm kind of shocked that someone who performs onstage regularly in Vegas doesn't have the presence of mind to deal with a stumble: surely that can't be the first time it ever happened to her?
Monique's entrance was fine, but I wouldn't have put her in the top two. I really thought Gia was outstanding, and Latrice Royale rocked her flag waving routine. I dug Manila's art show, but can see why some didn't find It gripping. Monique was just okay compared to those three. Maybe she got extra credit for her upgrade from giraffe to actual cow print?
posted by Superplin at 3:22 PM on December 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
I'm not sure Valentina really lost the audience. I dislike her, but as Latrice said, she clearly deserves to be in this All Stars competition. I think that was just Gia being nasty.
The problem with being toxic to everyone in the Werk Room is that the second you're on the bottom, you are toast. I'm not sure Gia has really thought this strategy through.
Yeah, I don't know that thinking things through in general is Gia's strong point. I remember her from her season and man, she's all teeth and acid and not a lot of depth. She's gunna be gone as soon as she hits the bottom. If I recall she doesn't sew or dance or do anything more complicated than look gorgeous - her act, while flawless, is really just centuries worth of codified Japanese set of moves transcribing "being poised and beautiful". She did not have to do a lot of original thinking to do that sort of performance, even though it was flawlessly executed.
Also Valentina wasn't performing for the Audience. It was for Ru and the Judges - look, I can lip synch now.
posted by Jilder at 7:40 PM on December 15, 2018
The problem with being toxic to everyone in the Werk Room is that the second you're on the bottom, you are toast. I'm not sure Gia has really thought this strategy through.
Yeah, I don't know that thinking things through in general is Gia's strong point. I remember her from her season and man, she's all teeth and acid and not a lot of depth. She's gunna be gone as soon as she hits the bottom. If I recall she doesn't sew or dance or do anything more complicated than look gorgeous - her act, while flawless, is really just centuries worth of codified Japanese set of moves transcribing "being poised and beautiful". She did not have to do a lot of original thinking to do that sort of performance, even though it was flawlessly executed.
Also Valentina wasn't performing for the Audience. It was for Ru and the Judges - look, I can lip synch now.
posted by Jilder at 7:40 PM on December 15, 2018
The right queen went home, but Farah isn't long for the runway.
The top two were ok choices but I thought there were better ones: LATRICE was fun, Gia was great, as much as I hate to say it, and Manila at least did something different.
I agree about Valentina, something about her makes my skin crawl a little. Mean/shady for the show is fine, but she seems cruel in a torturing-baby-animals kind of way.
I am 100% LATRICE for the crown and any other result will make me sad. Maybe not enraged like the travesty that was All Stars 3, but definitely sad.
posted by donnagirl at 7:43 PM on December 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
The top two were ok choices but I thought there were better ones: LATRICE was fun, Gia was great, as much as I hate to say it, and Manila at least did something different.
I agree about Valentina, something about her makes my skin crawl a little. Mean/shady for the show is fine, but she seems cruel in a torturing-baby-animals kind of way.
I am 100% LATRICE for the crown and any other result will make me sad. Maybe not enraged like the travesty that was All Stars 3, but definitely sad.
posted by donnagirl at 7:43 PM on December 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
If you listen to the Valentina episode of Katya's podcast, it goes a long way to humanizing and fleshing out Valentina as a person, because besides the show, I had no exposure to her and that gives this completely 2 dimensional image that can be interpreted in almost any way because of how blank it is. Hearing her speak, I was surprised at just how charmingly human she is. Because while you can wonder if her blankness is calculated poise or terror, hearing her talk about it is engagingly entertaining.
Gia being ignorant on what the word ignorant means, but feeling justified in going off about it-- I didn't find that interesting then or now. A bunch of people it seems have decided to get upset about things after the fact, which seems weird as well as a bad move. Jasmine seemed to take leaving gracefully but now I guess she's mad? But she's also talked quite a bit about how she never thinks about things in advance and just does whatever whenever, so what do you do with that when that's exactly why they set up your being chosen to leave?
All I know is people do not love Monet for her looks but Brown Cow Stunning.
posted by provoliminal at 12:33 AM on December 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
Gia being ignorant on what the word ignorant means, but feeling justified in going off about it-- I didn't find that interesting then or now. A bunch of people it seems have decided to get upset about things after the fact, which seems weird as well as a bad move. Jasmine seemed to take leaving gracefully but now I guess she's mad? But she's also talked quite a bit about how she never thinks about things in advance and just does whatever whenever, so what do you do with that when that's exactly why they set up your being chosen to leave?
All I know is people do not love Monet for her looks but Brown Cow Stunning.
posted by provoliminal at 12:33 AM on December 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
Valentina will be playing Angel in Fox's RENT: Live! on January 27th, and after her performance on episode 1, I'm a little more excited. Seems like a very good match.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:45 AM on December 17, 2018
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:45 AM on December 17, 2018
I am 100% Team Latrice and will consider no other comers. I think the bottom 2 were chosen correctly, but top 2 should have been Latrice and Gia (in my opinion). I would also place Trinity up there.
I was really surprised by how nervous Farrah was on stage even before her fall. After the fall she just never recovered. I was sad to see Jasmine go, but I think it was the right choice. I loved that Monique and Trinity both told Farrah to cut the crying going forward. She is a sweetheart, but her emotions are way too close to the surface.
posted by Julnyes at 11:33 AM on December 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
I was really surprised by how nervous Farrah was on stage even before her fall. After the fall she just never recovered. I was sad to see Jasmine go, but I think it was the right choice. I loved that Monique and Trinity both told Farrah to cut the crying going forward. She is a sweetheart, but her emotions are way too close to the surface.
posted by Julnyes at 11:33 AM on December 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
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posted by youarenothere at 3:34 PM on December 14, 2018