RuPaul's All Stars Drag Race: Super Queen Grand Finale
February 16, 2019 10:48 AM - Season 4, Episode 10 - Subscribe
The queens write and perform their own verses to RuPaul's latest single. The final results are announced.
All Stars is unsalvagable. They need to completely rework the concept for this show. What a terrible finale.
posted by Automocar at 11:24 AM on February 16, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Automocar at 11:24 AM on February 16, 2019 [3 favorites]
Re: fan theory -- that makes sense in terms of the ease of awarding TWO $100k prizes, and maybe in terms of the initial season set-up, but the Latrice, Manilla, Valentina and Trinity ending failed for a number of foreseeable reasons.
Valentina was 5th off, when she was knocked out by the returning Latrice, who booted Valentina for being shady. Then in episode 8, both Latrice and Manilla were both up for elimination, and Naomi booted Manilla, because she was the competition. Latrice lost (again) in the penultimate episode, so the final four only included one of the "chosen four," assuming that was the plan.
My wife and I were talking about this -- the All-Stars format fails because by taking away the pressure on Ru to boot a fan favorite every week means that strong competitors who had a bad day (or simply didn't wow the judges as much as the other girls) means they could get eliminated by a less fabulous queen who won ... a lipsync. Not saying that lipsyncs aren't fierce or a critical part of drag, but rather it's one element of drag, much like fashion, glamour and comedy are also elements of drag, and that not all queens are equally skilled in all elements.
Then you throw in queens who haven't participated in all the episodes to judge queens, and that's how you get the would-be winner of Shangie not even getting picked as a Top Two Contestant -- queens vote for people who support them elsewhere, or were the most sincere in asking for consideration, instead of being judged on how they performed in the season to date.
In short, this is an expected problem when you use Survivor-type "contestants vote each-other off" judgement in contests that otherwise award skill -- "rules" are made (and broken), alliances are formed (or ignored), and grudges are held and revenge is served, and the most "deserving" don't generally win.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:29 PM on February 16, 2019 [1 favorite]
Valentina was 5th off, when she was knocked out by the returning Latrice, who booted Valentina for being shady. Then in episode 8, both Latrice and Manilla were both up for elimination, and Naomi booted Manilla, because she was the competition. Latrice lost (again) in the penultimate episode, so the final four only included one of the "chosen four," assuming that was the plan.
My wife and I were talking about this -- the All-Stars format fails because by taking away the pressure on Ru to boot a fan favorite every week means that strong competitors who had a bad day (or simply didn't wow the judges as much as the other girls) means they could get eliminated by a less fabulous queen who won ... a lipsync. Not saying that lipsyncs aren't fierce or a critical part of drag, but rather it's one element of drag, much like fashion, glamour and comedy are also elements of drag, and that not all queens are equally skilled in all elements.
Then you throw in queens who haven't participated in all the episodes to judge queens, and that's how you get the would-be winner of Shangie not even getting picked as a Top Two Contestant -- queens vote for people who support them elsewhere, or were the most sincere in asking for consideration, instead of being judged on how they performed in the season to date.
In short, this is an expected problem when you use Survivor-type "contestants vote each-other off" judgement in contests that otherwise award skill -- "rules" are made (and broken), alliances are formed (or ignored), and grudges are held and revenge is served, and the most "deserving" don't generally win.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:29 PM on February 16, 2019 [1 favorite]
All Stars is unsalvagable. They need to completely rework the concept for this show. What a terrible finale.
Couldn't like this hard enough. This season had its moments but it was too soon on the heels of season ten, and was just...like, the leftovers.
I really hate the lipstick thing. And I hated the jury of peers, and was glad they ditched it, but the whole thing just got so boring and anticlimactic.
posted by Jilder at 3:10 AM on February 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
Couldn't like this hard enough. This season had its moments but it was too soon on the heels of season ten, and was just...like, the leftovers.
I really hate the lipstick thing. And I hated the jury of peers, and was glad they ditched it, but the whole thing just got so boring and anticlimactic.
posted by Jilder at 3:10 AM on February 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
This episode was just wretched. The iMovie finale was the obvious dud, but to me the workroom “conversation” was even worse. “I feel nervous, but excited,” “bitch, we all wanna win but only one of is is going to,” “someone is going to take the crown,” etc, ad nauseum. It felt like hours. What the fuck was I even watching?
Please kill All Stars until we can get back to Katya or Alaska-level queens and a sane format.
posted by argybarg at 9:22 AM on February 17, 2019 [3 favorites]
Please kill All Stars until we can get back to Katya or Alaska-level queens and a sane format.
posted by argybarg at 9:22 AM on February 17, 2019 [3 favorites]
I think a Celebrity Big Brother-esque show featuring RPDR contestants would be awesome. The queens could live in a house above a club and do performances for prizes or immunity and vote each other out, maybe assisted by fan voting. Hire me World of Wonder!
But yeah, the streams need to be uncrossed. All Stars should either be about a fair-ish competition to see who's got the goods, or it should be about alliance-building and backstabbing. Trying to graft one onto the other was exciting for one season, but it seems like the more queens embrace the format the worse the show gets. The format has arguably screwed three of the most deserving contestants, Bendela, Shangela, and Manila. (Conspiracy theory, if your name ends in "la" you will go home prematurely on All Stars!) Even AS2, one of the all-time best seasons of the show, had its share of questionable decisions, like carrying Roxxxy all the way to the final. I also feel like All Stars Rules are fanning the flames of the most toxic elements of the fanbase, in part because the fans themselves are divided about what they want from the show.
Still, I mean, congrats to Monet and Trinity. I think it was more or less the right decision, even though it was a weird ending. I'm glad Monique and Naomi got to stay until the end, too; I think they've probably made a lot of new fans and Monique completely redeemed herself from her previous under-performance.
posted by en forme de poire at 2:46 PM on February 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
But yeah, the streams need to be uncrossed. All Stars should either be about a fair-ish competition to see who's got the goods, or it should be about alliance-building and backstabbing. Trying to graft one onto the other was exciting for one season, but it seems like the more queens embrace the format the worse the show gets. The format has arguably screwed three of the most deserving contestants, Bendela, Shangela, and Manila. (Conspiracy theory, if your name ends in "la" you will go home prematurely on All Stars!) Even AS2, one of the all-time best seasons of the show, had its share of questionable decisions, like carrying Roxxxy all the way to the final. I also feel like All Stars Rules are fanning the flames of the most toxic elements of the fanbase, in part because the fans themselves are divided about what they want from the show.
Still, I mean, congrats to Monet and Trinity. I think it was more or less the right decision, even though it was a weird ending. I'm glad Monique and Naomi got to stay until the end, too; I think they've probably made a lot of new fans and Monique completely redeemed herself from her previous under-performance.
posted by en forme de poire at 2:46 PM on February 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
Even without the stupidity of the tie the show was bad. Like it looked like they were rushing because they ran out of studio time. Also the set for the music video looked like it was build by high school students. Also I liked that the design team and Todrick definitely didn't talk beforehand about the low-lying fog and all the ground work. Man this was a disappointment.
posted by Uncle at 12:43 PM on February 19, 2019
posted by Uncle at 12:43 PM on February 19, 2019
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posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 11:04 AM on February 16, 2019 [4 favorites]