RuPaul's Drag Race: ShakesQueer

March 17, 2015 8:57 AM - Season 7, Episode 3

This week on TV's Most Difficult Reality Show: an old-lady drag/Soul Train dance line mini-challenge, an Elizabethan-cheerleader acting maxi-challenge, and a bearded-lady runway with no mention of the pummeling Milk received for doing the same thing last season. Also, the contestants continue to coalesce into two cliques: Young, Dumb, and Full of Attitude vs. Older, Wiser, and Sometimes Inept at Costuming.
posted by psoas (5 comments total)

The MINUTE they started choosing teams, I turned to my husband and said "Violet is going to get picked last, and she's going to have lemon face about it for the whole show." And sure enough! And when Pearl said "I've never heard of MacBeth, call me young and illiterate," we yelled at the TV in unison YOU ARE YOUNG AND ILLITERATE! Jinkx Monsoon was young, too. I don't think she was more than a year older than Pearl is now. But she had read a book, or, like, left the house to go somewhere other than the club.

Never in a million years is Ru going to sashay the girl who fell to bits but then pulled it together and killed it. Not only is that a valuable performance skill in real life -- I have seen some epic fail dress rehearsals turn into some seriously sparkling opening nights -- but it makes bad TV narrative. Jaidynn was never at risk for anything.

Jasmine, oy. I wanted to like you more than I did. I am totally on board with your qualms about spirit-gumming anything to your face if you know you have sensitive skin (was she referring to breakouts or, like, a latex allergy or something? She mentioned the hospital) but I would have thought you could hook something over your ears or attach it to your wig or something better than just covering your chin in eyeshadow. And just in general, I found myself wishing she'd done something more with her mouth. This isn't really a well-formed critique -- I'm having trouble articulating exactly what I mean -- but, like, if you are a performer in a genre that values the extreme and hyperbolic, and you have been gifted by nature with a mouth like Terrence and Philip, make a THING of it, you know? I dunno, my thoughts aren't really coming together on that the way I want them to.

This whole season is like a big banner yelling STOP RELYING ON PRETTY!!!! Apparently, according to this reddit thread, during the MacBitch rehearsal Ru turned off the cameras and just laid INTO that whole team for about 20 minutes. From what I could see, they deserved it, too. These PYTs need a wakeup call. Max is younger than Pearl and the same age as Violet, and yet she can create a character and turn out a performance.
posted by KathrynT at 9:27 AM on March 17, 2015 [2 favorites]

And honestly, they aren't pretty enough to be able to rely on it anyway.

This is the first episode of Drag Race I've ever watched from start to finish live, so my comments may mean a lot, but as they said last night, anybody can be a bitch pretty easily.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 10:34 AM on March 17, 2015

The season is still in the "Who's that again?" early stages for me. I'm only starting to love Ginger and Max right now, and Violet is just young and Pearl is just kind of stupid. Otherwise, the challenges aren't anything at all, and it's always embarrassing when Ru makes the girls act. I think Jasmine blew it, pulling out her best dress for a runway that it was totally unsuited for, but I figure she knew she was going, and maybe she bought the dress for the show? I don't know.
posted by xingcat at 7:11 PM on March 17, 2015

I am impressed she did squats in that thing.

I found Pearl unintentionally hilarious. PEARL, WHAT ARE YOU DOING DON'T WALK INTO THAT BUSH OHHHH


Max was really in his element as the leader, and his pep talk to Jaidynn was touching. I wish I had been able to make it to the viewing party this week, since the show featured many of my favorite things, like bearded ladies , Max being awesome, and people fucking up Macbeth. (I have never seen a good production of that play, so I am convinced that the more hilariously awful it is, the better.)
posted by louche mustachio at 4:22 AM on March 18, 2015 [3 favorites]

YAY MAX, MORE MAX ALWAYS

And ITA that Pearl is unintentionally hilarious -- the Alyssa of her season?

What the fuck was with Kennedy's facial pubes? And Jasmine, damn. I would have a lot more sympathy for Jasmine's fear of facial breakouts if, as mentioned on the RPDR subreddit, she weren't also blatantly wearing like a pound of fake lashes glued to her eyelids. I mean maybe there's some explanation there but man did it seem like she was bullshitting.
posted by en forme de poire at 8:27 PM on March 23, 2015