Posted in: MTV, Review, TV | Tagged: drag race, rupaul

RuPaul's Drag Race S17E05 Saved The Best Part for The End: Review

RuPaul's Drag Race Season 17 Ep. 5 presented "RDR Live!" a mid challenge that delivered forgettable sketches and an equally uninspired runway.

MTV's RuPaul's Drag Race Season 17 is back, and this week, it's everyone's least favorite filler challenge, "RDR Live!" Regardless if SNL is your jam or not, "RDR Live!" is really just mediocre, but let's get down to it anyway because the ending is absolutely gag-worthy. The runway of the week is "tickled pink" and wouldn't you know it, a few of these runways were actually good. Super iconic and gaggy? Eh, not exactly, but there was a good effort put up.

Top Queens of the Week:

Onya Nerve – I don't agree with the judges' praise of her runway; I get the Super Bowl is coming up, but wearing a bodysuit made of pink football pads ain't it, girl. Her performance hosting and in a sketch for "RDR Live!" was good; I'll give her that.

Suzie Toot – Another win for miss Suzie, and I am living for it. Her performance as Ru's Nanny on the "weekend update" segment of "RDR Live!" was the only funny part of the whole show, and her runway was absolutely perfect. I'm a sucker for a good vintage clown, but doing that in monochrome pink in her 1920s style? Perfection. No notes, 10/10, she ate, house down boots.

Hormona Lisa – She has the audacity to bring us the same dusty sequin mermaid gown silhouette week after week and, on top of that, brings absolutely nothing new or different to the table. Ugh. You know I was rooting for her to go home week one, and have been salty she was saved ever since, but seriously, she is so unentertaining and her personality is toxic. Last week, she lied about her mom sewing her quilt look (she bought it from a designer and did not credit), and now she's claiming that the pink runway theme was her idea…Kandy Muse could never dream of being this arrogant. Can we be done with the anti-personality hires, please? I suppose I have to mention the judges put her at the top this week for doing a character…who's a clueless lady from the South. The only way she could have played more true to herself is by playing the Wicked Witch.

Bottom Queens:

Sam Star – Sam and Hormona Lisa were in the same sketch, and both being strong Southern queens, Sam decided to challenge herself and not use her adorable accent, instead going for a more pretentious, New England sophisticated radio host. She was kind of giving young Terry Gross while also kind of doing an Elizabeth Holmes voice, and it honestly wasn't the worst. Now, the character as written was a "butch lesbian" in a sketch about a radio show segment on beavers. Was that the choice the judges wanted to see? Decidedly not. I don't think any queens on Drag Race actually know what a butch lesbian is because every single time a "butch" character is written in a Drag Race challenge, the queen completely misses the mark. How hard is it to throw on a Justin Bieber wig, a few tattoos, and call everyone "babygirl"? That's also not the style of drag the queens think the judges really ever want to see, and they could be right, but I digress. Sam wanted to branch out and show the judges that she could actually do something different as opposed to Whore… Mona Lisa doing the same exact thing she always does and bumbling her way to the top. Sigh. Her pink pony showgirl runway, though? I live, but I live for most everything she wears.

Lydia "Butthole" Kollins – Honey, it was a miss this week. Her runways are hilarious and camp in the dirtiest, DIY way (this week, she came out dressed as a cock, complete with balls – and no, she was not a rooster), but her challenge was dismal. The writing of "RDR Live!" is tough since most of it falls flat, but it can be given CPR and brought back to life in some cases – this role (that she fought Hormona for, Lord knows why) was not one of those cases. The bottom two was sadly deserved.

Arrietty – Girl, she made some CHOICES this week and they just did not pay off. The good: her runway was sickening, a head-to-toe hot pink vinyl look with chaps, a cape, and horns everywhere in an homage to Satan herself. SLAY. The bad: her "RDR Live!" performance. She went full cavewoman and it was a big ol' swing…and unfortunately a miss, and landed her in the bottom two.

Honorable Mentions:

Kori King's body was right, as always, and her cute little vintage Paris Hilton Sweet 16 pink mini dress was fabulous. Was it life-changing? No, but it was cute and safe. Jewels Sparkles gave us an "Eliza Dolittle if she was an Italian pop star on Eurovision" inspired look that ate, no questions.

And now for the real gag of the episode: the lip sync between Miss Butthole and Arrietty was ICONIC and fierce, and honestly better than the entire episode before it. I would watch that for an hour, happily. It was tough, but RuPaul ruled in Butthole's favor, sending Arrietty to the Badonka Dunk tank, where she picked the right lever and dunked Michelle Visage, meaning she stays in the competition, and we're completely done with the weird rigged production twist of the season!

It's about time the twist is over, and we start knocking off queens because having this many low-level queens around six episodes in is a little exhausting to watch. Let's start sending queens home and get to the real serious competition already. Next week is the Sea Ball, and I cannot wait for more balls in my life.

RuPaul's Drag Race season 17 airs on MTV on Friday nights.

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