Posted in: MTV, Opinion, TV, TV | Tagged: drag race, opinion, rupaul

RuPaul's Drag Race Season 17 Ep. 12 Review: Open to Interpretation

RuPaul's Drag Race offered a monologue challenge that was heartfelt...? Plus, a runway theme that was definitely in the eye of the beholder.

MTV's RuPaul's Drag Race is showing its feminist side (or not) with its take on The Vagina Monologues, challenging the six remaining queens this week to work in pairs and tell a story of a time in their life that fits the prompt given, while the other queen performs an interpretive dance acting out the story. All in all, this should be a one-off challenge and not return in subsequent seasons; it just wasn't giving, and it was a little painful watching the queens try to figure it out and then flounder their way through it. If the judges wanted another challenge where the queens gave them funny faces and silly stories, there are a million other ways to get to that end. But I digress; here's how everyone did in this very objective, pure talent-based, and not-at-all judge favoritism challenge:

The curse of the clown is back, unfortunately for Sam Star, whose jester ballgown last week brought the circus tent down. This week was just not her week, between going Dance Moms with the interpretive dance portion and taking the monologue in a too-real and serious direction for the judges (and it wasn't even that serious). As for her runway, it wasn't ugly, and in defense of this, If we'd seen her talk more about how people were ugly on the inside, and that's why she did an "inside-out skinned alive" look, it might have helped her case. In all fairness, she could have, and it got edited out! It could also be that Sam still wants to serve fashion, and the judges were looking for camp on this one, and it just comes down to fitting mystery criteria as to what they're wanting that week.

Lexi Love reminds me of Silky Nutmeg Ganache on season 11 in the sense that she is very aware she's on television and knows how the game goes. It gives us the sense that she's putting on a personality or gaming the system, and it kind of feels bad when that pays off. Her runway this week is like when little kids put on every bit of costume in the dress-up bo,x and it's an absolute mess, but she made sure that her silhouette was still there. A win, honestly, although it feels like a bit of a safe bet on her part both in her performance and runway.

It's clear Onya Nerve is edited to be the frontrunner, and it is getting on my nerves by this point; it's as obvious as Sasha Colby's winner edit. That said, did Onya make everyone laugh this week? You betcha! But was her runway bad? Yes, mama. A bad runway does not make for an ugly dress – it still has to be drag, and a realistic turkey costume doesn't say "ugly dress"; at best, it says, "Thanksgiving drag show you and your cool cousins attend to escape the rest of the family," and even then, it's a little strange. It's not even a dress!

Suzie Toot (aka Suzanne Boots)—There should have been one winner, and honestly, Suzie hit the nail on the head in all aspects—all the other queens this week had varying degrees of issues with the monologue, dance, or runway. But that's not reality. It's RuPaul's Drag Race, not Eden's Competition for Quirky Drag Queens, so RuPaul calls the shots here, and we just have to live with it. Suzie is safe…again.

Jewels Sparkles is secretly as hilarious as she is glamorous – the mini challenge where she had to write a bio for Suzie was absolute perfection, right down to misspelling "cerebral." Her performance, though? It was mid, as was her runway. Funny how both queens from House of The Tuck got read this week for not having dresses that were ugly. If you ask me, that's a win in and of itself (and also an "ugly dress" competition has no place in RuPaul's Drag Race, it's a stupid theme that's clearly not allowing for interpretation).

Miss Lana Ja'Rae, gurrrlll… how are you still here? No tea, no shade, no pink lemonade, but she's lip-synced for her life three times prior to tonight, and the judges know that. At this point, it just feels like a game of track record – no matter how objectively good or bad she does in the challenge or on the runway, they're going to rank her how they rank her for the sake of fitting a narrative, and her story is not a "lip sync assassin" one. I will say her challenge performance was forgettable to alright, but her runway ATE. It referenced and roasted Kandy Muse for a second time this season. Regardless, as this is a team challenge, it's Sam vs Lana at the bottom, and it did feel like Lana was in this competition on borrowed time.

Teaming up in pairs for the main challenge often gets annoying as it feels like so much is who you're with and not how well the actual challenge is fulfilled. With this one in particular, Onya and Lexi went silly, Sam and Lana went serious and heartfelt, and Suzie and Jewels landed somewhere in between but more on the serious side. Turns out, the judges were looking for silly and stupid and if they'd only communicated what they really wanted, the teams would have all delivered! But this ain't RuPaul's Follow Directions Race.

Production and editing this season are getting a little out of hand. Reality TV is edited in a certain way that's as formulaic as the network cop/fire/medical/legal dramas they're up against, but RuPaul's Drag Race feels extra "edited" in some seasons, and this is starting to feel like one of those seasons. It's a little disappointing in that so much of it feels overly manipulated, and we get the sense that even with Untucked and things that queens say in interviews or at events or on podcasts, we're not seeing a lot of what really happened.

It's no secret that many shows cast contestants to "fit the mold" so they can assign storylines and then add in what they need to in order for the rankings to match what they decided they were going to be (i.e., casting a pageant queen and having her break out of her perfect polished shell, or having the camp queen have a serious moment). No shade to the queens at all but full shade to production. Everyone is different, and it would still be good TV (probably better TV!) without all the interference and manipulation.

The judging, in particular, feels overly subjective and rife with favoritism: two queens could do the exact same thing, but one would get criticized, and the other praised simply for being a production favorite. I know production and the judges have their reasons, and their motive is to make great television, but it feels cheap and gets really old. Was it a little past Lana's time to go, yes, but did she do bad this week? Not really. Did Onya crush it this week? Totally! But did she deserve the win? Eh…

Next week is the makeover challenge, and historically, this has been the challenge with the most subjective judging as it's seen as an opportunity to get rid of the queen production that doesn't want to make it into the finale. But regardless, watching queens put their parents into drag always warms my cold, dead little heart.

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

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