Posted in: TV | Tagged: drag race, rupaul

RuPaul's Drag Race: We Needed to Watch the Season 18 Finale Again

We needed to rewatch the Season 18 finale of RuPaul's Drag Race on MTV. Here's why, and what it has to do with "franchise fatigue."

RuPaul's Drag Race Season 18 has come and gone – but we really need to look back on what went down. This season, we have yet another finale on the main stage set, and it opens with senior citizen RuPaul prancing around on stage performing with scantily clad male dancers who can only be described as "a 2026 version of The Village People." The three finalists, Darlene Mitchell, Myki Meeks, and Nini Coco, each perform an original number, then get critiques from the judges, as it's generally always gone. Except this season's finale felt more like the finale of The Voice or something as opposed to Drag Race – at least not the version that garnered them Emmys and millions of fans.

Quick history lesson side note, RuPaul's Drag Race started as a female impersonation competition, then turned into a televised drag beauty pageant, went through phases that emphasized alternative styles, high fashion, camp, and has landed squarely in the "soul-less show with a shiny black stage that's jumped the shark a few times and is so over-produced, the show itself is a member of the Producers Guild" category. For what it's worth, it joins The Masked Singer in this designation, though maybe a show's fourth franchise spin-off that only happened because a certain Ryan Reynolds clip went viral probably isn't the best company to keep. But hey, anything to win an Emmy, right?

That said, back to the finale. The audience looks so painfully and obviously staged and cast; it's a little insulting. We want to see real fans, not Brandon, the hopeful actor/dog groomer, who is only taking this job to afford $25 vegan cheeseburgers. The finale model of having it in a theater and actually giving real fans a chance to buy tickets was brilliant, and the show is worse for moving it to the main stage and hiring a generic audience to constantly cut away to. We don't need to be told how to feel about the queens at this point in the show – the viewers at home are excited, we don't need to see someone cheering in an isolated cut-away to tell us we should be excited.

Anyway, the performances themselves: Darlene's number was cute and country, and perfect for her; Myki's number was about being versatile and screamed "Broadway," while Nini just lived her Lady Gaga fantasy. Special guest Miley Cyrus got a "giving us lifetime achievement award" and then we got a history lesson when Crystal Envy came out to give a Native Deodorant ad and also to crown Jane Don't as Miss Congeniality, but mostly it was a deodorant ad. And after the deodorant ad, we got a makeup ad! Lucky us. Who said this finale was soulless? I love being blatantly marketed to from a show I pay money to watch!

Finally, RuPaul narrowed it down to two by eliminating Darlene, but left her with a nice cash tip. RuPaul is just living his Oprah fantasy in this finale and throwing all that ad placement money back to the queens, which is the first good thing I can say about his business decisions. That leaves the final lip-sync to Nini and Myki, and I think the track record came into account. Myki crushed it, yes, but Nini was literally dressed as sexy Satan, turned her handbag into a puppet, and had the puppet lip-sync the bridge for her. And yet, it still wasn't enough – RuPaul really said, "Not today, Satan," and it was expected, but not wholly fair.

That leaves Myki Meeks crowned the winner of season 18! Was this outcome entertaining? Yes. Does the winner feel correct? For the competition, yes. Will this mean a return to a RuPaul Drag Race pageant era? Who knows! Perhaps next season will feel like a return to form – after all, RuPaul is 65 now, which is the age people start to wind down and phase out of the workforce. Is retirement in RuPaul's future? What would happen to the show? Will he just keep getting more and more out of touch with each passing season? Only time and season 19 will tell. But in the meantime, All Stars 11 is in the spotlight (streaming on Paramount+).

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!