‘Ru Paul’s Drag Race 14×09’ Review
Whatever the creative team working on Ru Paul’s Drag Race have been doing differently these two past weeks they need to keep it up as the last two episodes have been fantastic! The Daytona Wind acting challenge was hilarious (before the childish farting audio added in post) and last week’s sixties girl-group inspired musical challenge were both extremely entertaining. The latter of which really stepped on production value with graphics, lights and matching costumes but the icing on the cake was that the performance was filmed in one continuous set which really fitted the sixties genre they were aiming for. After her gospel-infused verse clashed with the sixties style everyone else went for, Keri Colbi was sent home which came as a surprise to many as they would assume she would go all the way to the end of the season. Keri’s drag haus is supposedly well known in the pageant circuit and so many people would assume the reputation of her family would carry her through the competition. However, her performance in the girl group challenge did stand out like a sore thumb and was clearly beaten by Jasmin in the loser’s lip-sync and so it made sense that she left on this episode. At the other end of the competition, we saw Daya Betty claim her first win after making sure she had the role she wanted and helped to create a wild verse about having a stalker. It does seem that Daya has peaked at the perfect time after being shown in a very negative way until this point!
This week’s episode started with a mini-challenge that had the queens posing in front of a green screen where they will be superimposed into images of some famous males including Shawn Mendes, Billy Porter and David Beckham among others. I know if I was to take part in a challenge like this then I would struggle as you are not acting with anything but you still need to make it look like the thing you are posing with is next to you. The queens however did not seem to struggle with this which led to many hilarious moments including Willow doing a headstand on a dog which led to her eventual win of the challenge. As the winner, she was able to choose her team for the Drag Con inspired maxi challenge that would allow us to get to know the queens on a more emotional level.
The queens had to host a Drag Race panel in two separate groups all about the topic of men. This includes things such as father figures, relationships, friendship and general masculinity which was a very good theme as it was vague enough for the two different groups could talk about different things while being about the same theme. The whole challenge was a way of promoting Ru Paul’s Drag Con which is happening across May 13, 14, & 15th 2022 at the Los Angeles Convention Center! These panels were performed in front of an empty audience with the queens sitting in line on the stage. The first group of Deja Skye, Lady Camden, Willow Pill and Angeria Paris VanMicheals were very natural at the format, creating not only a very entertaining but also insightful conversation. Deja was given the role of the moderator who helped to make sure that the conversation flowed as it needed to while also being hilarious throughout. Everyone in this group were comfortable in this challenge although Lady Camden was the most withdrawn and initially tripped over her words by saying her male crush was Blake Lively (who is in fact female.) The other group was made up of Bosco, Daya Betty, Jasmin Kennedy and Jorgeous who as a group did not have as much chemistry as the other group had during the performance. Bosco got off to an incredibly strong start where she delivered a series of jokes in the process of introducing her panel and the topics they would talk about. It is clear that fact that Jasmin Kennedy is very loud and talks a lot is becoming a running storyline in this season with Kornbread highlighting it earlier in this season and Jasmin talking over the host Bosco within the opening moments of the panels. In this group, Jorgeous struggled the most as she didn’t seem as confident and comfortable sitting down and talking to an audience. Something I never expect to see on Drag Race was the judges and drag queens talking about WWE. It was so surreal to hear Michelle bring up Ric Flair and the undertaker while talking to Daya!
The runway category for this week’s episode was simply shoulder pads. I really enjoyed Deja Sky’s Coco Chanel inspired pink businesswoman look that had the most fantastic over-the-top shoulder which was wonderfully fun. This outfit hit the perfect spot between fashion (as she looked amazing) and camp due to the shoulder pad inclusion which I personally really enjoyed! I also loved Lady Camden’s cracker inspired look that she wore on the runway this week. She wore a wonderfully sparkly red dress with a fantastic festive headpiece and gold shoulder pads with wonderful stars hanging from the outfit. This is the first week that I think Willow Pill missed the mark on the runway category. She wore a sparkly black blazer with punk rock spiky hair that looked great but the focus was on shoulder pads which were not as pronounced as they should be for a category that is all about shoulder pads. I thought Jorgeous looked absolutely insane in her blue sparkly blue jumpsuit that glistened absolutely perfectly under the stage lights. The look was amazing however yet again the shoulder pad element was slightly lacking when compared to the other queens. I personally did not like Jasmin Kennedy’s look on the runway this week. She wore a neon green dress with black accents and presented it on the runway as a very serious model way but the look itself was very subtle. I liked the fact that the colour scheme was coherent in the look but it was very withdrawn when compared to the other queens.
It was declared that the winner this week was Bosco and for me, it was between them and Deja. In my opinion, Deja’s runway look was a lot better than Bosco’s and so I personally would have given her the win. In the bottom of the competition was Jorgeous and Jasmin which instantly filled me with excitement as I know they are both very talented dancers who pride themselves on the standard of the lip-syncs. I think that Jorgeous is such a mesmerising performer who perfectly embodied the song by hitting every single beat in the number. The highlight of Jasmin’s performance was a graduated split when she went lower as the verse progressed. At the end of the performance of “Somethings got a hold of me” Ru announced that neither queens would be going home this week and so they will both continue in the race. If it was up to me I would have sent Jasmin home as in my opinion Jorgeous was slightly more entertaining. However, the decision is not down to me and so we go into snatch game in next week’s episode with both these queens still in the competition.
Overall this was yet another entertaining episode that also served as an advertisement for Drag Con later this year! At this point, it is clear that the remaining queens are all very talented which makes it incredibly difficult to predict who will go home next which makes for a very exciting season to watch. Snatch Game is always a highlight of a season and so I cannot wait to see who thrives and who will flop.
