07th Jun2022

‘Ru Paul’s Drag Race All-Stars 7×04’ Review

by Rhys Payne

The world-renowned adage states that expectation usually leads to disappointment. After years of waiting for all-winners iterations of Drag Race, the anticipation was at an all-time high when it was finally announced. Not only were the fans treated to a version of the show they have spent ages waiting for but also have been graced with some of the greatest episodes in Drag Race her-story proving the aforementioned catchphrase very wrong! I have been racking my brain trying to figure out what has the secret ingredient that has made this season so fantastic and have decided that it is a concoction of various factors. These are some of the most successful queens to come from Drag Race and their winning performances on their original seasons already showcased an extremely high level of drag but also the time spent touring afterwards can only develop their art. Additionally, the change of format encourages queens to take risks rather than cruising through the competition by being safe every week. As there are no eliminations in this season, the queens are not afraid of one mistake causing them to go home. Look at Jinkx Monsoon who struggled in last week’s design challenge but this week [spoiler alert] she was back on top! If this was a regular season, Jinkx would have been sent home and we would have been robbed of all the other incredible looks and performances she would bring. I personally love the idea that no one goes home as we get to see the full scope of the queen’s talents, outfits etc., but I still don’t agree with the awarding of silly legendary legend badges. On the other end of last week’s design challenge was Jaida Essence Hall, after beating Trinity the Tuck in a lip-sync, and then decided to block Jinkx from winning a badge this week which, as discussed earlier, proved to be a very clever choice!

We were informed at the beginning of the episode that this week’s maxi challenge was an improvised, fairytale-inspired, courtroom based acting challenge which has been seen in different forms in previous seasons. One of this season’s competitors Monet X-Change did a Jersey Shore-influenced version of this show during her run on All-Stars season four alongside the iconic Latrice Royal and Mo Heart (who most recently appeared on Drag Race UK vs The World). Talking about familiar concepts, we were also told that Jeffery Bower Chapman who is infamous for his run as a judge of the Canada version of the show where he was heavily harassed due to his more critical comments on the panel. The queens were split into two teams that were captained by the two top queens, namely Trinity the Tuck and Jaida, who each took on a different fairytale-inspired injustice. Inside of the courtroom setting itself sat Michelle Visage who acted as the presiding judge, with wonderfully horned hair that paid homage to her classic black and white colouring that she has been championing in recent years. The first queen we were introduced to was Yvie Oddley who played a very slick, almost gangster-esque version of the Big Bad Wolf. This marks the second time that Yvie has played a more sexual, male presenting character (the first being her Boogieman during the snatch game) and actually was the only character to appear during both team’s performances. I really enjoyed the naming of the characters within this challenge as I thought they were hilarious and very clever! Jaida played a character called Twigley which was the fusion of the iconic supermodel Twiggy and the fact that the story of the Three Little Pigs involved a house being made of sticks. Monet played a character Hamerla Anderson who unlike Jaida was fairly unrelated to the reference point as Monet showed a very serious, lawyer style character who was actually against the other pigs in the story. However, this performance was yet again dominated by Jinkx as an extremely spoilt, millennial pig who constantly promoted her OnlyHams page which again was a very clever addition. I do think this flirtatious portrayal was excellently performed and her in-character improvisation (especially during the post case chat where her ears fell off) being hilarious throughout.

From a story inspired by the Three Little Pigs, to the other group who were given roles inspired by Goldilocks and the Three Bears! The standout within this performance would have to be The Vivienne who played the titular character Goldilocks who was experiencing an extreme case of split personality disorder. Not only was The Vivienne very funny throughout but also managed to seamlessly switch to and from a range of excellent impressions throughout the performance, which is insanely difficult to do! After the slight disappointment of Viv’s performance from the snatch game, it was incredible to see her stand on her own amongst the other queens and showcase her acting abilities! I know very few people who would be able to flawlessly improvise a full-fledged performance while switching from near-perfect accents and so she deserves the highest praise! The other highlight for me was Trinity who maybe wasn’t the most polished actor but was clearly have the most fun on screen. Trinity played the role of witch Theresa and was dressed exactly the same as Judge Michelle and entered the scene doing a strange Cher impression which was called out by the judge and was then quickly dropped. She played a very theatrical and hilarious evil character, which was almost panto-esque in its delivery, and made her stand out amongst her other all-stars!

The runway theme this week was spikes in the runway which Jaida used as an opportunity to showcase a black leather look with the most fantastic black and white makeup. The Grace Jones inspired look was so wonderfully fierce which seems to be an intentional choice every time Jaida walks the runway. Monet chooses to showcase a much more punk rock-inspired look with a dramatic Mohawk. Monet let the audience know that it was two suits tied together and then covered is sharp spikes which looked great on her. The Vivienne’s look for this week’s runway was probably one of my favourite things I have ever seen her wear on Drag Race. The baby blue, pinhead inspired look was not only a homage to the iconic Vivienne Westwood (which is a clever nod to her namesake) but also showed off her body flawlessly, while also being very unique when compared to the other queens. I thought that this look was so wonderfully clever and perfectly constructive to show off Vivienne’s best features! I have to admit that I loved Raja’s outfit from the waist up. The chest plate was so wonderfully shimmery but I did think that below this point it became quite subtle. The headpiece, cape and chest piece all worked beautifully together and were rightfully the focal point of the look. With a category such as spikes for the runway theme, it would be easy for all the queens to just show looks that have spikes on them. However, Trinity went in a completely surprised both myself and the judges. She decided to do a glamorous vampiric look in red and black with a stake piercing her body. I would never have thought to have gone for this ‘spike’ interpretation and yet again allowed Trinity to stand out.

Ru Paul declared that the top two all-stars this week were The Vivienne and Jinkx. If we based the top queens purely on the challenge then it made total sense that these two queens were the best, as they absolutely stole the show in their respective performances. This means that Viv is officially awarded her first legendary legends badge but Jinkx is not awarded one as she was blocked in the last episode. I knew that when The Vivienne pulled out a xylophone during their lip-sync and played it in time with the accompanying music she was going to walk away with the overall win! Despite winning her original season, Viv has never won money from Drag Race and in the space of two weeks, she has won $11,500 which is insane! I thought it was hilarious that despite the feeble attempt at forming an alliance in the last episode, Monet received her first block from Viv (especially as they are so close in real life as demonstrated by that Bridgeton manners sketch they did earlier this year!) Overall, this was a highly entertaining episode with every queen seeming to do well in both the challenge and the runway. We are starting to see some more strategic places with the blocking of queens/the golden plunger which helps to bring a certain higher sense of intelligence to the show.

**** 4/5

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