‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Is Finally Out of Its Funk–for Now

Every gay’s got an opinion on RuPaul’s Drag Race–a favorite queen (Katya), season (9), entrance catchphrase (“C’mon Season 6! Let’s get sickeniiiing!”), Snatch Game impression (I’m in a Ginger’s Adele mood right now), etc. I’m but one gay with a specific–although not unique–take on Drag Race (I am kinda there to make friends!) and a gig writing about TV online. I’m no pearl. I’m maybe the Magnolia Crawford of online Drag Race critiquery. I say all that to frame my thesis: for the strain of Drag Race fans that prioritize fashion and fun over fighting, Season 11 has pulled the Drag Race franchise out of its funk.

That’s not to say Drag Race hasn’t been enjoyable since the roses fell on Season 9 back in 2017. Trust and believe I’ve watched every episode the night-of (and a few times since) because the sounds of lip-syncs and reads are the air we breath in my household. But something’s been off about the show for the past few years–years that brought Drag Race its first-ever Outstanding Competition Program Emmy, so it’s not like the show’s been bad. But like Trixie Mattel in the Snatch Game, the show’s been off its game (IMO).

The overall note I had for 2018’s All Stars 3 and Drag Race Season 10, as well as All Stars 4 from earlier this year, was that the producers’ puppet strings went from being fishing line to clunky chains. You could see the strings, from queens being safe because they brought the drama (The Vixen) to wildly unfair critiques (Monet’s dismissal during Season 10’s makeover challenge is still baffling) to all the buffoonery of the All Stars format (that jury of your peers nonsense!).

To love Drag Race means to fully accept that you’re watching a show wherein a dozen or more drag queens navigate the machinations of a skilled AF, now Emmy-winning production team. But the secret to great reality show producing is to make the strings invisible. BTW, invisible looks like swapping Detox and Jinkx’s high-stakes lip sync song to a campy Yma Sumac tune that was apparently in Jinkx’s act (at least according to Alaska and Willam on the Race Chaser pod).

But even beyond the production, the most recent seasons prioritized drama over everything else, with knock-down fights busting out of the Untucked cage where they’re usually confined. All Stars 3 also made a lot of queens look bad, like Milk and Thorgy; in fact, “Milk” has become in-show shorthand for a queen who’s totally unaware of their shortcomings. AS3 also gave us a lackluster, defeated Chi Chi DeVayne, which is just sad.

Season 10 had a string of absolutely bizarre maxi challenges, like PharmaRusical and Tap that App, but it did give us some fantastic mini-challenges. Season 10’s real crime, though, was eliminating so many queens way too soon (that Dusty/Mayhem/Blair/Monique stretch hurt). Honestly that shortcoming was evident in Week 1 when Vanessa Vanjie Mateo went home first, despite clearly being a Shangela-level personality queen (one destined for a Shangela arc of her own, it turns out).

All Stars 4 felt like a course correction, with its all killer cast and rudemption arcs to spare (Monique and Monet, finally the stars they were meant to be!). But it all went off the rails when fully three episodes of progress were negated by the obligatory “eliminated queens’ revenge” arc, followed by frontrunner Manila Luzon’s shocking dismissal (but at least Naomi Smalls finally played the game the producers wanted since they enacted All Star Rules).

All those retro gripes out of the way, here’s what Season 11 has fixed: it’s giving us drama, it’s giving us moments, it’s giving us story, it’s giving us heroes and villains and everything that makes a great Drag Race season great. To stroll back through my Valley of Complaints and address the issues, Season 11 isn’t wasting no time–and thank god because this is the largest cast in the show’s history. Even the double save in Episode 8 was earned because it was the “duh” result of quite possibly a top 5–maybe top 3?–lip sync in the franchise’s entire run.

Every elimination has made sense in the context of the episode, meaning the puppet strings are see-through once again. Should Scarlet Envy have shantayed? Maybe! Was that lip sync a close one? Actually, yeah!

The mini challenges have gotten even weirder (trying to sneak backstage one week, posing as Barbie dolls the next) and maxi challenges have leveled up. The Monster Ball? Diva Worship? The Draglympics?! The show even made Trump: The Rusical slightly more palatable than painful!

When it comes to drama, Season 11 is doing us right. We’ve got clear rivalries here, the main ones being Yvie vs. Silky, Yvie vs. Everybody, and Silky vs. Everybody. But Yvie vs. Silky feels totally different from Phi Phi vs. Sharon, the definitive Drag Race rivalry. The show’s actually letting both queens have simultaneous villain and hero edits; one minute your heart breaks for Yvie because of her Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and you wish Silky could stop showboating, the next you’re cringing at Yvie’s blunt honesty and LOLing at The Silky Show. Even Vanjie’s emerged as more than just a backwards-strutting catchphrase queen. Vanjie’s vulnerable side is maybe the season’s biggest surprise, and maybe its MVP. Oh wait, no I guess Branjie is the season’s surprise MVP!

And then there are the moments. The season’s been delivering since Soju talked about taint cysts on the runway. “Opalens, you own everything,” queens thinking Glitter was named Sparkle, that six person shit show lip sync, Nina West making Snatch Game herstory, the face-kini runway, the sequins runway, Brooke’s runway looks, Yvie’s runway looks, Ra’Jah’s James Brown, A’Keria’s strut, “Sorry Not Sorry”–this season’s in high gear now.

But the funk could still funk up this season. What really brought Season 10 and the last two All Stars seasons down were those finales. The jury selection that iced out clear season champ Shangela. The sloppy as hell three-way lip sync between Eureka, Aquaria, and Kameron Michaels. The hastily edited All Stars 4 tie between Trinity and Monet. Is Season 11 heading that way? I’ll be honest: if Silky skates through the competition to the crown, not getting clocked for turning out the exact same look every week or for her lack of comedic range (Silky just knows how to do Silky, but Vanjie only knowing how to Vanjie is somehow a problem), that’ll be an issue. But if Drag Race crowns Brooke–another white queen–that’ll be an issue. Maybe more than any other competition show, it’s actually really hard for Drag Race to declare a winner and not get dragged.

But ending aside, an ending we’re still a month out from, I can at least declare that the journey has been a gag and a half. Drag Race is out of its funk, as far as I’m concerned, and I am once again here for it.

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