A new season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” has arrived. The girls are seasoned and stunning, with alumni (Bob the Drag Queen, Raja, and Kim Chi) helping to bring the light back to the Werk Room. The addition of our favorite former contestants was a hilarious touch to a lively premiere.
Cheers to over-30 queers
The best part of the season so far is the abundance of queens that are 30 years old and older. Kenya calls them “seasoned” and she’s correct. It’s a nice change from last season that was high drama (and really entertaining) but skewed very young, with lip syncs and certain challenges being on the weaker side.
Some big surprises include the show forgoing the usual split premiere and talent show combination that has dominated the last few seasons. The girls were tasked to make outfits out of unconventional materials from the ‘Drag Race’ vault in the first Main challenge of the season. This change in the first challenge kicked the season off to an unpredictable start, making us excited to see what other formula shake-ups happen.
Let’s break down the best parts of episode one.
The Looks
From entrance looks to the runway, the queens really showcased a sickening display of unique aesthetics, but also some forgettable outfits. In their entrance looks, Athena Dion, Kenya Pleaser, Briar Rose, and Nini Coco all immediately catch the eye with their outfits. Athena is serving Grecian goddess, Kenya giving elevated disco diva, with Briar and Nini bringing pops of color and chicness. Darlene Mitchell, Mandy Mango, and DD Fuego had some underwhelming looks that honestly didn’t make much sense unless overly-explained.
The “Reclaim, Renew, Rejoice!” runway was filled with the good, the sloppy, and the boring. This unconventional materials challenge was supposed to represent the queens’ signature drag and they mostly succeeded. Discord Addams’ and Vita VonTesse Starr’s outfits stuck out the most as the most well-made, but still serving drag drama. Discord’s later “Untucked” rants might be low-key justified. She deserved to be in the top with her raven-esque, gothic outfit. DD Fuego’s outfit was easily the worst look and it was bizarre that she wasn’t in the bottom.
The Talent
The Mini Challenge was less about talent and more about screaming funnily or prettily, but Kenya did eat everyone up in that challenge with her comedic timing.
Most of the talent we got to see on display this episode were the girls’ design skills. A lot of it was hot glued things on corsets, but there were some incredible gems in there, as mentioned above. But in addition to Vita and Discord, Nini’s gift bag dress was intricately constructed to make her look like a tropical bird and Jane Don’t’s suit and hair had the judges geeked.
With a few acclaimed designers in the bunch, expectations were pretty high for this but it seemed a lot of the girls were hampered by the unconventional items they had to work with. Kenya forgot to get fabric in her excitement to get a rubber chicken, for some damn reason. Shout-out to Athena for actually getting sewing lessons before filming, something her granddaughter, Juicy Love Dion, could’ve done.
The Drama
Briar and Athena were lightly beefing the whole episode, including “Untucked.” They had tension from the second Briar said, “Meh,” at the group when she walked in. They had a little tiff in the Werk Room with a “she-said-she-said” back and forth that had some admittedly funny one-liners. It seems playful with an undercurrent of real animosity, so we’ll see if this escalates in the near-future.
With Briar’s snide, but hilarious comments on other queens’ makeup and ages, she has the set up of being the villain of the season. But her poking is entertaining to watch versus Discord, whose bitterness at not being in the top causes her to be repetitive and a little annoying in “Untucked.” She is beside herself at the reality that the judges prefer Nini Coco’s look over hers. (I do agree with her on this point, but her going on and on and on about it was unlikeable as hell.)
There were some tears in “Untucked” as reality set in and the girls hashing out who they thought was in the bottom verses what the judges actually liked. But largely it was a pretty chill episode of the afters.
The Guest
Cardi B needs to come back every season. She was clearly in her element and having a blast judging the girls. “I hate it,” Cardi said several times at some of the girls’ messy looks. She had a great rapport with RuPaul and the other judges, while also providing some good feedback for the queens to chew on.
Cardi also showed up with her dolls, makeup artist Erika La’ Pearl and hairstylist Tokyo Stylez. They talked about how influential the show has been on them and vice versa. It was a really sweet moment of camaraderie for the dolls and the gays.
The Winner and Loser
No one went home! We’re the real winners here because we get to spend a little more time with these queens most of us just met. The actual winner of the episode was Nini Coco’s cute and orange, paper bag dress. Truly thought Vita was going to take this one as her outfit was the actual best, but with a Lip Sync for the Win, anything can happen and Vita simply didn’t know the lyrics to “Enough” by Cardi B as well as Nini did.
Kenya, Mandy, and Juicy were all in the bottom with them ultimately being saved by a non-elimination episode. Kenya and Juicy are early favorites, so it would’ve been a chop if either of them had gone home first.
All in all, a fun, unexpected premiere with a strong guest judge that kept things entertaining. Next week’s episode is the always incredible girl group challenge, which should show us quickly who can perform and who’s a dud. Check our season 18 predictions here.
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Writer and editor