Review: Rupaul’s All Stars Drag Race—”HERstory Of The World”

The best reality show on television takes a small dip with the third episode of All Stars Season 2: ”HERstory Of The World.”

This week, the all star queens participated in a lip sync extravaganza. (Everything’s an extravaganza on this show.) The songs were clever, the dances were funny, and the theme was damn near brilliant: each of the contestants portrayed a famous woman in history, from ancient times right through to the ’90s. And yet this was still the weakest episode of the season so far.

The problem was that the challenge limited how much the queens could shine. For last week’s Snatch Game, each of them had to pick a character, make an outfit, and go into battle armed with only their wit. But this time, RuPaul assigned each of them a character. Then they lip synced to songs they didn’t write and danced moves they didn’t choreograph. This kind of challenge works toward the beginning of a normal season, when the lineup still has weak links. But in All Stars, where all the queens have already proven themselves, I want them to bring the ideas.

That being said, the central number was still pretty damn entertaining, from Alaska’s Britney Spears-esque take on Eve to Ginger Minj’s vulgar prop comedy as Catherine the Great to Roxxxy Andrews’ energetic tango as Eva Perón. I don’t know who RuPaul gets to write and sing original songs for her, but they’re reliably entertaining. Bring those people out for a challenge!

Image Credit: Screencap/Logo TV

RuPaul puts it best: “Everybody was so fantastic, so we have to pick at some of the smaller things, because ain’t much to criticize here.” The only queen who stood out was Alyssa Edwards as Annie Oakley. As a trained dancer, Alyssa can bump and grind in a way the other girls just can’t, and her part—a high-kicking spectacle involving guns, a chair, and a shirtless extra—seemed specially designed to show off her particular set of skills.

In fact, Alyssa was the highlight of the hour. Back in Season 5, it was fun just to watch her act naturally, making faces in the mirror and sputtering about back rolls. She was hilarious, but she didn’t know she was hilarious, which made her more hilarious. She seems to have caught on now, and is determined to give us as much Alyssa as we can handle. The first section of the episode consisted mainly of Alyssa screaming nonsense (“Bitch, I look so right!”) and doing the splits for no reason. It’s why reality TV was invented.

On the other end of the runway, Katya’s Princess Diana impression was destined to land her in the Bottom Two. It’s hard to blame her overmuch—she just got handed the weakest number. Like Alyssa, Katya can move, but the choreography required her stand still. The lyrics weren’t particularly clever, and the song didn’t give her a chance to explode with personality, a la Phi Phi O’Hara as Helen of Troy. And as RuPaul pointed out, Princess Di is the one figure represented on stage who lived recently enough for us to remember what she looked like, so Katya’s outfit was subjected to additional scrutiny.

Image Credit: Screencap/Logo TV

So I wasn’t shocked to see Katya in the bottom, although I was kinda surprised to see Ginger join her. But then again, with most of the performances on point, it may have come down to the runway looks. That was never Ginger’s strong suit, and her look here—a space age silver swimsuit that would have been at home on the set of Barbarella—didn’t exactly bleed creativity. In fact, I could’ve used a little more of that from several of the contestants. I was hoping someone would take the theme—”the future of drag”—and go outside the box with it. But for the most part, they stuck to plays on robots, aliens, and the like.

That’s not to say that none of them hit it out of the park. Detox’s The Fifth Element-inspired monochrome look was a stunner, and probably bumped her into the top alongside Alyssa. But the award for best in show has to go to Phi Phi. Her alien super-soldier getup, complete with giant ray gun, was unlike anything we’ve seen on the runway before, and shows how far her drag has come since Season 4. It was exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to see from her this year.

So in the end, it’s Alyssa vs Detox in a solid-but-not-spectacular lip sync of Taylor Dayne’s “Tell It To My Heart.” Alyssa wins because she can do splits, and springs one final twist on us: she sends Ginger home.

Next: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and the problematic depiction of women

This could get good. Previously, the contestants had an understanding: the queen who received the worst feedback from the judges would be sent home. Katya received the worst feedback, but Alyssa sent Ginger home anyway, since she thinks Katya “has a lot more to give.” She’s probably right—Katya’s uproarious cutaway interviews are more than enough reason for her to stick around—but her choice to break the pact could mean shifting dynamics. Bring on drag Survivor!

And now that Ginger’s gone, let’s all take a moment to remember how talented she is by watching her sing for Harvey Fierstein.

Other Stuff

• Historically, Detox has struggled with comedy challenges. That’s odd, because as far as witty, off-the-cuff remarks go, she’s up there with the best of them. For example, at the top of the episode, Alyssa counted eight remaining queens rather than seven. Detox was ready with a comment: “You were looking at yourself in the mirror, so you were counting yourself twice.”
• To Ginger: “Are you a dancer?” “Nope. I’m a Tony Danza.”
• Katya: “I’m a little resentful at Ginger, because she gets the part not only that’s Russian but also fuck a horse.”
• The judges accused a couple of the contestants of fading into the background during the big number, but Todrick Hall is fading into the background at the judge’s table. I don’t doubt his enthusiasm, but I’d rather have someone reliably funny on the panel, like Ross Mathews.
• Katya, when Ginger tries to justify her own lackluster runway outfit: “No, it’s still ugly.” See? This is why we need her.
• Like Coco and Tatiana before her, Ginger received a mysterious message from RuPaul during her exit interview. She may come back yet. And she immediately said that she’d like to knock Alyssa out of the competition. Now there’s someone who knows what a reality TV producers want to hear.