RuPaul’s Drag Race review: Cheese frightening! Ew cheese frightening!

RuPaul’s Drag Race got political tonight with Trump: The Rusical. Some queens proved their star power, while others faded into the background.

Are you registered to vote? Because on this week’s RuPaul’s Drag Race things got pretty political! Some of us — meaning myself and Brooke Lynn — may be Canadian, but we know what’s going on in America, and this week, the queens had to be the voice of reason in a wild political storm.

For the mini challenge, the remaining queens had to put on the iconic blazer and glasses of political commentator and lesbian icon, Rachel Maddow. They had to report a breaking news story about RuPaul, and apparently, most of them can’t read. There’s something so wickedly funny about seeing drag queens struggle to read a teleprompter. I could watch that challenge for days.

Other than the queens who only speak English as a second language, how were most of them so bad?! Who knew that before going on RuPaul’s Drag Race, you had to practice your lip syncing, sewing, AND your reading?

Scarlett won the challenge, and guys, I might regret saying this: I think I’m starting to like her. She is really proving herself to be a threat, even if she has a bad attitude sometimes. Stay tuned, who knows how this will turn out in later episodes.

Now, onto the main challenge and all things Trump. I’m sure plenty of people are going to complain about the show being too political, but clearly those people are 1) not a real fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race (because the show has gotten political plenty of times in the past), and 2) not a real fan of drag. Drag has always been political. Drag artists are activists. Drag artists and trans women started the gay rights movement, so before you complain about this DRAG SHOW being political, kindly learn your herstory.

Now that I got that out of the way, let’s talk about the main challenge. I don’t even know where to start with Trump: The Rusical. It definitely wasn’t their best musical challenge — Shade: The Rusical says hey — but it wasn’t terrible, and it was still better than anything done on last season of All Stars. It was funny, some moments were better than others, and some girls definitely stood out more than others, as usual. My main complaint, though, is that it went on way too long. It seriously felt like the entire run-time of Grease, the musical they were supposed to be parodying.

As far as standout moments go, let’s get right to the stars of the show: Yvie, Brooke, Scarlett, and Silky. Yvie and Scarlett both surprised me again, so I definitely need to keep an eye out for them. Scarlett was hilarious as Betsy DeVos, playing her as a drunk airhead (if the shoe fits…) and even if her role was short, I still remember her even after the way-too-long musical was finished. Same goes for Yvie as Kellyanne Conway, and my personal fave Brooke killed it as Ivana.

She somehow looked just like her, and she played up the whole rich white woman stereotypes with every mannerism. The judges loved Silky as Oprah, and I must admit I thought she was pretty good, but I’m not sure if I would’ve went with her as the winner.

It was pretty obvious from the beginning of Trump: The Rusical who would land in the bottom. Some people didn’t wow me, but weren’t bad, like Plastique as Melania or Akeria as Stormy Daniels, and others were good but just not good enough, like Sugah as Hillary or Nina as Sarah Huckabee Sanders. But right out of the gate, Mercedes struggled with her role as Ivanka. Ivanka could’ve been such a funny role in the right hands, but she got lost. Ra’jah, who bragged about all her dance experience, may have mastered the choreo, but her Omarosa lacked an air of power, which the reality star is known for.

Side note: speaking of the choreography, who else loved Yanis Marshall working with the girls? I’ve never been a big fan of Todrick and found he always has such an inflated ego when he works with the queens. But Yanis was great, he’s talented, he was funny and shady, but he was never mean to them or too hard on them. Bring Yanis back every dance challenge! Now back to the runway.

A good runway look can make or break your position in this competition, and unfortunately for Mercedes, she didn’t wow the judges. Her headpiece was impressive, but her basic bodysuit looked too plain. Ra’jah’s look was much more “wow!” but she still found herself in the bottom, because Vanjie is just too much of a star.

Vanjie needs to be careful, because the judges are getting bored of her looks, too! I don’t want to spend too much time on the runway looks so let me break down some of my thoughts real fast of the Orange Alert runway:

• Love Yvie! Fun, very different look as usual, and she plays up the character on the runway.
• Plastique looking like a gorgeous showgirl.
• Ra’jah looks fierce, those thigh-high boots are everything!
• Nina’s outfit looks a bit too costumey for me.
• Mercedes’ look is a bit underwhelming, and that bodysuit, like I already said, is basic.
• Why did so many of them go showgirl with the orange theme? Vanjie is yet another queen in feathers and a headpiece, just like Mercedes, Plastique, and others.
• Brooke Lynn’s outfit is SO Fifth Element and I like that she took a different route than all the other queens.
• Sugah dressed AS TRUMP! I am gagged! That’s hilarious and I wish we got to see the judges critique her.

Mercedes has yet to prove herself in the competition, so you might have thought “maybe she can turn this lip sync out and save herself!” But no. The song, though an odd choice for drag queens, was “Living in America” by James Brown. It’s high-energy and needs some attitude, neither of which Mercedes gave. But Ra’Jah exudes personality, and she gave that James Brown heat that the song requires. It wasn’t about tricks or flips or anything like that, she gave it attitude!

Mercedes seems sweet as pie, but unfortunately, RuPaul’s Drag Race might not be the right competition for her, and I think we all agree that it was her time to go.

Random Ruflections

• Friendly reminder that the six person lip sync last week was really dumb
• “Why You Maddow Though?” I love a good pun
• You can tell Rachel Maddow is a lesbian because that was a pathetic “okurrr?” but we love her anyway
• Nina as Sarah Huckabee Sanders is PERFECT!
• Silky is a REPUBLICAN?!
• Vanjie as ROSIE O’DONNELL will be HILARIOUS!
• “Yvie looks like the Crypt Keeper, so she had to be Kellyanne Conway.” – Ra’Jah
• Ra’jah shouldn’t be bragging about all that dance experience because it’s going to bite her in the you-know-what.
• “Where did that dance experience go?” – Yanis Marshall when Ra’jah couldn’t pick up the choreo after bragging about all her experience (told you).
• Yanis is so shady, I love him as the choreographer!
• Silky puts her brows on… with a Sharpie. Let that sink in.
• I think it’s great that they’re approaching religion, especially from the point of view of a Muslim queen.
• Why does Brooke Lynn actually look so much like Ivana? It’s eerie.
• Imagine Trump tweets about Drag Race?
• Mercedes was definitely the weakest in the challenge, without a doubt.
• Michelle is about to kill Joel McHale. This is why they shouldn’t let hetero men on the panel.
• “I’ve always had the fantasy of sitting on Rosie O’Donnell’s face!” – Tiffany Pollard
• Yaaaas bitch, Brooke Lynn is a threat!
• Brooke Lynn or Yvie should’ve won this challenge, not sorry.
• Next week, the theme is MONSTER BALL and the guest judge is ELVIRA?!
• I don’t usually talk about Untucked but girl, Vanjie and Brooke are an item and they were kissing backstage and like caressing faces and stuff. I am into it!