RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under - Episode 1 Review
Before we jump into this, there are spoilers below if you haven’t watched the episode yet. All the comments below are just my fun opinion, its a TV show don’t get upset if I didn’t like your favourite Queen!
G’day mates! The day is finally here, Drag Race Down Under has begun, so stick on the BBQ and grab some cold beers and sit down for our Episode 1 Review.
Like all Drag Race seasons the episode starts with the entrance of the Queens (I mean how else would the competition start haha). All the looks sadly we had already seen from the Queens promo pictures, so there weren’t any surprises which was a bit of a let down.
I think Art Simone, Kita Mean and Coco Jumbo’s were my favourites. One look that wasn’t on my favourite list was JoJo Zaho whose look in the promo pics looked really different (in a good way) but in on the episode sadly didn’t really translate. Despite this JoJo had the cheek to come for Elektra Shock, who admittedly didn't look as polished as she probably should, but still if you are going to be coming for someone for their make up (or any flaw for that matter) yours has to be 100% perfect every time… more on that later but karma be a b*tch don’t it!
As the Queens entered some of the Down Under Queens knew each other or had worked together before which I’m fine with as that will happen, but I must admit, I was a little bored of the storyline of Kita, Elektra and Anita. I mean yawn… after the whole Coco and Alyssa drama on the US season you need to let these bestie / rivalry storylines go. I just don’t see the point, let those Queens have their own season and storyline, there must have been other Queens that could have been cast. Spread them out, doing it this way for a forced drama storyline just devalues the Queens it involves, as that’s then all we remember them for and we don’t get to see the true them.
Moving on, Ru the enters the werk room and asks the Queens to meet him for their first mini challenge. Ru sits waiting for the Queens for what seems to be an audition but at the same time the room is set up ready like a film set, which left me a bit confused. Ru then gets the Queens to read out lines and hold some gun looking thing… behind the Queens is a green screen but nothing ever happened with it, which was a let down. During the challenge Ru found some Queens hilarious like Elektra Shock who ends up screaming her way to winning the challenge. I don’t really get what the challenge was though so I don’t know how you could pick a winner tbh. Also the fact they showed some Queens ‘acting’ things out and others reading lines had me all confused. Either way I wasn't feeling this mini challenge, it seemed rushed and pointless. Also the awkward staged lets get feedback from our guest judge was mega awks. If they can’t be there on a live stream or in person, sorry babes but its got to be cut! I know we are in a pandemic but C’mon! I preferred the Season 13 style of zoom calls in the werqroom than staged fake feedback.
Back in the main werk room, Ru tells the Queens they need to bring two looks for the ‘get to know you ball’, these looks have the theme of ‘Born Naked’ and ‘No Place Like Home’. The Queens then run off to de-drag (to basically then go back to the hotel room but) as they do so they see each other out of Drag for the first time. Coco and Etcetera seem to be the commentators giving their honest feedback and for me this was the best part of the episode, which is saying something.
De-dragged the Queens re-enter the werk room for a new day to walk their looks. Now there is only 10 Queens but I will stick to only talking about the best and worst rather than reviewing everyone. Before I start however, I must say I was really disappointed, I don’t know what I was expecting but this wasn’t it.
I remember the Holland Queens walking their first runway and being really blown away. They all came with so much creativity and even the UK Queens did an amazing job at showing who they were. The Down Under Queens for me just didn’t have that WOW factor in their outfits. I’m not saying you need a big budget I just want a good concept. My least favourite looks were JoJo Zaho and Elektra which agreed with Ru’s choices for the bottom two as well. This said remember earlier when JoJo Zaho came for Elektra in the werk room for her make-up and look. Well karma came and bit her on the ass in the form of Michelle Visage who pointed out a fair few problems with her looks, which really weren’t polished. I don’t want to be mean but JoJo put a bad taste in my mouth the whole episode, from watching the other Queens walking in and making little side remarks and giving dirty looks all the way to the confessionals. She was always looking down on the other Queens but like I said earlier, you need to be 100% polished yourself if you are gonna do that HUN-TY and sadly for you miss JoJo, you weren't showing your best in this episode. Especially seems the two looks the Queens had to bring were prepared for ahead of time, no one had to make anything from random materials! For me, most of the Down Under girls just missed the mark overall and left me underwhelmed. That being said we did have some cracking looks! For me the tops were Art Simone and Karen from Finance who did give me that WOW factor I was looking for. Its all in those little details and both these Queens had that for me in both looks. I think I personally preferred Art Simones over Karen’s but Ru awards the win to Karen which is still deserved.
Bottom two picked and Elektra and JoJo lip sync against each other. The lip sync was okay, but I LOVED that Elektra clapped back and highlighted JoJo being a bit of a ‘stage stealer’. I mentioned this in a previous Drag Race review but its one of the things I HATE. When a Queen steps in front of the other to steal the spotlight or the judges attention. If you have to steal the spotlight from another Queen by walking in this way then you aren’t doing your job properly. If you have to steal that attention you have lost already. So when JoJo did this to Elektra and Elektra made a joke of it, priceless! Well done girl (just to be clear I’m fine with genuine crossing over but when its a stealer nay nay, shame on you).
Lip sync done and Ru sends home for me the correct person which is JoJo. And there we have it… Episode 1 done. Am I excited for episode 2… sadly not, despite it being the Snatch Game already! Was I hoping for more, yes! Are my standards too high… probably. But after the UK doing so well and Holland too, this just felt a little behind the others. Who knows maybe next week the Queens will wow me and I will be a fan, just right now I’m a little….
RuPaul’s Drag Race is streaming on BBC iPlayer here.
Image credit - BBC / World of Wonder