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<\/p>\nTops And Bottoms: Nice Girls Finish First On \u2018RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race All Stars\u2019 [PREMIERE RECAP]<\/b>
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In today\u2019s turbulent times, each season of RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race<\/em> feels more and more vital. Having Ru, Michelle and the gals back on my screen feels like a fresh spring day after a long winter. It\u2019s like food. It\u2019s like mana. It\u2019s like electrolytes.<\/p>\n After a rocky first season, All Stars<\/em> found its footing in season two, and the third installment has been even more hotly anticipated. We\u2019ve gagged over the queens<\/a>. We\u2019ve gasped over the judges<\/a>. Now it\u2019s time to get our whole entire lives to the new season.<\/p>\n So let\u2019s not waste a moment more. Bring back out gurls!<\/p>\n The first to arrive is Trixie Mattel, a unique queen whose post-Drag Race<\/em> career skyrocketed thanks to a rabid fanbase and a hit webseries-turned-TV show with fellow season 7 queen, Katya. She skates in on her bright pink Barbie skates, tosses off some self-deprecating humor and is basically perfect.<\/p>\n Next up is Milk, strutting in wearing a denim Pinocchio get up. According to Ru\u2019s mantra, Milk is ALL SET to love somebody else, because she sure do love herself. Since season six, Milk\u2019s been a big hit (mostly out of drag), doing some high-fashion modeling and becoming one of Tumblr\u2019s favorite #zaddys. We know she can serve avant-garde fashi\u00f3n, but she shouldn\u2019t be so cocky until she can prove she\u2019s got a better Snatch in her than Julia Child.<\/p>\n Chi Chi DeVayne is back to tell us she\u2019s got her drag together, and yet here she is in a yellow bathing suit covered in trash bags and a Family Dollar plastic New Year\u2019s top hat. Someone put her back in, I don\u2019t think she\u2019s quite done yet.<\/p>\n Thorgy\u2019s next and seems to be serving more of the same Dr. Jekyll delight alongside her Mr. Hide insecurity and fixations. Morgan McMichaels comes in basically shouting from the rafters that she intends to be this season\u2019s villain, while Aja takes the opposite approach, claiming seeing herself on television was humbling.<\/p>\n Then comes BenDeLaCreme, crackling with electricity. Here\u2019s a queen that breathes joy and character into everything she does. Yes, it\u2019s always very \u201cBen,\u201d but I\u2019d rather see her do DeLa than some of these other queens pantomiming reality TV tropes or executing complex choreo to their own flaccid EDM tracks. More on that in a bit.<\/p>\n Kennedy Davenport teleports in from the planet Glamtron, wearing head-to-toe mirrors and some sort of alien, Tree of Life high-ponytail that defies gravity, logic, reason and moral authority. It\u2019s a statement, for sure.<\/p>\n Finally, there\u2019s a box. You know who\u2019s in the box. It\u2019s Shangela. Halleloo.<\/p>\n There isn\u2019t a lot of time for the girls<\/a> to gab, because with drag quorum achieved, Ru appears with one more surprise entrant: Season one winner, Bebe Zahara Benet. Mother has officially arrived. Cameroooooooon!<\/p>\n Now that the gang\u2019s all here, officially, Ru explains that All Stars<\/em> rules are in effect. That means the top two will be lip syncing and the winner gets not only a $10,000 tip, but also the ability to send home one of the bottom two girls<\/a>. It\u2019s such a clever spin on the standard practice of lip syncing for your life, and I\u2019m so glad they brought it back for All Stars 3<\/em>.<\/p>\n Things keep clicking along quickly with the first mini-challenge: Reading. For a bunch of All Stars, it was a bit of a letdown. Aside from strong performances from Ben, Trixie and Milk, the rest of the lot fell mostly flat. Most weren\u2019t even jokes, really. \u201cWhere ya been?\u201d Kennedy asks Ben. Aja describes Trixie as a \u201cLisa Frank Serial Killer,\u201d much to Mattel\u2019s delight. Bebe just tells Ru that Thorgy looks homeless. Some of the girls<\/a> would have been better off just rattling off yo momma jokes they Googled on the flight over.<\/p>\n Ben rightfully gets the win after dishing out devastating reads with actual structure and punchlines and unexpected turns.<\/p>\n This week\u2019s challenge is one of my favorites: A variety show. I love these kinds of open-ended challenges where (ideally) the queens can just do whatever they do best. No terrible Lucian Piane tracks, no Todrick Hall choreo.<\/p>\n The results are largely positive. We\u2019ll get into the individual performances in our rankings below, but BenDeLaCreme\u2019s twisted burlesque routine wins rave reviews from the judges, as does Aja\u2019s stunt-filled dance routine. Less fortunate are Morgan McMichaels \u2014 who gives us a watered-down lip sync to her own god-awful track \u2014 and Chi Chi. Ms. DeVayne\u2019s crimes have more to do with poor shoes and wig choices than her high-stepping baton twirling, but it\u2019s all pretty amateur.<\/p>\n Morgan and Chi Chi plead their cases to Ben and Aja, but the more important conversation revolves around how the girls<\/a> plan on making these decisions moving forward. You may recall last All Stars<\/em> started by agreeing to choose whom they eliminate based on the judges\u2019 critiques. That all fell apart rather spectacularly.<\/p>\n The group seems to reach even less of a consensus here, but what\u2019s notable is Morgan\u2019s insistence that she will eliminate her strongest competition even if they\u2019re not deserving of the chop. She may as well have ended that statement with \u201cAnd now I\u2019ll show myself out \u2026 \u201c<\/p>\n While the ladies<\/a> chat<\/a>, Ru has guest judge Vanessa Hudgens lip sync against Pork Chop. No, not her<\/a>, an actual pork chop. It\u2019s a dumb gag that I absolutely love, and I truly hope they do this every week (imagine the guest judges battling a pearl, a peppermint, kim chi, a raven \u2026 ).<\/p>\n The lip sync between Ben and Aja is an instant classic to Nicki Minaj\u2019s \u201cAnaconda.\u201d Aja, sort of predictably, chooses to go the video<\/a> ho route, while Ben, also sort of predictably, makes it comedy. Both slay in their own way, but Ben wins this round, sending Morgan packing \u2026 for now.<\/p>\n So where does that leave our rankings? As a reminder, each week we\u2019ll list the queens in order of their likelihood to snatch the crown based on this week\u2019s challenge, lewks, history of slaying and, of course, my own personal biases. This isn\u2019t science, darling, it\u2019s drag! Disagree? Leave your rankings in the comments.<\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> Right out the gate, BenDeLaCreme<\/strong> is my pick to win it all. I adored her during her season six run, and I still do now. She\u2019s quick-witted, she\u2019s got a point of view, she can perform, she looks great. Her weakness is that it\u2019s all a little schticky, but based on her first mini, maxi and lip sync wins, something tells me the judges\u2019 schtick tolerance may be higher this time around.<\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> It\u2019d be foolish to expect Trixie Mattel<\/strong> to go home any time soon. They\u2019ve got to keep her around for her confessional interviews alone. Like Ben, she\u2019s a clever gurl with a very distinct persona, but it feels a little fresher than DeLa. Whereas Ben is incredibly calculating, Trixie seems less afraid to take wilder swings, like her tender talent showcase tonight. That gives her the potential to lap Ben, but also opens her up for a risk to fall flat.<\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> Your threshold for Shangela<\/strong> may vary, but there\u2019s no denying the growth she\u2019s displayed. I would happily go to my gay<\/a> little grave never hearing \u201cHalleloo\u201d or an allusion to Shangela\u2019s box ever again, but, her dogged branding aside, she sparkles on screen. She\u2019s a high-energy performer that\u2019s a joy to watch with so much charm and likability. Her performance tonight wasn\u2019t groundbreaking (though it almost literally was when she forcibly slammed her body into the actual ground), but it was well-executed.<\/p>\n 4.<\/strong> Based on tonight alone, Aja<\/strong> might rank higher. She clearly came to slay, and she arrived much savvier than her first spin on\u00a0Drag Race<\/em>. I\u2019m rooting for you, Aja (we\u2019re all rooting for you!), but I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m ready to put her in the top 3 just yet. We already knew she could dance a house down, but I\u2019m still waiting to see what else she\u2019s got.<\/p>\n 5.<\/strong> If this was Dancing With the All Stars<\/em>, Kennedy<\/strong> would be the clear favorite. Nobody kicks, flips and splits like Kennedy. For me, her outfits are hit and miss, ranging from wild and wacky to dated and tacky. I also think her attitude could be an issue, especially if we face upcoming group or paired challenges.<\/p>\n 6.<\/strong> It\u2019s been a while since we\u2019ve seen Bebe<\/strong> at work, and it was a very different game back then. It\u2019s hard to gauge how she\u2019ll stack up now. Based on her season one performance (great!), runway performance (good!) and reads (OK!), I put her somewhere in the middle of the pack. I LOVE how she incorporates her cultural background into her performances, because it keeps them unique. It put her performance in a whole other category from the other girls<\/a>\u2019 dancing to a track.<\/p>\n 7.<\/strong> So, speaking of personal biases, Milk<\/strong>\u2019s entire presence really rubbed me the wrong way tonight. Her reads were certainly some of the better ones in the mini challenge, and, although I didn\u2019t love her runway performance, it was fine. It was kind of dumb and really basic, but she committed to the bit fully and gave us a little something different (even if there was truly very little talent necessary to pull it off). I think Milk is very, very good at one specific thing (fashion!), but there\u2019s a lot more at play here. My gut tells me her smug self-satisfaction might blind her to that.<\/p>\n 8.<\/strong> On paper, I love everything about Thorgy<\/strong>\u2019s performance tonight. The violin was a unique touch, but the whole thing felt disjointed. I wanted the performance to build to more of a crowd-rousing crescendo, but it just didn\u2019t get there. It never felt like it got out of first gear. Unlike Aja, it\u2019s not as obvious if Thorgy learned anything from her first time on the show, and that concerns me.<\/p>\n 9.<\/strong> I wouldn\u2019t have guessed Chi Chi<\/strong> would\u2019ve lasted as long as she did in her season, so maybe she\u2019ll surprise me again here. However, her performance tonight was so obviously ill-conceived, I\u2019m not sure she deserved to stay in the first place. No pads, no heels and that Duane Reade wig? No, ma\u2019am. She needs to step up or step out.<\/p>\n 10.<\/strong> Oh, Morgan<\/strong>. Clearly she thought if she asserted herself as the villain it would guarantee some Phi Phi O\u2019Hara-sized screentime. Morgan\u2019s reads weren\u2019t great (that Black and Decker jab owes residuals to Jujubee\u2019s brilliant grill read in season two), and that \u201csong\u201d was awful. I mean, most drag queen songs are terrible, just generally, but this one in particular was some sub-Real Housewives<\/em> mess. Countess Luann wouldn\u2019t even touch that track. However, in the end, it was her strategy, not her performance, that really sunk her.<\/p>\n What did you think of the premiere episode?<\/p>\n The post Tops And Bottoms: Nice Girls Finish First On \u2018RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race All Stars\u2019 [PREMIERE RECAP]<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.towleroad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/tumblr_p33de8J3Zu1rosb88o2_400.gif?resize=268%2C200\")
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