RuPaul's Drag Race: Episode 7: "Glamazon by Colorevolution
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Episode 8: "Drag Queens of Comedy"
These two episodes made a nice two-hour block of drag queen fun and also acted as the end of Laganja Estranja's arc on the show. Oh Laganja. When the season I started and she won the first challenge I saw lots of potential in Laganja. I really thought she had the chops to make it to the top four. I definitely saw her outlasting Trinity, Joslyn and Darienne. Unfortunately, Laganja crumbled under the pressure. I think she thought that she would just breeze in and this wouldn't be a challenge at all. I get the feeling that she's had lots of things handed to her and she doesn't know how to deal with not excelling. It also really rankled her to see her "friend" Adore doing better than her, even though she clearly thinks that she is better than Adore. So, she retreated into her grating, annoying drag persona never to return.
The first episode found the queens paired up by Mama Ru herself to create commercials hawking her new make up for Colorevolution, Glamazon. Ru has apparently been watching the dailies because she has paired up the queens with the person they would least want to be paired with. Adore and Laganja are marketing to mean girls. Courtney Act and Joslyn Fox are paired up to market to cougars. Ben DeLaCreme and Darienne are paired up to market to Mature Ladies/Cougars. While Bianca and Trinity are paired up to market to working girls.
From the jump there is friction in basically all the teams. Adore hates all Laganja's ideas, because they are straight up awful, but Adore was raised right and Laganja is her enemy friend and Adore doesn't want to call her out. Courtney is condescending to Joslyn because it's obvious that while Joslyn sees them as peers Courtney definitely does not. It seems like Joslyn is slowly losing her hero worship of Courtney. Darienne and Ben are clashing because Darienne thinks Ben has a big head and won't say anything about it. Trinity is doing her "I suck at everything" schtick, basically giving up before she even tries.
When it's time to film the commercials two teams rise to the top and two sink to the bottom. Laganja and Adore perfectly embody two bitchy mean girls. Adore slips into the role effortlessly and she is clearly carrying their partnership. Bianca and Trinity channeled two very different types of working women. Bianca worked the board room while Trinity worked the streets. Both teams sold their ideas and better yet sold the product to their respective demographics. The other two teams didn't fare so well. Courtney and Joslyn didn't seem to know what they were doing. They hadn't really worked anything out. Their premise was that they were at one of the others houses, but they weren't sure whose. It was a mess. Darienne and Ben seemed be going the older women are obsessed with plastic surgery route, making their lips look collagen injected, wrapping their heads with bandages. They were also talking like the porn stars who try to schill high end products on SNL. It wasn't really clear what they were selling, but it defnitely wasn't makeup.
On the runway, the queens came decked out in black and white and there were some stand out looks. Courtney stunned in her one piece, sequined waiter outfit literally carrying a rainbow fish on a platter. Trinity and Bianca looked great and glamourous. I loved Bianca's poufy skirt and her Cruella DeVil hair. There were flops. Laganja looked a mess, with her too long nails and blanched out face. Joslyn continued to just wear a bikini and loads of tacky jewelry.
It was DeLa and Darienne who ended up in the bottom two. It was a fake out though, since Ru decided to keep both queens. I think this was just to shake up DeLa. It's clear Ru see something in her and didn't want her to get complacent. I actually would have liked to see Courtney lip sync. If anyone is getting complacent, it's her.
The next episode finds the queens needing to perform stand up routines. Was there ever any doubt that Bianca was going to win this challenge? I mean, why did the other queens even show up? There was a pretty hilarious mini challenge where the queens had to hand model fruits and vegetables, which Joslyn won. Her reward was to put together the line up that the queens would perform in. For some reason, she put Bianca last and herself before Bianca. Not smart, queen. Not smart.
Oh and the queens will be performing for some senior citizens right in the front row.
Laganja melts down. She desparately wants attention so she launches into all her most annoying quirks. The gurls. The mamas. The imitation of Alyssa Edwards. Sitting under a table to come up with her lame-o comedy routine. It's all just too much.
The comedy show is a mixed bag. Darienne really does well opening the show. I get a few good chuckles. Courtney's schtick consists of her singing a song about the "mean gays of West Hollywood," and as Michelle points out in her critique, if you're going to sing a song, it best kill and this one didn't. Adore tries to play on her heritage and that her mom's a chola, but it just sort of devolves into a lot of cursing and it's a giant mess. DeLa definitely had the potential to be really funny, but her jokes seemed to be going over the heads of her audience and she was rushing them. My heart broke for a little when she got heckled and rused off stage.
Then there was Trinity who rocked it. She made me laugh. Each one of her bits landed. She really shined and I was very surprised. Maybe working with Bianca last week rubbed off on her. Very impressive. Laganja came out with her pink afro and was at her most irritating and offensive. And not like comedy offensive, but just offensive. Talking about that old woman's vagina? What the fuck. Joslyn continued the horrible run. She made one tired ADD joke and that was about it. Finally, the queen took the stage and slayed. There wasn't one bad joke. The audience responded. She was able to read the audience in a way that was funny and not cruel. You could tell that this is something that she does for a living and does well.
It wasn't a surprise when Bianca easily won the challenge, but it was nice to see Trinity get lots of praise and to see her confidence rise. Joslyn and Laganja ended up in the bottom two. It was particularly rough for Laganja. She got called on the runway for her character. I can't believe that Laganja doesn't get. The other queens finally had a come to Jesus with Laganja and to say it didn't go well is an understatement. She freaks out and storms out and then goes home. Well bye Felicia!
What did you guys think? Let me know.
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