Downton Abbey is done. The Olympics are over. What a perfect time to keep my television viewing habits going and start RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 6! Yay! Who needs to get up off the couch?
Ru is setting us up to believe that there’s some sort of horror/slasher movie theme this season. Whatever. After watching this first episode, I can report that there were no references to blood or horror at all. We’ll see if that holds up for the season.
And speaking of seasons, we’re treated to our first twist of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 6, and it’s a really smart one. You know how, you’re watching a reality show and at first all the contestants all blend together into a draggy bitchy mishmash & you can’t tell one person from another? Well does RuPaul have the solution for you! Just introduce HALF of the girls in the first episode so you get to spend a little more time with them. Then spend the 2nd episode of the season introducing the 2nd half of girls. Don’t be jealous of her boogie. And don’t be surprised if other reality shows don’t follow suit. I’m looking at you Project Runway!
What follows is then a pretty typical season debut show – introduce the girls, get their superficial reactions to the other girls – and make Mike Ruiz shoot their first photo shoot while doing something dangerous/outfit destroying. Although, come on does NO ONE see the fun in jumping into a big foam filled TV? I would do that WITHOUT being on a reality show. Far less dangerous than the tank of water, where one could legit drown, like last season. Those girls should be throwing some serious shade at the Season 6 girls.
Before we go further, let’s meet these first 7 contestants, shall we?
- Adore Delano (or Danny Noriega for those of you that watched season 7 of American Idol. Seacrest!)
- April Carrión – Latin, so cute. Seems a little vapid, but that could be a language issue. She calls herself a cross between Bjork and Coco Rocha.
- BenDeLaCreme – a bit retro & ditzy. Terminally delightful, as she puts it, and hilarious. I’m in love already.
- Gia Gunn – Comes across as an Asian mega-bitch. That assessment will probably hold up, but we’ll see how this season goes. Her entrance purse – a pair of hula hoops with a fabric pouch in between them – is faaabulous.
- Kelly Mantle – a veteran queen who’s done a bunch of acting work. She claims she will not recite her IMDB page like some OTHER queens we’ve met.
- Laganja Estranja – A little too much reliance for that fall-down move. Knows Adore Delano, so we’ll see how that plays out.
- Vivacious – the club kid all grown up. Makes her entrance with a second head on top of her head. Her leap into the TV Pit of Foam isn’t pretty, but that head makes it faaabulous.
Ooh, and according to the RuPaul’s Drag Race season 6 page, next week we’ll meet contestant that was in Australian Idol. Will there be some kind of singing challenge perhaps? Aussie vs. American throwdown? I also assume this means Adore Delano will stay around until week 3 at least to make a little bit of that drama happen.
The American Idol tie-ins don’t stop there folks! This week’s first guest judge is Adam Lambert! Glambert Nation! Squeeell! Please tell me no one out there is still under the delusion that he’s straight? We’re past that now, right?
The first runway challenge is to create an outfit that is their interpretation of a TV show. As the mini-challenge winner, Laganja Estranja was in charge of pairing the other girls with a TV show. Of course some girls are happy with their selected show, like Gia and the Kardashians and others are disappointed, like April with Duck Dynasty.
Another unhappy queen is Adore Delano. She wanted The Golden Girls soooo bad. But alas, her frenemy sticks her with Honey Boo Boo. Waahhh! Let the complaining continue!
Naturally, April does really well with Duck Dynasty. Adore on the other hand creates a sparkly mess. It’s bad but Honey Boo Boo isn’t exactly the epitome of style, so she’s still safe.
BenDeLaCreme wins this round with a fun campy dress that she could sell to the judges, complete with a small cheesecake.
Bottom two: The 2 vets – Kelly Mantle and Vivacious. While neither queen did well in the challenge, I’m expecting some serious performing chops in the lip synch for one’s life. Sadly they’re kind of blah. I mean, Vivacious, you were a club kid. You should be busting this out. Maybe it’s the editing, I don’t know but the energy seems really low for both of them.
In the end, Kelly Mantle should just recite her IMDB page cause she’s going home. It’s for the best really as Vivacious is definitely the more unique of the two. And now that we’ve seen the first 10 minutes of next week’s episode, we know that the 2nd batch of queens also has a club kid in the mix. Hmmmm…. 2 club kids. 2 former reality singing show contestants… I wonder what other pairings are in this mix of contestants on RuPaul’s Drag Race? Only time will tell. See you next Monday.
I don’ t think you’re reading too much into it…I mean they gave Adore the “sketti” bag…was she actually suppose to use it?!?! I’m about 1000% they pulled that from the garbage! And yeah, Gia is getting set up to be the “Roxxxy” of the season, so she she better start showin some humility and FAST, she has no idea what these bloggers and posters can write, they can be downright cruel! I hope Ru warned them for that, like you better hope you’re the hero and not the villain cuz you cannot win it with the fans! Gia is givin me attitude but with a lip-sync…I’m not sure what she’s gonna bring, I think she’ll stick around for a while, at least from the previews it seems like she will and from all their Meet the Queen videos, there’s a couple that can sashay away before her! I really can’t wait til Week 3, when they all meet up, I wonder if they’re gonna be cliquey and stuff like 1st week vs. 2nd week wars. They better meet in drag 2, I want them at their best to size up their competition, plus the shade will be real, I just can’t wait!!!!
I would assume Gia is well aware of what has happened to queens like Roxxy and Phi Phi Ohara. Having a stanky attitude may just be her thing. Or a shield. I don’t think any of the clips have shown her having a breakdown. She may not have one or it’s so dramatic they don’t want to spoil it.
Only a few hours until episode 2!
Truth….some bitches….are just bitches…but I’m still holdin out that theres more to her, plus there’s a few queens from their Meet the Queens vid I think I want to go first…..
Only a few hours…I’m so excited…Ru really did know what he was doin makin 2 premiers, I feel like I’m watchin last week ru-vamped all over again!!!
I thought the same thing for their lip-sync…definitely going on the books as not the worse, but middle of the road which is actually VERY bad in the drag world, As Ru says, the S word (safe) is not a good word to be. I mean if you’re going to fail…fail fantastically, I mean it’s drag…going to far left…might actually be right! I Love BenDeLaCreme…backin Bendela for the Win-dela over here, the fact that she put the cheesecake with her ensemble…GENIUS, it’s details like that, that win competitions. And can we talk about Adore GLUING her dress to the mannequin, now that was comedy, I’m no drag queen but as a fan of the show, if you’re going to compete at LEAST have your hot-glue skillz down pat, you KNOW the first challenge by now is always CREATE AN OUTFIT! The fact that she was safe I think goes to the C in what Ru’s looking for, and if her personality wasn’t shining she woulda been in the bottom but Kelly and Vi for as much as experience as they had it didn’t pull through and I think that’s why they were up. This splitting it up is GENIUS, and it’s gonna put more coins in the first fallen queens pockets because we get to know them more than a total of 5 minute snippets. When you have more than 10 contestants on anything, you get lost in the fold, this is great, Ru is not playing, with no immunity, when Ru says “bring me your best”, she’s super serious!
P.S…I know Laganja was bit much, but she is Alyssa Edwards daughter…I’m guessing she told her you better make an impression on the judges! And you have to kinda love that out of ALL the entrances queens have made, she’s the only one who’s busted an iconic dance move in the door! Too bad it was wasted by only like a few of them being there, I wish there had been some more dancing queens there and gage their reactions!
Also hilarious…Adore falling when the She-mail sign was sounding!
*Gia throwing MAJOR shade at Kelly…it was mean but pretty funny
*In boy form, they are stepping up the casual clothes look, no more just chilling sweats like in previous seasons, they are putting on a show in and out of drag. Much appreciated.
Oooh, I hadn’t seen the Laganja was in the house of Alyssa Edwards. Thanks for the info!
And I totally agree – especially for Adore. She’s been on another reality show for crying out loud! It’s not like she didn’t know that American Idol would have a Motown week. In that same vein, she should know that Drag Race will open with 1. falling into something for the mini-challenge AND 2. sew something for the main challenge.
And it’s not like Ru won’t mix that up someday, but eventually a drag queen’s gonna have to sew something when she appears on the show. In the words of Latrice Royal – Good God Girl Get a Grip!
Yep, Ms. Estranja is the daughter of Drop Dead Gorgeous Alyssa Edwards and drag sister to Shangela….just a dancing house!!!! Not that I want her in the bottom to Lip-sync but I’d kinda enjoy seein her perform and “eat a stage”! BendelaCreme is besties with Jinkx Monsoon 2, that’s not why I love her though, I can already tell she’s different than Jinkx but I am feelin her just the same as I was Jinkx when she first got in the house. She oozes talent, I really can’t wait to see what she brings!
P.s…I kinda felt Vivacious shoulda won cuz of the materials they gave her for the GoT costume…I mean I know the show is known for its revolutionary costumes but what the heck is up with all the sparkly purple polyester…felt like a setup…she should’ve wore the dragon!
Also, Adore need to sit next Ben so she can pick up some hot glue skillz, cuz theres always at least one more creative outfit challenge in store. I mean, like you said, Ru will change it up but there’s some fundamentals that will always be there Create and Outfit and photo shoot, snatch game, and the music video, if you don’t come prepared for those then you’re gonna be in the bottom!
True dat!
I kind of think all the girls should’ve gotten some kind of pass because the materials a lot of them got did look crappy. Unless that was part of the challenge. Perhaps there was better quality material in each bag and part of the test was can you pick the good material over the bad. Maybe? Am I thinking about this too much?
I too am looking forward to the final lip-synch for a lot of these girls. Except for maybe Gia. Although the way her ‘character’ was set up in the first episode, I am looking forward to seeing her sashay away. I think she’s going to stick around for awhile though.