RuPaul's Drag Race: Season 1, Episode 6
For the sixth season of the Drag Race next year, can they just repeat all the first season's challenges? Like, everything? I want to see another vogue-off, please, please. Do another Oprah challenge--maybe this time you can get the Queen of All Media herself to show up. Hose off some of the queens on the hood of a fancy car. Seriously, this season has had a lot of magnificent, funny, crazy challenges. More voguing. What is a drag show without voguing? (And yes, that's how you spell it. Wikipedia says so.) Even this Absolut challenge was pretty good. I always love this point in the season--The "Ball" episodes serve up a ton of gorgeous runway looks. The Absolut theme gave each queen a distinct color palette, which was surely a huge challenge for some of them, but I was impressed with the vivid looks they came up with. (Which made it hard choosing which ones to draw!)
Also, I want to see more random celebrity appearances in the workroom. Did they even explain why Charo showed up? She was magnificent. It was fun. More of that!
I took this episode as an opportunity to finally draw Rebecca, because she was pretty stunning. Maybe some of the detailing of the dress was overdone and a little corn-y, but I can conveniently leave those elements out of my illustration! Art is magic.
There's been a lot of orange this season. When I think Lost Season, I think orange. But Shannel pulled off the color smashingly--I especially loved her Executive Realness and Swimwear looks. They had a youthfulness and lightness that sometimes gets lost in Shannel's more theatrical, overwrought outfits. The long, dark hair and whimsical headdress/hat/hair poof she sported for the swimwear ensemble were just too striking to ignore, so I had to draw 'em.
I'll reiterate that Shannel is the greatest character of Season 1--everything you'd want in a reality TV star. Ego, looks, talent, and a flair for the theatrical.
In re-watching this episode, I was blindsided by Shannel's choice to kick herself off--a twist I had totally forgotten from my first viewing years ago. She seemed to have a change of heart and gave a good lip sync, but I can't help but dwell on the fact that two of the nine contestants this season, Tammie and Shannel, burned out and expressed interest in leaving the competition.
Maybe it's nothing, but I'd speculate that they just didn't really know what they were getting themselves into. It was the first season of this crazy show, so it was an unknown quantity. Each queen has their own scene, their own clubs, their own audience. Most of them had been doing their own thing for years prior to the show, and so they were most likely shocked at how unfamiliar the Drag Race set was, how different it was from their past experiences. I can only imagine that the shooting process of this show was grueling and surreal, with an unclear pay-off. Who knew if anyone would ever watch or care about this show?
Obviously, after running for so many seasons, I like to think that queens know what they're getting themselves into when applying for the show. But... I'm not so sure.
In any case, I should get around to my final piece for this episode: Bebe!
I was just struck speechless by Bebe's raspberry-themed looks. The sleek, simple dress with that severe, Japanese-inspired hair. She had, by far, the most imposing challenge with those fickle little raspberries, but her use of them was smart and elegant.
This queen is good.
Just... gagging.