I stated last week that I’m pretty much over All Stars 4. I still would’ve said that regardless if the queen who should’ve won the whole thing, Manila Luzon, hadn’t been eliminated. This show has quickly become overkill in terms of how often it’s on, and the special aspect that it used to have is starting to dim regardless of how talented these queens are.
That being said, we reached our penultimate episode on Friday night. The beginning of it was about how some of the queens were shocked about Naomi Smalls’ choice to send Manila home. Turns out… Monet would’ve done the same thing. So the season 3 finalist and overall legend was screwed no matter what. Meh.
The maxi-challenge is another tired formula that this show does practically every season: a spoof or parody. This time it’s Sex and the Kitty Girl 3, which… I don’t even have to say the iconic program they are referencing.
This spoof, just like the one they did for AS3 (My Best Squirrelfriend’s Dragmaid’s Wedding Trip) was bad. The judges acknowledged this too. It was painful to watch minus a couple funny moments from Trinity the Tuck (sex-crazed Kim) and Monique Heart (the girl who fell out the party window. Kristen Johnston much?). I felt bad for Felicity Huffman, an Emmy award-winning actress, that she had to sit through such a mess.
Trinity and Monique were in the top, which meant everyone else (including Latrice Royale) was in the bottom. Spoiler alert: Latrice got sent packing again after Trinity won the lip sync to Janet Jackson’s classic “When I Think of You.” Love Latrice, we all do, but it didn’t make any sense for her to be top four just like it would’ve been pointless for Morgan McMichaels to do so in AS3.
So now we are left with our final four… which I would’ve never predicted when the season began. I had my sights initially set on Manila and Valentina in the end, however one was screwed and the other appeared to just give up. So it’s Trinity, Monique, Monet and Naomi battling for the crown? Meh. Meh.
For me, it’s Trinity’s game to lose… with Monique and Monet right behind her. Naomi is great, but they barely gave her a winner’s edit let alone an edit this season. Come to think of it, no one really had that great of a winner’s edit from my POV… so maybe they did that on purpose so the audience couldn’t clearly figure out who scored the win in the end?
Trinity statistically did the best. She’s still criminally underrated in the Drag Race universe but did so well in both seasons and was able to shine quite a bit in AS4minus a comedic slip up during the Lady Bunny challenge. If the whole “lip sync for your legacy” thing didn’t begin in season 9, she would’ve had a better chance for the crown as the final two should’ve been her and Shea Coulee that year (still love all four finalists though).
Monique and Monet have had shining moments, but to me they oddly cancel each other out. Maybe because they came from the same season and aren’t as seasoned as some of the vets before them. I said this in the past: you can’t be an All Star if you just came off the show. You have to build an audience for years, become known for something other than a sponge or a brown cow, In order to even qualify for a show like this. Yes, Naomi didn’t really get much attention this time around but she’s built a huge brand in the years since her time on Drag Race with the popular YouTube series M.U.G. alongside Kim Chi and so much more.
So… Trinity for the win. Oh and season 11 premieres in three weeks, so if you need be I’ll be untucking until the next round starts right back up again.
This post was created by one of our Contributing Writers and does not reflect the opinion of Instinct Magazine or the other Contributing Writers when it comes to this subject.
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