I for one love RuPaul's Drag Race and have been obsessed with this show for almost ten years now. However, I need to make a very real confession on where I'm at with it currently:
I need a very, very long break from this show.
2018 has been the show's busiest and most consistent yet, starting in late January with All Stars 3 and going all the way to the end of June with season 10. That's five straight months of RPDR. There's been no breaks in between either, as we went from one season to the next with no time to really get ourselves situated for another group of queens.
Now there's all these rumblings about who will be on season 11 (got officially renewed earlier this week) and All Stars 4 (we don't even know when this is happening yet), and as of right now, I truly do not care.
Here's the deal: All Stars 3 ended horribly. We all know this. It was not Trixie Mattel's fault that she won, nor was it Shangela's fault that she lost. But it ended on such a sour note that some of us are still bothered about to this day.
Then we had season 10, where the best thing to come out of it was a queen who was eliminated in on the first episode (Vanessa Vanjie Matteo). See where I am going with this? It's being nothing but mediocrity and the show is potentially losing its luster, IMHO.
The first five seasons of the show helped develop its strong fan base as its popularity grew each and every year. Season 6 of RPDR remains its pinnacle for so many reasons, as it produced a flock of incredible talent (Adore Delano, Bianca Del Rio, BenDeLaCreme) in the process.
Then season 7 happened, which was an absolute catastrophe minus a handful of fantastic queens (Trixie, Katya). The show then redeemed themselves in season 8 as it produced a very likable final three and winner at that in Bob The Drag Queen.
The show sort of turned a new leaf when it moved to VH1 and earned millions of fans in the process who have never seen it before. That renewed spirit was felt during season 9, and ended on such a strong note with a legendary finale that saw Sasha Velour dramatically take home the win after her two unbelievable lip sync for the crown performances.
The thing with all these seasons though, good or bad, is that there were breaks in between. It gave the current group of girls to enjoy their shine. I know there's more than likely not going to be anything new with the show until next year, but you don't want to ruin too much of a good thing.
My hope for this show going forward is that they take a couple of years before doing another All Stars season. Let the season 9 and 10 queens marinate in their success so that they can build on it. If this is done every year, then the concept of All Stars is completely lost and it will just be another hodgepodge type of group with no real reason for being there in the first place.
Also, for season 11, please find better challenges for these queens to do. So many of the scripts make no sense (BreastWorld), and doing things like weirdly decorating a cake doesn't necessarily show off the talents these girls have. Creativity is key, and it just seemed completely null and void this go around.
If the show overall just fine tunes some things without overdoing them, then it can easily go on for many years to come. But it shouldn't become a force-fed situation when what they are putting out there isn't too fantastic to begin with in the first place.
This 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.
I was ready for a very long
I was ready for a very long break before it ever started. Just the ads are nauseating enough.
Thanks. Just don’t watch it.
Thanks. Just don't watch it.