Drag Race Season 17 Premiere, Here’s Our Take

RuPaul's Drag Race Season 17 Premiere, Here's Our Take

Well, RuPaul's Drag Race season 17 is here! And it was met with...well, a tepid reception. A quick sweep of comments on many social media platforms mentioned the premiere was (these following words whittled down to the basic idea) meh, was fine, was just okay, and was lacking. A popular post suggested the show implement more older queens who have a legacy in the community and who have been "battle-tested" to up the ante. Other comments included things like viewers want to see queens with actual talent, not just "look" queens. Still, many other comments stated that there are just too many Drag Race iterations out there and that the franchise has lost its luster. Ouch. Those are pretty abrasive comments toward a show that has done more than its fair share to bring queer stories and art to the mainstream spotlight. Whether you think the franchise has tarnished or not, you have to give credit to a show that has won 29 Emmys (no other reality show has earned that many), inspired 15 spinoff shows, and made drag a household reality around the globe. That being said, we did watch the premiere and we have our first thoughts. Warning, this post includes SPOILERS!

 

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The Drag Race premiere, which seemed to last longer than a Ridley Scott film, featured a creative beginning with a parody of Squid Games titled Squirrel Games. The new contestants were peppered among popular Drag Race alumni, including Mayhem Miller, Trinity the Tuck, and Kerri Colby among many others), in a take on the first game of Squid Games, Red Light, Green Light. Legacy queens were eliminated with pies to the face as the final 14, this year's contestants, remained posing. Little did they know that this was a candid mini-challenge, their frozen poses were photographed to determine the winning lewk.

Take a look at our rundown of this year's contestants, but as a refresher, they include:

• Acacia Forgot of Los Angeles, California
• Arrietty of Seattle, Washington
• Crystal Envy of Asbury Park, New Jersey
• Hormona Lisa of Chattanooga, Tennessee
• Jewels Sparkles of Tampa, Florida
• Joella of Los Angeles
• Kori King of Boston, Massachusetts
• Lana Ja'Rae of New York, New York
• Lexi Love of Louisville, Kentucky
• Lucky Starzzz of Miami, Florida
• Lydia B Kollins of Pittsburgh, Pennsyvalnia
• Onya Nurve of Cleveland, Ohio
• Sam Star of Leeds, Alabama
• Suzie Toot of Fort Lauderdale, Florida

The returning judges are the usual cast of characters, Michelle Visage, and a rotation with Carson Kressley, Ross Mathews, and Ts Madison. To start things off with a bang, this episode welcomed Katy Perry as the season's first guest judge. Damn, Katy looked good. Unfortunately, the judges did not directly critique the contestants in this episode. The winner of Drag Race season 17 gets $200K and a year's supply of Anastasia makeup.

 

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We are thankful they didn't copy the last few seasons' formula of splitting the introduction of the cast into two parts. As the contestants entered the Werk Room, we can see right away that the season boasts a cast that is racially and body type diverse; it also includes trans representation. Did anyone make us totally gag with their entrance? Unfortunately, no. Queens ranged from goth to glam to classic to pageant looks and personalities. The latter seasons have started to include goth and more avant-garde queens, perhaps taking a cue from the growing popularity of Dragula? Do any of the queens have a leg up this season? Sam Star comes from a Drag Race alumni family and has pageant wins under her belt. Hormona Lisa was handpicked by RuPaul during Ru's book tour, although some contestants think she forced her way to an invite. P.S. Lana Ja'Rae won the mini-challenge and a $2500 tip.

 

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Are Crystal Envy and Kori King the trade of the season? After the girls took off their makeup, we saw plenty of body-oddy-oddy. Also, Crystal has that competitive energy, fierce comments, and looks of shades...she may be the villain of season 17.

 

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In the Werk Room, we've already had our first boo-hoo moments of the season. We don't say boo-hoo as a slight, Drag Race has given voice to many queer stories and the boo-hoo moment is where the audience gets a peak into the reality of the drag queens' life. Lucky Starzzz revealed her family is in near poverty, Jewels Sparkles has a bionic spine from surgeries in her youth, and Joella had a breakdown after meeting Katy Perry.

 

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The queens took the runway for the first time for a Masc4Masc theme, a take on the Masked Singer. In our opinion, Lydia and Onya were misses. We liked Jewels, Sam, Kori, Crystal, and Lucky. Check out the looks here:

 

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However, the queens were not sent home or awarded based on their runway looks. Rate-A-Queen is back, and in the first two episodes 7 contestants will perform in a talent show and the other 7 contestants will vote and determine who has to lip-synch for their lives. Um, let's talk about the talent show. So, apparently, lip-synching to an overproduced track is a drag talent? Isn't that just basic drag? Some of the queens were imaginative. Acacia sang live and Suzy tapped a choreographed number. The rest were pretty much regular drag performances. In our opinion, Joella, Lydia, and Arrietty really missed the mark and failed to impress. Although it was just a heightened drag number, Lucky Starzzz stole the show with a lemonade rap and squirting costume, it reminded us of something Jimbo or Plane Jane would do. Jewels and Suzy were announced the top choices from the votes and had to lip-synch for a $5K tip. Jewels established herself as a lip-synch assassin, but surprisingly Ru chose Suzy to win. Acacia was in the deep bottom and has to lip-synch against next week's bottom vote. Here's the battle between Suzy and Jewels:

 

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Sorry to say, if you don't have cable and don't have a chance to catch an episode live, you may SOL in trying to keep current with this season's Drag Race. Paramount+ and Hulu only have past seasons, you can purchase episodes from Prime for about $1.99. They are heavily advertising to watch the show on Philo, which is a streaming service with many other channels starting at around $28 a month. Did the premiere knock us off our feet? No. Did it make us check our watch a few times? Yes. Are we still proud the show has made such a splash? Yes.

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