S15.E05: House of Fashion

[theatremouse]

The queens must turn home decor into haute couture; actress Janelle Monae guest judges.

[Starchild]

Boo. I was more invested in Amethyst than STDs.

Wait...

[davidcalgary29]

These stupid forty minute episodes are letting all the tension out of the series. I wanted to see sewing shenanigans! Design drama! Muslin meltdowns! These design challenges just aren't a lot of fun if we don't get to see who gets run over by the Struggle Bus on the way to victory.

All the garments were just okay. I actually liked Mistress' the best, but whatever.

[30 Helens]

I am rapidly losing interest in this season. I don’t feel like I’ve really gotten to know anyone, and what little interactive time the queens get seems to be mostly staged drama. It all feels rushed, superficial, and devoid of any real heart or substance. If there is real talent here, I’m not seeing it, and that’s probably due to a lack of production support. I’m almost to the point where I give MTV one last chance to impress me, because so far they’ve really fucked it up.

I will say that, having watched a lot of old Project Runway lately, I was kind of amused by the Unconventional Materials challenge, along with Ru’s admonition to “make it cohesive!” Too bad Tim Gunn couldn’t pop in for a cameo.

[violet and green]

42 minutes makes the foreshadowing seem really obvious. "You've been in the bottom twice..." I was rather hoping the foreshadowing around Aura Mayari (whose garment in the three seconds I saw of it looked very bottom two to me) with the repeated "drama" around Spice ranking her lower than Sugar the week before would play out instead.

Each episode now feels like a long trailer for an episode, rather than an episode.

[Glade]

Marcia was better than Mistress in the Snatch Game, sorry not sorry. I guess the team selection scene was cut in the edit, along with much of the fun.  Spice's makeup story about the dolls made me think of the tv show Chucky.  I'm surprised that Spice was safe, but I guess not disappointed; the house of Visage was really bad, except (unfortunately) for Luxxe.  This was the correct bottom 2; Jax had the more complete look, and that blanket reveal was pathetic.

[littlebennysmom]

4 hours ago, davidcalgary29 said:

These stupid forty minute episodes are letting all the tension out of the series. I wanted to see sewing shenanigans! Design drama! Muslin meltdowns! These design challenges just aren't a lot of fun if we don't get to see who gets run over by the Struggle Bus on the way to victory.

All the garments were just okay. I actually liked Mistress' the best, but whatever.

Mistress' outfit was fantastic!  Give us that boobs up to her chin Michelle!

[Ananayel]

I'm not watching Untucked because it's not right after. These episodes should be 90 minutes, plus Untucked for a 2 hour block. I'm  not a TV exec, but even I can see it. If they're not careful they're going to end up killing this show. Though maybe that's the plan, I don't know. 

About the only thing I have to say about this one is that I'm liking Luxe Noir a bit better. 

[davidcalgary29]

1 hour ago, Ananayel said:

I'm not watching Untucked because it's not right after. These episodes should be 90 minutes, plus Untucked for a 2 hour block. I'm  not a TV exec, but even I can see it. If they're not careful they're going to end up killing this show. Though maybe that's the plan, I don't know. 

 

They really should make two edits of this show: one for the MTV crowd (whomever that might be in this day and age), and the regular edit for us streamers. I'm just sort of shocked that this type of serious editing mistake has emerged this late in the game: don't they preview these episodes before they air them?

[Starchild]

I read in a review somewhere that the shorter episodes have lost the mini-challenges, and I hadn't consciously realized that, but it must have been contributing to my cognitive dissonance.

I miss Untucked (in Canada we get the show on premium cable, Crave is bundled with HBO, but we don't get Untucked). I came to Drag Race late, and watched seasons 1-14 on demand. For all the previous US seasons I would find Untucked on YouTube after each episode for that extra context. They were usually "best of" excerpts strung together by international fans. But at least it was something. Now the show will be long over before I'll get to see even that. :(

For those who don't watch non-US series, there's a mini-Untucked during the episode, between judging sessions.

[violet and green]

I read the Ru and co were not made aware by MTV until they had shot their episodes that they were only getting the time they have, so had to edit down what was planned to have been a 90 minute episode (with ads) to this kind of hacked down 41 and a half minutes of actual show. Untucked being screened after some other crap show no-one actually wants to watch has just made it even more of an afterthought by the time it airs.

[SemiCharmedLife]

I liked the twist they put on the design challenge, having the teams work within a specific aesthetic and coming up with a cohesive collection.  I might be crazy, but I liked the House of Kressley looks a lot, even Jax's.  They seemed fun and sporty schoolgirl, with the exception being Salina.  Hers was not good, but she deserved to stay, based on the lip synch and the fact that Amethyst has been in the bottom three times.  When I watched Sugar's interview on Whatcha Packin', she said that Spice designed their outfits and Sugar sewed them, so I knew there would be a bit of drama regarding Sugar's sewing ability.  Sugar said she intended to help Spice with the sewing challenges.  Oops.

[Lethallyfab]

I am not immune to the charms of future EGOT winner Janelle Monáe but I thought it was extremely fishy (and not in the good drag way!) to have an entire challenge centered around Carson’s lewks and not include Carson himself at the judging panel.  I do have to give this show a lot of credit — it took two queens who I previously primarily found irksome and irritating (Carson and Ross) — and made them actually endearing on the judging panel.

[Kaboom 2.0]

On 1/28/2023 at 4:54 AM, littlebennysmom said:

Mistress' outfit was fantastic!  Give us that boobs up to her chin Michelle!

This is exactly what I thought too, Mistress was giving me vintage boobalicious Michelle. 

Maybe Amethyst just needs more time to perfect her drag but honestly it was her time to assist away. Selina reminds me more and more of my one cousin that ALWAYS needs to be heard from the other side of the house. Turn the volume down, girl. 

[joanne3482]

18 hours ago, Lethallyfab said:

I am not immune to the charms of future EGOT winner Janelle Monáe but I thought it was extremely fishy (and not in the good drag way!) to have an entire challenge centered around Carson’s lewks and not include Carson himself at the judging panel.

Agreed. It's probably the Project Runway watcher in me, but I was disappointed they used and had access to so much real fabric. I feel like so many of these unconventional challenges in the past had more non-fabric options that they had to make do with. (Sponge dress...) 

I also hadn't noticed no mini-challenges and that's disappointing now that it's been pointed out. As a whole this season is disappointing. I wonder why they went to MTV. Were they getting too expensive for their previous channel I wonder?  I love the show The Challenge and watch it religiously, but they get an hour and a half and that is way too much time for them most of the time. Ru Paul's Drag Race should get the same amount of time. 

Edited January 30, 2023 by joanne3482

[Salacious Kitty]

Speaking of mini challenges, they did Reading in this episode. I think fans would have burnt the house down if they removed it. 

[Rai]

Yeah, but it was practically just one read per queen. That's not enough!

[Starchild]

Yeah Snatch Game and RIF were so early this season. I guess there's been complaining that not enough of the girls get a chance to show their stuff if half are gone by the time those challenges roll around.

[sugarbaker design]

On 1/31/2023 at 1:49 PM, Rai said:

Yeah, but it was practically just one read per queen. That's not enough!

The unaired reads were most likely shit.  Thank you judicious editors!

[Rai]

Disagree! We'll never know what got cut, but they seemed pretty competent.

Also, there's a lot to learn when they bomb too. I haven't fully signed onto the complaints of how poorly edited and rushed this season is with the shorter time frame, but cutting down essential challenges is not good work.

[Gabs66]

By this point I had my favorites. I barely know the names of anybody yet. I have loved this show since day 1, but it took me 6 days to watch the entire episode, as short as it already is. I miss my show.

[Ananayel]

It's quite strange for me to be so dis-invested in a season of Drag Race. I watch, but I don't get involved, and I don't even remember who gets eliminated the next day. This season started off with far too many people to do extra-short seeming "1 hour" episodes where parts of the format where we get to know people are cut, and splitting Untucked away was a horrible idea. Also, there is some talent among this cast, but I'm not having a gut reaction to anyone. Possibly because I still have no idea who some of them are! Whoever decided to move this to MTV should be fired.