S17.E10: The Villains Roast!

[davidcalgary29]

Our queens return to the Werkroom to mourn the end of the Season 17 Showmance between Kori and Lydia, and Lydia gets ample airtime bemoaning the "special bond" that she could only share with Kori on this show. In front of the rest of the cast, random PAs, the catering people, and custodial staff. And, in the end, millions of viewers. I'd make a cutting remark about this level delusion -- they can always hook up after, right? -- but it was a Showmance, so she's not technically wrong. The other queens treat the situation with a degree of gravity that borders on the ridiculous, but they do rouse themselves to congratulate Jewels on her first win. Which most of the them will loudly regret in a few short minutes! The Main Titles roll.

The next day, an angry and defeated Michelle -- what bet did she lose? --is teleported onto the stage for a terrible skit, aka this's week's "mini challenge". The dumb dunking tank -- I am not going to write its stupid ShowName down here -- is brought back so that all the remaining queens can be given a dunk. There's no "skill" involved, as all answers are wrong, and little joy in the proceedings. Michelle gives the proceedings all the care and attention it deserves, which is none, and this is by far the most perfunctory part of the episode. Fortunately, it improves from here, but you can tell she's only getting through this by grinding her teeth and a double dose of Xanax. I'm not the biggest Michelle fan these days, but I do feel her pain here.

Having been soaked for nothing, the queens are then given a double dose of bad news -- it's time for a Roast! This year, they'll be roasting "three of the biggest villains in Drag Race Herstory", Kandy Muse, Plane Jane, and Mistress! Oh, please -- they're not the biggest villains in the show's history, since they've all been asked back and are on good terms with Ru. They are Show Villains, the flip side of the equally boring Showmance. They weren't even villainous on their seasons -- just obnoxious and grating. I guess the "Obnoxious and Grating Filler Queen Roast" just didn't have a nice ring to Production.

Jewels gets to pick the roasting order as the winner of last week's challenge, and she makes a number of smart strategic choices that end up backfiring because everyone's tired, and they're also being kind of dumb here. We then get ten solid minutes of OrderGate, and this segment spirals into a sad pit of despair, with little comic relief, because most of the queens have solid points of view that are being distorted by Production. Lexi and Arrietty are particularly bitter, with the latter commenting that she's now "going to play the game" because she sees that this is Jewels' strategy. Really, Arrietty? You've just decided to "play the game" on a Competitive Reality Show to which you applied, spent thousands of dollars, and months of your time? Huh. I jest, I jest, but still -- huh. As the queens run around, Suzie looks smug as some her competitors (translation: Lexi) psych themselves out by having to compete with her in the Comedy Lineup. Pull yourself together, queens! 

Interestingly, all the queens float their material (or at least some of it, from what we see) in a roundtable session with the always-welcome TS Madison, and someone named Whitney Cummings, who apparently has experience with these things. It's an unusual move, as the queens get to hear their competitors' material -- and it even gives them an opportunity to steal it for their own routine! This actually happens. But more on this later!

The Roast itself is an even mix of bad and good. Onya opens the show with her usual polish, and although her jokes aren't the funniest, her timing is perfection, and she sells a number of soft lines with poise and verve. The much-touted Suzie toot, who was not given her preferred spot (first or last), matches Onya with material, and is solid. Arrietty does poorly, and decides to steal Jewels' jokes in petty revenge for the chaos of OrderGate. Ha! Jewels fumes and is caught off guard by this bit of petty thievery, but she really should have thanked Arrietty for doing a test-run of her material and seeing it bomb -- she could have conceivably pivoted to something else. Pivot Jewels does not, and she mangles the rest of her set, too. Lexi , still in her head, ends the show with a whimper, and makes up the last member of our Loserville Trio. The real surprise of the night is Lydia, who has a packed routine filled with genuinely amusing material. Lana also had some great material, but really does need to work on her delivery, which needed punch for this stage. Sam does an okay job with her routine, but it's hard to judge it, since it only seemed to last fifteen seconds or so. Where was the rest of the routine? 

Ru appears on the main stage wearing something that appears to have been inspired by that amazing credit card dress worn by the winner of the Best Costume Oscar for "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert". It's striking, and yet I don't find it particularly appealing on Ru. Michelle is present. TS Madison is lovely in green, and Whitney Cummings redeems herself in my eyes wearing a dress that appears to have been made up of the "Press Your Luck!" gameplay board. Awesome! I want to see a dress made out of "The Price is Right" motifs.

The Runway category is "Who Wears Short Shorts?" The answer is pretty much nobody, since none of the shown lewks are really on point here. Arrietty is pretty in gold; Lexi has a strong outing in denim, and Lydia changes things up my trotting out a complete disaster that looks like it was made out of cow entrails. "It's very Lydia", Michelle gushes, paying her the ultimate back-handed compliment of the episode. Jewels looks cute in a Nineteenth-century bordello homage: "Marie Antoinette", Michelle mutters darkly as Jewels struts out to the stage in chartreuse. Well no, Michelle, it's not, since that silhouette really didn't exist at any point in the Eighteenth Century. One of my favourite parts of studying 18th C lit in university was the elaborate descriptions of women's hairdos of the era, many of which were extremely elaborate contraptions built on wire cages that could include dangling vegetables, toys, scientific "instruments", and other oddities. This length process also involved hair being "fried" and "teazed" into submission, and often resulted in clumps of makeup falling off into their wearers' dinners. Some things just never change! In any case, a bouffant wig with bows paired with a Little Lord Fauntleroy suit is NOT "Marie Antoinette", MICHELLE.

Lydia, Lana, and Sam are the tops. I agree with the first two picks, but Sam could easily have been replaced by Onya or Suzie. Whatever! Lexi, Arrietty, and a humbled Jewels are thrown in the bottom. Lydia wins! Lexi is saved from the bottom two because the Judges love Lexi. I'm mostly on board with that, too.

Jewels and Arrietty are put to the test lipsynching to Beyonce's "YaYa". I'm not sure I'm familiar with this song, but it's a good one for a lipsynch, with both queens putting energy and punch into their performances. It's one of the livelier outings this season, and could have gone either way, but Jewels has had a stronger trajectory, and so Ru saves here. I doubt she's going to win the season, but it'll be nice to have her around a little while longer. Ru obviously didn't feel the same about Arrietty, who parts from the competition.

Next week: it's an acting challenge featuring "the hilarious" (to Ru) Ross Matthews and ducks! I may need a double dose of Xanax for this one.

Edited Saturday at 05:32 AM by davidcalgary29

[MsJamieDornan]

I'm not a fan of Lexi.

[BloggerAloud]

I could not believe production let a golden opportunity to do a "Who Should Go Home and Why" moment slip through their fingers.

[cpcathy]

10 hours ago, MsJamieDornan said:

I'm not a fan of Lexi.

I hope she’s not getting a redemption/winner’s edit, she’s so whiny and she’s complained in nearly every episode. I’m done with her.

[Madding crowd]

I hated the whining and complaining about the order during the roast. You have to be funny no matter where you are in the line up. Also wanted someone to call Arrietty out on stealing jokes-just a crappy thing to do. Lexi has been annoying me for a while and I want her gone now. 

[Kaboom 2.0]

I'm so happy that Lana and Lydia did so well in the roast! Honestly I didn't like either of their runways but again, I'm so happy they got tops in the challenge, hopefully this gives them a boost on the future challenges.

Onya giving mother in the werk room was lovely and what some of those sourpusses needed. I may love her even more now.

I just cannot mention the names of the two sourpusses right new, their behavior was abhorrent and I really like one of them, sigh.

So so happy Jewels stayed, she was a class act in the face of the attacks on her AND she didn't bring up the fact that one of the sourpusses stole her own jokes in front of the judges. LOVED when her lip sync opponent took off her headdress, leaving it on the stage and Jewels smoothly got down on the stage and KICKED that headdress off the stage like it was trash. Beautiful!

[BloggerAloud]

1 hour ago, Madding crowd said:

I hated the whining and complaining about the order during the roast. You have to be funny no matter where you are in the line up. Also wanted someone to call Arrietty out on stealing jokes-just a crappy thing to do. Lexi has been annoying me for a while and I want her gone now. 

Yeah the placement didn't matter and honestly the ghost of Joan Rivers could've come and inhabited Arietty's body and she still would've flopped.

[davidcalgary29]

11 hours ago, BloggerAloud said:

I could not believe production let a golden opportunity to do a "Who Should Go Home and Why" moment slip through their fingers.

New twist: "who should stay...and why?". I'd love to hear some of those answers.

[Red Bridey]

America's Next Drag Superstar should be the Whole Package: well-styled (in whatever form of drag she inhabits), intelligent, witty, sharp and funny. Arrietty is too young, too dumb and not witty enough to hit that bar. Bye, gurl. A few more years of maturity *may* help. But I won't hold my breath.

[Salacious Kitty]

She herself admitted that she's a looks queen. And we found out her puddle is otherwise pretty shallow.