The RPDR Social Media Rusical was Great, FIGHT ME

I have been seeing so many people diss the Drag Race Season 13 Rusical, and I truly don’t get it. For the first time in my life, I’m about to throw down some bonafide unpopular opinions.

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1. This is not the cringiest Rusical, and even if it were I don’t care. I don’t tune in to Drag Race for literary masterpieces, as, consistently, the quality of writing is the absolute worst part of the show, even on good seasons.

Does anyone watch RPDR for the quality of the script writing? Because if you do, you are going to constantly relive the emotion you felt when Rock M. Sakura sashayed away so early: utter disappointment.

A great example of this is the Empire skit in Season 8. The group that stuck to the script was almost unwatchable, but when Bob adlibbed the script it was suddenly funny. Additionally, Naomi Smalls and Chi Chi did well, but it was because of the enthusiasm they brought to the role and the way they played off of Bob’s energy, not because of the awful writing. All I can say is that the Shakespeare challenge in Season 7 made it clear these writers are not, in fact, Shakespeare's appartition risen from the grave.

For the Rusicals in particular, the scripts are generally hot garbage (that’s not even to mention the vocal recordings, which are cringey as fuck). Madonna The Rusical was good, but this was an exception, not the norm. I dare, nay, double dog dare you, to think back to a single Rusical in which the writing was the primary draw, not the production value or performances delivered.

So, we’ve established that the quality of Rusical writing and concept design is mediocre at best. But perhaps, Social Media The Rusical is the worst of the bunch, right? WRONG. Feast your eyes on Trump the Rusical. Season 13’s Rusical did not have a modicum of the cringe of that monstrosity, and I'd rather drink a Nalgene filled with piss than watch it.

Glamazonian airways was also the lowest of the low, and unfortunately that was partially because of the unfortunate level of performance delivered. On the other hand, the performance in the Social Media Rusical was above average.

Another example of this phenomenon was Kardashians the Rusical, which was extremely split in quality of performance. Farrah Moan, who had a relatively well-written part, was boring. Yet, Shea Couleé, who had basically no lines, slayed (sorry Miss Nina Bo'nina Brown). This goes to show that Rusicals are really resting on the talent of the queens, not the production. At least the Season 13 queens were interesting to watch and captured my attention (with a few exceptions).

2. The only people who were bad enough that they were actually boring were Symone and Elliott. These are also the only two where I genuinely cringed.

Despite her lack of stage presence, Kandy actually got a good recording. It was very high energy in the vocals, and for me this saved her.

In my opinion, Symone was the absolute worst, even more than Elliott, because she completely phoned it in. She even made pounding her pussy into the stage look boring. It’s a shame because Symone is my favorite to win right now, but she needs to get her act together.

3. The worst thing about this Rusical was Olivia’s increasingly sweaty tank top and faded jeans.

That look was... Choices 2020...

4. No one will ever be as Broadway as Rosé unless Leslie Odom Jr. himself walks this runway.

They should just stop having Rusicals after how fucking BROADWAY Rosé was. On one hand, the vocals were obviously pure theater, and she also had a great use of spoken parts within the singing. However, the thing I was most impressed by was her body language. It was so full of energy, and all her movements were carried out to the full extension of her limbs. I direct your attention to the way she snapped her head around at the end. Or, the way she turned opening an umbrella into a full-body movement. That is THEATER, BABY.

5. I don’t believe this was written by boomers.

I’ve seen this comment a lot, but I don’t think boomers know about QAnon and Pizzagate. More likely, it was some sleep-deprived Millennials that thought it’d be a good idea to say “like Democrats hate Israelis.” Yikes.

6. Denali was safe in my opinion.

Don't come for me, I really like Denalia. In fact, she's in my projected Top 4.

It’s not that she didn’t do well, but unfortunately she was paired with Gottmik, whose facial expressions and body language were excellent. Also, Gottmik’s runway was better (was it not just a better version of Denali's failed crash text dummy from an earlier runway???), and overall Denali got somewhat cancelled out by Mik’s incredible performance.

I saw how hard the producers tried to give Denali a plot line in this episode, but it’s a no from me. They could have given her the plot line she was due earlier in the show, when she was actually doing well—like in the dance challenge for example!! They robbed her when she was doing well, and then tried to hype her up when she was more middle of the road? Not on my watch. NOT ON MY WATCH.

Also, was her accent even Russian…?

7. Utica did a really good job here, and she picked a great character for herself.

I wanted to point out that Utica WAY pulled back on the weird faces she usually makes. She showed much more strategic placement of that kind of comedy, and clearly listened to the judges when they gave her that critique. We love to see it.

8. Tina somehow managed to make the boring, narrator-ending-song interesting (looking at you, Milk), and yet was still robbed.

That hobbling walk she did when she said, “back in my day.” When I tell you I cackled. ALSO, what is up with all these backhanded compliments people are throwing, like, “I don’t like Tina, but she was robbed.” Excuse me, if I were her I’d be crying reading that type of comment.

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Overall, I’m not trying to defend the writing or concept of this Rusical, or say it’s good. I’m saying that people are bitching about it way more than they should be, considering that the writing is not even in the top ten reasons to watch Drag Race. Also, the performances that the queens delivered were higher quality than I usually see on this show, and they overall delivered a great performance.

For the love of God, get off Twitter and just go watch Drag Race UK if you want good content.