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Season 18 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” has left fans divided and frustrated with confusing judging, unexpected eliminations, and forced storylines. Was this truly the most rigged and unpredictable season yet? We dig into what went wrong and what it means for the future of the beloved drag competition series. Is the show at a turning point or can it still sparkle like before? Stay tuned for the full breakdown.
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00:00I hate it like I hate my father, and I really hate my father.
00:03Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're taking a microscope to the state of Drag Race in the wake of
00:09its controversial and confusing 18th season.
00:11Well, I gotta say, I've always wanted to do Snatch Game Vatican, all of the fashion, none of the fun.
00:20Season 18, the most rigged season yet?
00:23Meh.
00:25Oh!
00:26The dust has settled. The confetti cannons are empty.
00:28Mikey Meeks has been crowned America's next drag superstar.
00:32Season 18 has been one of the most unpredictable in Drag Race herstory, and fans seem divided on whether that's
00:38a good thing.
00:39The group one girls are over in a corner, huddled up like a peewee football team, having conversations with one
00:47another about how the voting is going to go down.
00:49In years past, the show has earned its fair share of criticism.
00:53Viewers have disagreed with the judges, complained about production interference, criticized unsatisfying edits, and mourned queens who left too soon.
01:01For many fans, this year was the moment all these problems reached critical mass.
01:05So what went wrong? And can it be fixed before Drag Race jumps the shark?
01:10Can't squabble this opportunity.
01:13Squabble is not the right word for this context.
01:16I think she meant squander.
01:18Drag Race, the beginning.
01:20In 2009, way back in the Middle Ages, RuPaul's Drag Race had a simple premise.
01:25It spoofed America's Next Top Model and Project Runway and filtered it through RuPaul's own career,
01:30adding a heaping dose of camp, irony, and fabulousness along the way.
01:40There was enough drama, personality, and insight to make up for the lack of budget.
01:45Its popularity exploded a few seasons in, attracting a bigger audience, bigger guest stars, and bigger budgets.
01:52I'm on RuPaul's Drag Race Season 9, and Lady Gaga is in the same room as me.
01:58Over time, the editing got slicker, the show was eventually bumped from Logo to VH1 before landing at MTV.
02:05And that is to say nothing of the international franchises.
02:08Drag Race was no longer a reality competition spoof.
02:11It was the real thing.
02:13You are the 21st century global identity.
02:16A shiny example of when different cultures come together with open hearts, open minds, and 10 pounds of makeup.
02:25We can change the mother-tucking world.
02:29How We Got Here
02:30A bigger mainstream profile meant the show had to change.
02:34Fans watched in real time as the competition became more serious.
02:37RuPaul's persona, while always positive and uplifting, became more like a cool spiritual guru than a kooky drag mentor.
02:45Show it.
02:45Show it.
02:46I will.
02:47The tears, the bits that you may be ashamed of, do it here.
02:51This is your new home.
02:53I'm your new mommy.
02:55The humor pulled less from pop culture and more from the show's own past glories.
03:00Editing styles became more obvious, with fans becoming aware of the ways queens always seemed to fall into old and
03:06stale archetypes.
03:07Thank you, Max, for wearing another hair color.
03:10But you know what I miss?
03:12This is the gray hair.
03:13I think you look fantastic, but I think you look normal.
03:16While the main show started to become a slick and efficient machine, Untucked started looking more like 60 Minutes.
03:23Even devoted fans can't help but feel the fun is being wrung out of the show year after year.
03:28It's a deep, complex, and difficult art form that you all have given yourself over to.
03:34And the costumes and then the presentation and then trying to come up with a character.
03:39I mean, my God.
03:39It's wildly impressive.
03:41What makes a bad season?
03:43Season 18 is not the first to pull some mixed reactions.
03:47There's a long and storied history of seasons underperforming in the eyes of the fans.
03:51Season 7, despite an unusually strong cast, was let down by bizarre acting challenges.
03:57Tastes like burning.
04:01Basic witches, not wanted.
04:10Season 11 was taken to task for some underhanded judging and rigged bottom placements.
04:15Season 13 took four episodes to send the first queen home.
04:19Kamara Hall, while you are leaving us too soon, you will always be a part of the Drag Race family
04:28tree.
04:31Now, sashay away.
04:33Season 14 introduced an underbaked mechanic to save queens after they lose the lip sync.
04:39One pattern emerges.
04:40The quality of a season rarely depends on the cast.
04:43The fault usually lies with production.
04:46It's chocolate.
04:48I'm sorry, my dear.
04:50What the fans think.
04:51Week after week, season 18 seemed to generate conversation for all the wrong reasons.
04:56You're here to find love.
04:59Have you ever been in love?
05:01Maybe a few times, I have.
05:03You don't remember?
05:07Yes, I...
05:09Oh my God.
05:11With the exception of a few highlights, such as the Snatch Game and the season's Roast Maxi Challenge,
05:16there was a sense that the challenges were getting redundant.
05:19The judging, particularly during the perennial drag family resemblance challenge,
05:23drew major pushback for being confusing and constantly shifting the goalposts.
05:27You know I'm going to tell you I'm not getting family resemblance.
05:30The style of the dress is different.
05:32The jewelry is different.
05:34You have to give us something that would make us believe that you're related apart from the same hair color.
05:40Jane Doan's elimination seemed to come out of nowhere despite her obvious frontrunner status.
05:45Most of all, the narrative and editing didn't do much to justify the final four queens making it to the
05:50end.
05:51By the time the season ended, there were more questions than answers.
05:55Now just remember, win or lose, the secret to long-term success is the ability to work well with others.
06:03Inconsistent Judging
06:04There's a lot to be said about how Rue and the judges shift the goalposts from season to season,
06:09and sometimes even queen to queen.
06:11You being an Amish conservative woman should have continued to play throughout the whole skit.
06:18Because there's so much to be done with an Amish conservative character.
06:23That's where the comedy was.
06:24Season 18's judging was wild.
06:26The erratic and confusing critiques just did not match what we were seeing.
06:31Things came to a head with the ever-frustrating makeover challenge.
06:34Apparently, as Jane Doan and Nene Coco found out,
06:37drag family resemblance means looking exactly like their makeover partner.
06:41And even though they are gorgeous and you both look amazing,
06:44you did a beautiful time delivering it,
06:46it's not a family resemblance.
06:48It's certainly a change from previous years where similar looks were seen as a negative.
06:53Rue's understandable but often baffling favor toward Discord atoms
06:56stands out as well.
06:58It's a wonder Rue didn't throw in a walk-like Discord maxi challenge just to give her a win.
07:02You're doing something with your shoulders.
07:04Whatever you're doing with your shoulders, do it with your hips.
07:07Keep your shoulders straight.
07:08Can you do this?
07:11Don't do your knees together.
07:12Forced storylines and showdowns.
07:15Eliminations are not always about the quality of the work.
07:18It's about pushing storylines forward.
07:20Convenient showdowns such as drag relatives Athena Dion and Juicy Love Dion's lip sync for your life
07:25are part of the show's DNA.
07:27I'd like to be there when the day comes.
07:29You know I'm always here so don't ever be a stranger.
07:34To a degree, messing with some placements for story purposes
07:38is completely necessary for a coherent narrative.
07:41But the limit does exist and maybe season 18 found it.
07:45The eliminations of Mia Starr and Jane Don't felt more like plot twists than organic developments.
07:51Being a part of RuPaul's Drag Race is a dream come true.
07:54Ru, thank you.
07:56You...
07:59I'm gonna cry.
08:01Um...
08:03Just thank you for seeing something in me.
08:06Finalists Nene Coco, Darlene Mitchell and Mikey Meeks were surprising choices
08:10given how little screen time they got in the first half of the season.
08:13Next week, you'll be facing off for the title of America's Next Drag Race Superstar.
08:19But for tonight, you can just sit back and enjoy the show.
08:23Okay.
08:23Darlene, may I see a dessert menu please?
08:26Eliminating a frontrunner.
08:28Jane, my queen, you are a star.
08:33Never take don't for an answer.
08:37Now, sashay away.
08:40Imagine if Bianca Del Rio went home because she wore different versions of the same dress every week.
08:45What would have happened if Derrick Barry actually won that lip sync against Bob the Drag Queen?
08:49Jane Don't had three wins and zero bottom placements going into the 13th episode.
08:54She was a frontrunner.
08:55So why was one improv challenge enough to send her home?
08:58I did not want to do this.
09:00Everybody in my Facebook, in my Facebook groups is gonna see this.
09:03You can play that game, baby.
09:04They're gonna see this.
09:05You can play that game, baby.
09:06How very dare you.
09:07How very dare you, ma'am.
09:09You know what?
09:09This is an occupational hazard.
09:11The late season shocker threw everyone for a massive loop.
09:15From confusion to outrage, the response was loud and instant.
09:19At least Jane seems to have a very zen attitude about it all, saying, quote,
09:24no one is entitled to win Drag Race.
09:26I did my best, and I killed it, and I think I deserved to go to the end, but this
09:36has been
09:36really amazing, and I love these girls so much.
09:39What's the story?
09:40The elimination of Jane Don't may have made the end of the season unpredictable, but
09:44it also revealed the problem with the season.
09:47Now that the girl who was kind of sweeping, like, she's not here.
09:51It's a tight race.
09:52Anything can happen.
09:52Anybody's f***ing game.
09:54None of the narratives we were told throughout the season had any payoff.
09:58The premature ending to the Dion family rivalry, Briar Blush's stunted villain arc, and the
10:02relative underdevelopment of Mikey Meeks as a character made everything feel lopsided.
10:07I'm Mikey, mother f***ing Meeks.
10:10I worked incredibly hard to get to this position.
10:13I'm turning that volume all the way up, and I'm about to prove to these girls you messed
10:18with the wrong one.
10:19In the best seasons, the queens seem to drive the drama, even if that's not really the case.
10:24The interpersonal dynamics felt forced by the edit, with interpersonal conflicts and
10:29pivotal character arcs that were never resolved.
10:31It makes the finale weaker, and that's not fair to the final three.
10:35The ground is shaking, you know?
10:37Like, I am a finalist of RuPaul's Drag Race season 18.
10:42The judges have still never seen me lip-sync, so clock that tee.
10:46Where do we go from here?
10:48With another all-star season in the can and season 19 allegedly filming, RuPaul's Drag Race
10:53shows no signs of stopping.
10:54This season, we're going full throttle.
10:58So bring on the beat, turn up the heat, and put the pedal to the metal.
11:03That's great news for fans and lovers of the art form.
11:06But the production team might need to take a massive look inward and decide if they're
11:10going to prioritize storytelling over twists and gimmicks.
11:13I am fully expecting that there are going to be a lot of whispers around the room, a
11:18lot of I've got you, you've got me.
11:20I'm expecting this to get messy.
11:23A cast of queens as good as this one deserves better.
11:26Only time will tell if this is a low point the series can come back from, or the moment
11:30Drag Race jumps the shark.
11:31Who knows?
11:32Maybe 18 will become one of those seasons we miss when season 26 isn't giving like we
11:37wanted to.
11:37They like me!
11:39They really like me!
11:41What's your verdict on season 18?
11:43Tell us in the comments.
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