TV

Drag Race leaves fans gagging for the wrong reasons with abysmal Snatch Game and frustrating twist

RuPaul

RuPaul. (VH1)

Drag Race’s season 14 Snatch Game may well have been the worst in herstory.

Historically, the Snatch Game has always been the highlight of any given season. It’s a time for comedy queens to shine, wallflowers to bloom and pretty girls to crumble much to our amusement. But this season’s instalment left viewers feeling anything but amused. It didn’t really leave us feeling anything, actually.

At the top of the episode we met the queens back in the werk room, still reeling from last week’s double shantay which saved both Jorgeous and Jasmine from elimination. Deja Skye was feeling emotional from consistently placing in the top but never yet managing to snag a win, and Daya Betty was typically bitter about Jasmine’s unwavering presence in the competition. She says she has yet to see the queen do anything fantastically and, try as we might to to avoid ever siding with Daya Betty, this is largely true.

After a spot of product placement for a soda drink and a mini challenge that involved the girls fashioning outfits out of coloured bubble wrap, RuPaul announced that this week’s maxi-challenge would be the highly anticipated Snatch Game.

Any queen worth her salt is painfully aware of how make or break this point in the competition can be, and sure enough the season 14 cast came prepared with what, for the most part, sounded like well thought-out-concepts.

Willow Pill announced she would be spoofing Drew Barrymore, which felt like a recipe for success for the queen who has so far performed strongly in comedy challenges. Jorgeous told RuPaul she would be taking on Ilana Glazer of Broad City and immediately we were scared for her. A chat with Ru convinced Lady Camden to pivot from her original plan of playing William Shakespeare to instead opt for William Shakespeare channeling Joanna Lumley.

Before we knew it, we were off over on the Snatch Game set with special guests Dove Cameron and Drag Race alum Raven, and quickly, things went downhill.

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The ones we knew would bomb sure enough sucked just as bad as we anticipated – Jorgeous and Jasmine (Betsy Devos), that means you.

Lady Camden as Joanna Lumley-Shakespeare felt misguided, and frankly the funniest thing was Jorgeous mistaking Shakespeare for Beethoven in her confessional commentary.

Even the typically funny queens struggled big time. Willow Pill as Drew Barrymore should have been so great –  in her talk show host era, Barrymore is practically a walking parody of herself and Willow is a more than competent comedic actress, but nothing landed. As Michelle Visage put it during judging, she might have nailed the star’s voice and mannerisms, but it was just boring.

Despite a very dodgy English accent, Daya Betty as Ozzy Osbourne wasn’t the worst – but only because there was such stiff competition. Angeria, as Tammie Brown, and Bosco, as Gwyneth Paltrow truly gave us nothing – and did we mention how terrible Jasmine and Jorgeous were?

In the end Deja snaged her first win – essentially by default – for her adequate turn as Lil’ Jon, which comprised of little more than her saying ‘Yeah!’ repeatedly.

The runway category was Holy Couture which produced to some seriously loose interpretations. Most queens chose to interpret the theme as ‘worship’ with Willow Pill strutting her stuff in a fungi-inspired look she said was an ode to her love for shrooms. Deja Skye gave us Joan Jett of Arc, Angeria gave us Dynasty housewife at church on Sunday and Daya Betty took a tumble in a “Frankensteined wedding dress” look that she had the cheek to compare to a Judas-era Gaga.

Lady Camden echoed her ‘Jack of all trades’ Snatch Game in a cheap looking costume store hybrid of all five Spice Girls that feels like neither one thing or nor the other. Bosco gave us slutty nun, and sure, she looked hot, but is at risk of becoming over-reliant on that body. Jasmine Kennedie, to her credit, genuinely served in an astrology-inspired dress and dramatic headpiece.

When it came to judging, RuPaul and Michelle played the parents who aren’t mad but disappointed to perfection. Often it feels like Ru and the show work too hard at convincing us the plainly unfunny is actually hilarious through faked hysterical laughter and over-the-top praise, so it was a relief to see them acknowledge what a lead balloon this entire episode was.

 

With Deja declared winner, everybody else found themselves in the bottom. And in a twist, Mama Ru revealed that all seven bottom queens will have to battle it out in a lip sync smack down to decide who is eliminated – but not until next week.

At this point, RuPaul’s flagrant disregard for the rules and format is starting to grate. Without a weekly elimination, it’s hard to feel invested in how these queens progress in the competition. Can you believe that at the start of next week’s episode it will have been three weeks since a queen was sent home? And lest we forget, the golden chocolate bar is still at play, guaranteeing us yet another week that will stall the competition. There can be no such thing as too much Drag Race, but half of the fun is seeing the competition get tighter as weeks go by – right now, things are feeling a little crowded.

Drag Race season 14 continues next week with the lip sync Lalapa-Ru-za, and hopefully, an elimination.

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