The husband and I sat down to watch Ru Paul's new show on Logo, Drag U, last week. Being big fans of Ru Paul's Drag Race, we were very excited to see the new show, if only because it brings some of our favorite queens back to the mix like Ongina and Nina Flowers. While the show was fabulously campy and perfectly low budget, I have to say that it rather annoyed me at times, but I'll get that in a moment.
The basis of the show is that Ru Paul has recruited his favorite (or the fan favorites at least) drag queens from the past two seasons of Drag Race to give biological women drag make overs. In the first episode they transformed three deliciously tomboyish ladies into wonderfully draggy divas! As I said, it's campy, as a show about drag queen performers almost has to be, and fun, as a makeover show should always be. But what was missing was the chance to focus on real human drama.
Some of these women had some serious psychological issues with being feminine. One wanted to spice up a failing marriage and another blamed her former femininity as the reason for being sexually assaulted. And while the producers made mention of these things, they chose not to focus on what their drag transformation might do to positively impact these women, which is a HUGE missed opportunity. That is real drama and the chance to show that these drag divas are more than just stereotypical drama queens was completely missed. Instead the producers focused on made up, scripted, trite "drag drama." "This bitch stole my wig," or "that gurl called me fat" were unnecessary additions to this show and only served to undermine the potential of it.
I was also slightly bothered by the judge's panel. These women are trying to make themselves feel better about themselves and having the judges rate them afterward really undermines that ultimate goal of helping these ladies. If they feel the need to judge anyone, they should judge the queens assigned to the women, as they are the ones ultimately responsible for the new look.
What is great is seeing the family and friend's reaction to their loved one's transformation. Getting a make over from a drag queen is quite different than getting a make over from the Queer Eye team. I also really enjoyed the bits of human drama that were tossed in. I also really like that this is a show that has the potential for a full season filled with cast members I actually like. Speaking of, I do really LOVE seeing my favorite divas again without having to look at that vicious Tyra Sanchez again.
All in all, it's a decent show. I hope to see more variety as the season progresses and I hope they take the time to change up the focus, but I'll give it a few more episodes before I give a final verdict.
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