Recent Articles
Ports of Call
84. Explore a canalside town
- Jun 4, 2014
Theater Review: "Sunset Boulevard" at Blackfriars
Living in dreams
- May 20, 2014
Theater Review: RBTL presents Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast”
- May 14, 2014
Recent Posts
“Doctor Who” Series 8: “Into the Dalek”/“Robot of Sherwood”
- Sep 7, 2014
“True Blood” Series Finale: “Thank You”
- Aug 24, 2014
“Doctor Who” Series 8, Episode 1: “Deep Breath”
- Aug 24, 2014
Recent Comments
Re: “"RuPaul's Drag Race" Season 5 Reunion: The winner revealed!”
Hi Kaisha! This is Eric, the writer of the blog. I have an answer for you! Between Season 4 and Season 5, All Stars Season 1 aired. It featured 12 queens from seasons 1-4 competing in a teams format. (The format was not well received by the queens OR the fans.) In the end, Chad Michaels from Season 4 beat out Raven from Season 2 for the All Stars 1 crown, which is why both Sharon and Chad were brought up for the winners' procession in Season 5.
You can watch All Stars 1 via Amazon Prime (you might have to pay). But I swear to you, it's a crappy season that generally wastes the talents of all the amazing queens involved. Even World of Wonder knows this, which is why they are apparently seriously considering bringing back some of the queens from All Stars 1 to compete in future All Stars seasons, which no longer have the team format.
Re: ““True Blood” Season 7, Episode 3: “Fire in the Hole””
I don't disagree that Paquin and Moyer are done with this show. Their performances the first two episodes of this season certainly speak to that. But I thought there was more spark between the two of them in that tree scene than either one has exhibited with anyone else this season. Was it necessarily GOOD? No, but grading on a curve, it was an improvement for both of them.
Re: ““Game of Thrones” Season 4, Episode 7: Mockingbird”
bbanke: we have only three more episodes this season, and there won't be a new one this Sunday (Memorial Day weekend).
Re: ““Game of Thrones” Season 4, Episode 5: First of His Name”
David: I absolutely think that will happen. Likely at the end of this season. That plot element is too crucial to cut out, I think.
Willie: As for Coldhands, he may NOT be crucial. We honestly don't know, based on the books published thus far. His role has been basically to get Bran where he needs to go, and to give readers a bit of mystery/conspiracy-theory bait. I do hope he comes in sooner rather than later, as I find him interesting. But there's another character involved in that arc that I'm WAY more interested in seeing, especially after reading the "Dunk & Egg" stories.
Re: “"RuPaul's Drag Race" Season 6, Episode 11: Glitter Ball”
Jessica: It's generally bad form in a lipsynch to remove a wig or shoes. First, it destroys the female illusion that is central to drag. Second, it also lowers the degree of difficulty significantly. For instance, in the Adore vs. Joslyn lipsynch, Adore pulled a move where she jump from her knees up to her feet. That is an impressive feat -- but as a drag queen, she should have been doing so while wearing high heels. (And S2 winner Tyra Sanchez DID do that move IN heels, and Ru pointedly said in the S2 reunion that that move is what cemented Tyra at the head of the pack for her. It is a very old-school drag-ball maneuver.)
The queens in S3 and S4 fell into a pattern of ripping off their wigs and shoes fairly frequently, and it became predictable and a sloppy. That has been toned down over the past few seasons. I don't know if Ru has ever explicitly said on the show that she expects the queens to keep their kit on during a performance, but she's definitely made statements to that effect outside the show.
Re: ““RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 6, Episode 10: Drag My Wedding”
Those are fair points, Glenn. I've never claimed to be unbiased when it comes to Darienne -- I openly admit that she's a hometown queen and I want her to do well. (Same was true for Pandora when she was on the show.) But I do want to clarify that I'm not hanging out with Darienne all the time or anything like that. We've met a few times before and after she taped the show. I have attended a few of her viewing parties and chatted briefly with her there. I did interview her before the show started. But the two of us aren't sitting around eating crackers and having a kiki or anything like that.
I HAVE been harping on the editors/producers a lot this season, but that's not because of Darienne. It's because the character framing has been more obvious than ever. I suspect this is because these queens weren't giving them a lot of actual drama to work with -- they all seem to legitimately like each other -- so the editors felt compelled to create "good guys" and "bad guys" through editing. Darienne got a bad edit in the middle of the season, but now Courtney is getting a really negative portrayal. And I guess my point, which I have perhaps not made clearly in this blog, is that I find that upsetting on behalf of these performers. It must be awful to do this show, throw yourself into it, and then watch and see some distorted version of yourself on television that you had NO control over.
You could argue "reality TV, bought their ticket, they DID say/do all that stuff at some point on camera." And yep, true. But unlike almost any other reality show I can think of, these queens are seriously affected by their edits in their ability to book work post-show. Ask Roxxxy or Phi Phi how their bookings compare to, say, Alaska or Latrice. A queen's character is their livelihood (or at least a form of artistic expression), and once it has been put in the hands of the editors, it can be skewed very pointedly in one direction or another. You have only to look at what viewers are posting on, say, Reddit about Courtney "being nasty" to Joslyn, and some of the really vicious things they're saying about her currently (we'll leave Darienne out of it for the moment, because as I said: admitted bias) to see how her longterm drag career might suffer because some producer thought, "Oh hey, let's make Courtney look like a bitch and Joslyn look like a delicate white flower on which she stomps her heels." That is not what happened in real life. And yet, Courtney's actual career might seriously suffer from this whole thing. And I think that's worth discussing, at least.
Re: ““RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 6, Episode 10: Drag My Wedding”
Tyler, you are awesome! Thanks!