RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7: Santa’s School for Girls
Power Rankings with P
Welcome to Power Rankings with P, a newsletter ranking cast members on the reality shows I subject myself to on a weekly basis. What can I say? I love slop.
For a season with the title All Stars, All Winners, some of these challenges have been a little lacking. "Santa's School for Girls" was not the worst acting challenge on this franchise by any means, but the performances of the queens did a lot of heavy lifting in terms of making this watchable. Mean Girls with a Christmas-themed, horror flick twist? Alwight.
We ended up with another episode where nobody did poorly - how groundbreaking! The lack of stakes are more forgivable during challenges like balls, branding, and stand-up; challenges where these gorgeous queer artists can show us what they truly capable of as drag performers. But, with half-baked challenges like this one, or the provided prompts from "Fairytale Justice," the competition loses my interest because the queens are much better than the material they have to work with. Still, despite it all, some of them worked wonders this week:
BOTTOM 2
Shea Couleé, Jaida Essence Hall
Unfortunately for Shea Couleé, her character Cady Heron-inspired character just wasn’t written to be a winning role. Every acting/Rusical challenge has these roles, so it's nothing new and certainly not on Shea for being unmemorable in the challenge. She played the role well, as did Jaida Essence Hall in her similarly underwritten Janis Ian role. Like Shea, Jaida’s character faded into the background completely for me - so much so that I was genuinely shocked she was top 4 for the judges this week. Jaida is still a frontrunner for me; this just wasn't her best week.
SAFE
Trinity the Tuck, Monét X Change, Yvie Oddly
Either and/or both Twinner(s) could’ve easily been swapped into the high placement this week - both were exceptionally funny. As the "cool teacher," Monét X Change really showed up this week. I absolutely adore Monét, so seeing her firing on all cylinders after coasting the majority of the season was a delight to see. Not only was her character funny, but Monét had the honor of acting out a hilarious and memorable death scene. Our scream queen! Pitch-perfect for the role, Trinity the Tuck was hysterical as the Karen Smith character. Every mannerism, affect, and joke REALLY worked for Trinity here, and I am once again impressed with Trinity's knack for comedy. On the lower end of the rankings is Yvie Oddly; her Regina George interpretation just wasn’t quite there for me.
HIGH
Raja, Jinkx Monsoon
Kind of unexpected, but Raja won another challenge this week! TALENT. I did not think the judges would go for her deeply stupid performance, but then again, she IS Raja - she can do no wrong. She may not be the greatest actress, but I was certainly entertained by her characterization in the overly long sketch. What can I say? She makes me laugh! Meanwhile, capital-A-Actress Jinkx Monsoon got a bit part, not one she wanted, but fucking slayed it anyway. Professional. Her demonic screech and demented delivery was a 10 for me; by far the biggest scene stealer.
WINNER
The Vivienne
Once again, The Vivienne proved that you do not fuck with the queen from across the pond. Her performance as the killer headmistress was too good for a sketch on a reality television competition show. Just an absolute masterclass. Next to Viv, every other queen was marking their way through a high school one-act play while she gave the performance of a life time. She's definitely one of the biggest threats this season, and has really held her own against the US based winners. You love to see it. And people really thought Divina de Campo ever stood a chance back in UK Series 1. HA. Thanks for reading! :)