“Snatch Game” calls, and the All Stars answer—unless they have nothing, nothing, nothiiiiing to say
One queen stumbles and another falls flat on their face as the queens strut toward the finish line
TV Reviews Snatch Game
Snatch Game of Love is an odd challenge. The format simply doesn’t work as well as the mothership’s Snatch Game, but it’s also more challenging, giving the queens less time to prepare punchlines and placing them on a set where it’s much harder to hide their props (and themselves). When a queen succeeds, it’s still a lot of fun, but even the most memorable successes are somehow muted. But when a queen fails hard, it’s every bit as viscerally mortifying as it is on Drag Race proper—and while we get some highlights in “Snatch Game Of Love,” we also get a flop for the ages.
Trinity K. Bonet is having a great run on All Stars. Despite falling flat on her face this week, that remains true. Her Whitney Houston look is great, but to call her performance a stumble would imply that she’d ever gotten on her feet. Yet what an entertaining failure it is. Because she brings her straightforward and steady werkroom energy on stage with her, Trinity somehow fails delightfully. Everyone knows it’s happening! It’s not hidden! She doesn’t try to pretend otherwise! Put Trinity’s disastrous Whitney in the Drag Race Hall of Fame next to Yara Sofia’s Amy Winehouse, Utica’s standup routine, and Monica Beverly Hillz in the children’s TV challenge. I loved every minute of it. And apparently so did she: “I feel like I should feel bad, but I don’t, because I enjoyed myself and I had a good time.”
Trinity sure is lucky that a) she’s on a hot streak and b) someone else stumbled too, even if the gap between the worst performance and the second-worst isn’t particularly small. But most of all, she’s lucky that Pandora obviously doesn’t enjoy herself, and does not have a good time.
“Speaking of choking,” Kylie says to Trinity (a wonderful response that typifies the good-natured shit-talking vibe that’s emerged between these queens), but if anyone chokes here, it’s Pandora. Pandora’s stumble is nowhere near as epic as Trinity’s. She’s prepared, she lands some punchlines, and her timing remains spot-on. But there’s a lot going on with her, and it bleeds through in the performance. Pandora is so fun, and her Kim Cattrall just isn’t fun.
It’s understandable that Pandora would feel a lot of pressure for this challenge. Her first (and until today, only) Snatch Game performance is a classic, and as Ginger proves in her bottom-two chat with Pandora, she hears about it all the time. How many fans say “scurvy” to her? How often is she asked about not winning that Snatch Game? Throw her episode-opening fraught exchange with Eureka in the mix, plus that stressful elimination tie, plus her understandably flustered reaction to Eureka’s Divine (very well done, but wow, a lot) and you’ve got a bunch of not funny stuff swirling around in the ether. No wonder her Kim Cattrall falls so flat.
But at least Pandora has one advantage on Trinity: she’s not sandwiched between two top-tier Snatch Game performances, each good on their own and better together. This would have been the perfect time for a double win, but Ginger squeaks past Kylie with her excellent Phyllis Diller and typically sharp punchlines. A solo win for Kylie would also be appropriate and welcome, because she benefits from the “exceeds expectations” boost, a la Alexis Mateo as pregnant butch Alicia Keys and Tatianna’s Pandora-besting Britney. Her Dolly Parton looks incredible, she lands nearly as many jokes as Ginger, and the “song” she writes for Cheyenne Jackson and plays on her nails is a total delight (and will be “available on iTunes, eventually”).
But while Kylie and Ginger are the clear top two (and Ginger just as clearly the winner of the lip-sync—sorry about the wig, Heidi! Love you!) it’s possible that the biggest laughs of the night arrive courtesy of Ra’Jah’s LaToya Jackson. It’s not a legendary performance, but it’s an incredibly savvy one, as Ra’Jah plays to an audience of one. The number one goal for any Snatch Game is not to make everyone laugh. It’s to make RuPaul laugh. And Ra’Jah certainly does. (Her beat was perfect, too.)
After a good-not-great runway (too similar!) the queens head back to the werkroom for another of the frank, funny conversations that have come to define this season of All Stars. This is a room of adults talking trash and having fun, and while it may not be rife with conflict, it’s certainly entertaining. It’s reality television that feels much more like actual reality than the werkroom chats typically do, offering a glimpse into what it might be like to be backstage with these excellent entertainers, all waiting to go to work (and werk) and kiki-ing with their heels off. It’s a vibe that suits Pandora, who surely gained some new fans thanks to this top-six run on All Stars — if only for her episode-ending response to the stale-as-breadcrumbs game-within-a-game reveal. Let Pandora have sex, people! Bring on the twist so a legend can get it on in peace.
Stray observations
- Kate’s Corner: “Snatch Game Of Love is not my favorite, but it definitely puts the All Stars through the wringer. On regular Snatch Game, with a few extra seconds to think and write answers, TKB may have been alright. Here, she was the clear weak link, while Pandora was the Latrice of the group, thrown by the answers of the other queens. Everyone else had a pretty solid night and Kylie straight up slayed. I was happy with Ginger’s win, though, and if this prompts viewers to seek out Phyllis Diller, all the better. This is a strong, competitive top five—hopefully the season will stick the endgame!”
- Untucked: The downside of this season’s werkroom vibe is that Untucked isn’t always riveting. Ah, well.
- Might be editing, but wow, Eureka is not feeling Pandora’s vibe, huh?
- “There’d be a lot less glitter in my anus.”
- My gif-t to you:
29 Comments
After a good-not-great runway (too similar!)It was certainly the Night of a Thousand Andy Warhols. It was disappointing to see that few of the queens chose to illustrate the fact that pop art goes beyond repeating cartoon headshots, although the self-branding was clever. TKB’s was the only look that really impressed, although most of the looks were good; I particularly appreciated the fact that she took the theme to her makeup to create a caricature of her face. I’d have loved it even more if the concept was fresh and new, but I can’t help thinking that it was heavily inspired by Luis’ political cartoon on Skin Wars.Eureka’s runway was unflattering, although I liked the latex bodysuit. Ra’Jah’s looked like she made it on set.
Yes, I was sad the queens went so shallow with their interpretation of pop art, especially when it’s such an important element in queer performance. TKB had a beautiful gown, that makeup idea I’ve seen done better at Halloween parties, but I appreciated her bringing pop art into things relevant today.
TKB referenced Lichtenstein, but I wish some other queen had thought to do Keith Haring, or Murakami Takeshi, or maybe even David Hockney. Doing Warhol’s lithographs is just lazily reaching for the first idea. It’s even more telling when you realize all three of them did the classic mod silhouette. At least Pandora added some Lictensteinian speech bubbles
Keith Haring would have been so cool, maybe production should have assigned them an artist. But you think they would have been like “ok everyone is going to do a basic Warhol, what can I do?” So yah, TKB nailed it in that sense.
I gotta say, I didn’t care for Eureka’s Divine, and could easily have seen her in the bottom (especially as I didn’t enjoy her runway look either). It’s not that she did a bad impersonation of Divine, it’s just that it didn’t play well in the situation. She wasn’t really reacting to the material she was fed, she was just saying any “outrageous” thing she could and stepping over Pandy’s lines. TKB, meanwhile, didn’t seem as bad to me; she may not have been getting laughs, but she could have been three times as funny and not been able to compete with Ginger and Kylie.Speaking of, I really thought it should have been Kylie for the win. Ginger was, predictably, great, but I felt that Kylie was just killing it with Dolly. She got everything right, down to that Dolly top-heavy totter, and when Ginger threw out the reliable but not exactly fresh “I haven’t seen my feet in years” fat joke, Kylie lobbed it back cleverly. Plus, Kylie’s runway look was stunning.
Speaking of, I really thought it should have been Kylie for the win.Agreed! I fast-forwarded to the start of the Snatch Game so I could try to guess each of the queens’ characterizations without being told in advance. I had no idea that Ginger was playing Phyllis Diller; and what Ginger had to do with props, Kylie instantly achieved an unmistakable Dolly Parton through the timbre of her voice, her looks, her mannerisms, and sharp wit. That’s a winning performance.On another note, what’s Michelle been watching? Kylie’s been killing it all season.
I think some people, Michelle included, thought that at the start Kylie was only serving body-ody-ody. (And I mean, she sure is serving that.) But as far as I’m concerned she’s proven she’s much more than just a beauty queen – she can sing, dance, make ‘em laugh. Babe’s got it all.
Ginger was smart to choose someone that the /panel/ would get. You can also see where Ru goes for the person that play closest to her wheelhouse. Little Edie and Marlene Dietrich were both excellent performances back in their seasons for Jinx and Sasha, but if the audience had to pick the winner, it is very possible many wouldn’t get it. At the end of the day, Ru is the one you have to play to and Ginger is smart that way.
At the end of the day, Ru is the one you have to play to and Ginger is smart that way.That’s absolutely true. And while it’s also true that at this point this is something that every queen should know, and play to, it’s nice that most of them don’t do this in the end. Ru was busting a gut at material that simply wasn’t that funny, and ignored some of the subtler work that was better-constructed. If you take Kylie and Ginger out of the mix, and ignore RuPaul’s reactions, the rest of the contestants were fairly evenly matched. I’d even go as far to say that Pandora, who made several clever (if not hilarious) references, did better at the challenge than Ra’Jah and Eureka, neither of whom were funny.
Agreed, this was Kylie’s win. Ginger looked beautiful in her lip sync though.And yes, Divine does some vile shit but there was always a warmth to her performance that Eureka missed.
Someone commented last week that Eureka’s been phoning it in this season, and that’s not completely wrong. I’ll suggest, though, that Eureka’s performing more like a hired hand than someone who’s completely invested in the outcome: she’s there to do her job, in the most professional manner possible, and then she’s going to go back to her own television show. I’ll also say that she deserves a lot of credit for returning to AS when she doesn’t need the gig. She knew that she could’ve been given a terrible edit, and that that could have ruined her side projects, but she chose to come back anyway. That’s something that even Bianca hasn’t had the balls to do.
It definitely feels like something she’s doing to pass the time while her HBO show is on a pandemic hiatus.Not that she’s not giving it, she just seems like she’s there to have fun and isn’t too stressed about winning.
Yeah I respect Eureka for coming back and then not acting like she’s suddenly above it, she definitely has a healthy level of gratitude to Rupaul. But yes, I think the Divine impersonation could have been wittier because a lot of it felt rehearsed instead of actually responding to the situation, she’s a tricky character though because she’s already such a pure form of satire.
That’s something that even Bianca hasn’t had the balls to doI mean, why would Bianca do All Stars? Bebe I get, it had been over a decade and she won the smallest prize but Bianca absolutely doesn’t need it.
I do not get the high praise for Kylie. She’s middle of the pack to me. Ginger for the crown!!
Eureka also already did Divine on S10 in the “Evil Twins” challenge. And when I say “Divine”, I mean “Babs from Pink Flamingos” and not something even more fun, like Francine Fishpaw in Polyester, which is probably my favourite Divine performance. And lest anyone suggest that she was simply “inspired” by Divine in “Evil Twins”, I’m going to point out that she approached both stage characters with the same voice, mannerisms, and aggression. Divine certainly portrayed more than one character on screen, and if you’re going to impersonate her on more than one of your Drag Race seasons, you should too.I don’t think Eureka should have been knocked for doing the same character again, but I was a little disappointed.
Meh.Kylie should have won, though Ginger did do well.Eureka just wasn’t an enjoyable Divine IMHO; despite nailing the look and mannerisms, there was no mirth to her characterization.
Sadly, I knew my dear Pandora was doomed from the start of the ep.This runway was by far my least favorite, maybe ever; as a life-long artist myself, I FUCKING LOATHE WARHOL. (Talk about a mediocre White man ‘failing up.’) That so many queens seem to have no other reference for pop art is incredibly disappointing. (Seriously… none of them ever heard of Pollock or Lichtenstein???)
That said, I LIVED for Trinity’s take on the theme combining it with BLM; that look was everything.
Yep, we’re back to the incorrect queen chosen as the winner. Ginger was funny but Kylie was just as funny and she got the impersonation down to a T. Ginger’s impersonation just felt more generic. Poor Trinity didn’t stand a chance stuck between those two queens but she had by far the best runway. Not only did it look better but a big part of pop art is the social commentary aspect of it and she was the only one that went there. I’m stealing this comment from the Pit Stop but Rajah’s outfit looked like it was the last thing she packed before getting on the plan for this gig.>(Seriously… none of them ever heard of Pollock or Lichtenstein?I’m not an artist but Trinity’s looked to be in the vein of Lichtenstein.Eureka was just way too extra and it really took all the energy out of the bit, and not in a good way. Farewell Pandora, she’s always gonna be a legend.
Trinity’s looked to be in the vein of Lichtenstein.Good point; it was.Just seeing so much Warhol lazily referenced made my blood boil.
Kylie’s Dolly was perfect except for the voice. All the mannerisms etc. were perfect but Dolly has a unique high pitched sweet voice and Kylie just talked like she usually does
Surely Pollock was an abstract expressionist. And did Liechtenstein ever do anything other than rather second-rate reproductions of the work of better artists?
Trinity had the best runway look by far. Unfortunately, her SGOL performance suffered enough that no runway look could have possibly rescued her from the bottom.Also, because I do love a good play on words, I was hoping to see someone do a pop art interpretation of a soda can.
I was hoping to see someone do a pop art interpretation of a soda can.I’m afraid that would have triggered too many deeply buried memories of that horrid soup can runway from AS3. Let sleeping dogs lie!
Yes; Improv and comical impersonation are not TKB’s strong suits, sadly. I was hoping to see someone do a pop art interpretation of a soda can.Now see, that’s what I’m talking about ~ thinking outside the Boxx; I would have gotten my second life if Pandora had come with a fierce soda can runway look. that would have triggered too many deeply buried memories of that horrid soup can runway from AS3. Not like that, obvs; you’re right, that challenge was Pure-D Awful, and I had intentionally blocked it from my memory.
After years of coming into these comments and seeing people complain that RPDR has become too gentrified/too straight/not queer enough etc. I would’ve thought folks would be praising Eureka not simply for doing Divine at all but for doing a genuinely transgressive, upsetting, anarchic Divine and not making the character more friendly to current sensibilities
*shrugs
I can’t speak on anyone else’s opinion; just my own.
And personally, I just didn’t care for Eureka’s version of Divine; regardless of the times or what other people may think.Life goes on.
It’s already been said, but Kylie deserved the win over Ginger.I’d have jettisoned Eureka. Her performance was over the top in a bad way, and her look was weak.
Pop art was a great runway category and i wish it was saved for a regular season where there were more queens so that we could have gotten a more substantial runway than these imaginatively stunted ideas.
I love Ginger and want to see her crowned, but even I was disappointed that Kylie didn’t win this challenge.