Season 13, Episode 1 - "The Pork Chop" discussion
 

It's starting girls!!!!

"and may the best drag queen win" caught me off guard, guess they're finally warming up and changing to be more inclusive

also nnnnnn @ them getting 6 licensed songs for the first episode. RIP to the budget. (I assumed they'd just get 6 Ru songs again)

Does he say may the best drag queen win bc there’s a trans woman this year?

Yeah, plus Gottmik is a trans man (out of drag) so I guess the pronouns were getting a bit of a headache.

Re: the lipsync... the edit is setting up for a Kandy win but I honestly thought Joey did slightly better :shrug: Kandy relying on a Monet fake-out to excuse the fact she doesn't do much else, isn't great.

They must have chosen this format to test what the new panel would like on a tv screen? Or something COVID-related? It's so bizarre, lmao.

I agree, I thought Joey was better. Mandy relied on comedy most of that lipsync

...honestly, I’m not ready to lose queens from the werkroom when we’ve only just met them...I mean, neither really lip synced for their lives, they were too dazed and shocked for that...what on Earth...

She was super lucky she had a giant prop already on hand, because that did most of the work for her :laugh:

...I hate so much that Queens are often judged on first appearance etc...and there Ru is, promoting the exact same...I’m cross that we’re going to lose some without getting to know them...

...I’m CROSS...

Is the first ep just lip syncs then?

Honestly that’s low key boring

I believe so yeah

looks like the uk one cannot start airing soon enough.

I find Kandy Muse to be annoying already. :shrug:

joey jay having the most annoying voice on drag race ever confirmed?

Oh good, makes sense I guess. Still looking forward to it though

Laganja remains unbothered

a close 2nd

Putting my views in SPOILER tags because apparently it still isn't on Netflix or something.

Interesting way to split the contestants in half, looking forward to some actual looks next week. Awful with names but collectively a cute bunch

The sheer drop in quality from the S12 premiere to this one :( like... sure, 12 was pretty much untoppable... but god this was a chore to watch. It's not that it's a dumb twist that serves little purpose (well, that is a factor too) but just going through the exact same edit 6 times in one episode, having to listen to every pair (or trio) of queens make the exact same reactions, and the stakes never really being that high anyway because anyone with a brain knows they aren't sending home 6 queens in episode one, for a season of 7 others to carry on with the rest of it... made this very boring indeed.

Not to mention repeating bloody lipsync songs :oh: we've already had 'When I Grow Up' before.

The other choices were odd... Elle King and Lindsay Lohan were not ones I'd considered getting chosen some time soon. As for the lipsyncs themselves... some were good! Some... were average.

Symone vs. Tamisha was the stand-out, both were excellent and could've feasibly been a double-shantay were it regular. Denali vs. Lala was tough, too. The threeway was decent... I'm struggling to remember the others but I think the right queens won with the exception of Kandy.

I'm quite drawn to all of them... I was expecting not to like Elliott but she's quite sweet. The only one I'm a bit iffy on is Rose.. might be a little too much ego and barbs for episode one, not really sure.

It did feel that even Ru looked bored with the repetitiveness...I’m not sure if it was just my TV but the werkroom shots were fine but the main stage lipsyncs were all quite blurry and dodgy, awful quality to watch...

I'm guessing the fact 3 lipsynced proves the rumour that a 14th queen was disqualified before the show even begun (supposedly a New York queen embroiled in some inappropriate performances where she took an audience member's phone and showed the crowd their personal photos)... I'd imagine if it was indeed this NY queen, they would've gone against Tina Burner for the storyline (like Rose vs. Olivia)

...do you mean because there is an odd number as they are now...?...I was thinking that the 13 Queens was because it was Season 13...will the ladies really vote one out next week, I don’t like this...

Anyone else find this episode a chore to get through?

It was repetitive and obviously the first episode is always the time where the queens are full of themselves then get some reality check one challenge in. So that made it a bit tough sometimes to follow.
The songs choice was...a choice, but eventually it wasn't terrible. I think what helped is that the results were fair overall. I do agree with Shaun for Kandy, she really should not have won this one.

And yes there was a 14th queen that got cut right before they entered the werkroom. I read she was already in LA and ready to go in, don't know if that's completely accurate.

they should've either made it a 2 hour premiere or had these lipsyncs be an online special episode or something because that was SO tedious to get through

I really didn’t like the format either, I hope it doesn’t return. Why do VH1 insist on churning so many episodes a year out :skull: literally nobody would have cared if that episode didn’t air.

Symone & Gottmik stood out the most to me as my potential favourites but I liked pretty much everyone. Rosé has overtaken Pearl too for hottest out of drag.

I don't think the format worked at all, tbh. It would have been better if they did it like the AS4 Lipsync episode. They should have all met each other and then be paired off into lipsyncs afterwards.

Most of the lipsyncs outside of Symone vs Tamisha were mostly average, and I thought the result for Gottmik vs Lidl Thorgy was pretty wrong since I thought the latter did better than Gottmik.

I think my early faves are Tamisha, Symone & Rose.

Oh wow and it was

"Don't let the smooth taste fool ya, baby" is probably my favourite entrance since Nina Bo'nina's. Nothing OTT, just something unique and effortless and immediately charismatic.

Part of me misses the queens just walking into the room without a catchphrase prepared, just doing the old "hi!!! omg ____? (queen they recognise from home)"... I know a lot of modern queens get ribbed for being overly-prepared and self-edited, armed with catchphrases, etc, but the majority don't annoy me. I don't know what I'm saying here.

Who said that?

I can't remember much of the entrances, tbh, the format kinda made them all blend together for me.

Legend Symone!

We love a drunk Shaun :joker:

But I get it. My husband randomly rewatched the two premieres of season 6 last night and I got along with it. It was so refreshing because of the organic feel to it but also the constant shade that would probably cause death threats and "cancellation" if it happened today.
But indeed the overly-prepared catchphrases are not bad so we'll take it.

It's funny because Katya and Trixie invited Violet in their podcast The Bald and Beautiful last week and they all agreed that the show peaked at S6 and that S7 was the turning point between "old drag" and "new drag".
The queens are now more prepared, they know what the show is about, it's less organic now etc Basically they said the show became a parody of itself.
Now I don't completely agree, but I agree too. I don't know what I'm saying here either :joker:

Come to find out Joey Jay is a top and his nudes are out there lmao

....messes...