We Are Infinite

blankingmyart:

Naomi Smalls.

Photo by Graham Walzer.

cassian-endor:

With total certainty I can say that this is the first time that Monet X Change BRING TO THE RUNWAY A LOOK!

somemanyships:

Drag Race Ruview: Ep 5, Roast in Peace.

thorsroboteye:

I’m going to keep this one short kitty girls, a fast review for a pointless, confusing episode. Seems fair no?

This week in episode five “Roast in Piece”, the queens got the chance to take some free shots at the face crack of the century, the marvellous Lady Bunny! At a fake funeral, they give hilarious eulogies that make the old bitch roll in her grave with laughter!

Before that, the queens re-enter the workroom after the elimination of Latrice by Monique Heart. The usual discussion of the results happens, shots are fired at Manila after she reveals that if she had won the lip-sync she would have given Monet the chop. The score card system is, apparently to some, sacred and if you veer off course it’s off with your wig.

Personally, to make Manila vote out a dear friend, not just someone she went on tour with a couple of times, would be completely unreasonable and cruel. As one of the girls mentions there aren’t any rules nailed to the wall, the sanctimonious BS is totally unwarranted. Manila feels this as well, so she stands, gives one of the most glorious glares in Drag Race history and then goes off to have a good cry.

Then the challenge is set and the queens are off. Now with a challenge like this the general rule is that a lot of the shows funniest queens falter and stall, see Alyssa (“Shut the hell up with your no drag knowledge mouth”) Edwards.

So the challenge begins and the funniest joke during the roast is actually seeing Lady Bunny pretending to be dead, in full drag inside a pink coffin.

There were three girls who really knocked it out of the park this week and three who took some big damage to the “score cards” they all keep mentioning as an excuse.

In the bottom, Naomi, who has been wonderful the last few weeks at comedic improv stumbled when she had to do written material, relying on old person jokes for the most part, she truly pulled an Alyssa Edwards in that the only person who was laughing at her jokes were herself. She did stomp down the runway in one of the night’s best looks, a drag tribute to an iconic angel, Prince. A clever spin as the runway theme is angelic white, she showed real creativity here. I was gooped at the references she was making, not because I think she’s dumb, but because I truly did not think she was old enough to know who Prince was, or at least know so many puns.

Trinity, who is generally actually funny, a pageant queen who rose up and showed that she had a quick wit, flopped quite hard. Her jokes were either overly complicated or lazy, her funniest being a random shot at Valentina. Her costume on the runway spoke Versace, Madonna at the superbowl, it was cute.

When Valentina gave Bunny a kiss on the tit I thought we were in for something fresh and funny but instead of serving nuanced shade she just dragged Bunny, called her a pig etc. Reading and roasting to elements, there are the insults, and there is the good-natured humour, and in that Val was lacking a bit this week. Her runway however was everything and more it was couture the house down boots. As she described the intricate beadwork and feathers and ties I was lapping up every word like yes I totally see that. She could have said the feathers were pelican and I would have eaten it up.

I could see where Trinity was going with her first joke, the selfish relative wanting the spotlight, but she fumbled, and it didn’t work in her favour. Her look wasn’t too remarkable.

The tops that made us chuckle? We’ll start with Monique, who gave us big titty, church lady awesomeness. Sometimes character acting for a challenge like this has worked in the past. Cecily Strong lived as Momo gave us the story of Jonah and the whale, where Bunny is the (sperm) whale. Her white runway was very messy. It clashed, like it was three dresses rolled into one and the big feathers didn’t work.

Monet x Change started the proceedings looking like a rich old lady in mourning with her big white glasses. Her jokes were snappy, and rapid-fire with little air to breathe, but they all worked. She had the confidence, and is one of those queens who just go for the kill shot whether it’s Bunny, or Rupaul or Stacey Lane Matthews, who made her third cameo as a roast audience member. Her look was totally a rework of Rihanna’s heavenly bodies outfit, with the extra tall pope hat, and the beautiful beadwork. Now that I am writing it I realise how similar they are. The topper was the red eye shadow and lenses, a little detail that just elevated the look.

Miz Manila gave a proper roast, not only talking about Bunny, but also turning on her fellow roasters, which, meant she didn’t have to rely on overdone jokes. Her funeral look, and repulsion at Bunny’s corpse really sold her performance. Her runway look was at a distance pretty pedestrian, but the details, her hair, makeup and the killer shoes saved it from looking too party city.

Now here is where the tomfoolery begins. Ru decides it’s going to be a bottom four, not a bottom two which, if it actually mattered in the end, would have made Manila and Monet’s choices a lot harder. I expected the twist where they each get to pull lipsticks. If they pulled different names two girls went home, if they pulled the same name.

This didn’t end up being the case, in the end, the bottom four made their pleas, there was a rather boring lip sync, a double win, no elimination, and then predictably the last four queens to be eliminated re-entered the work room in their own versions of funeral attire. I feel like this was like three different twists happening at once, and it all added up to a big nothing, and was very boring. A look at next week shows the eliminated queens picking lipsticks, so we could end up with a one in one out situation.

A clear frontrunner is emerging, Manila, and as a stan, this concerns me. Frontrunners falter, or drop out or become villains, so I am still invested in how this season will continue after a so-so episode.