Ru Paul's Drag Race All Stars Season 7 is coming to a close, and the anticipation is ramping up. With now only four remaining in the competition, fans are starting to align themselves with one of the Top 4 finale queens to shower with their love and for the next few weeks until the All Star winner is announced.
The season coming to a close has prompted a recap of the many entertaining, iconic, and sometimes plain cringe-worthy performances from the best queens of the original show. Viewers have taken to Reddit to express their opinions on which performances just didn't quite do it for them.
Shea Couleé
The Chigaco queen's entrance quote from Season 9 of the original series, "My name is Shea Couleé, and I didn't come to play, I came to slay!" still appears to ring true today as she fights for her place again in the Top 4 of RPDR All Stars 7.
Whilst many have acknowledged the success of her 90's-nostalgia-inducing performance on last Friday's episode during the Talent Show, the general consensus from fans on Reddit expresses disappointment with the rest of Couleés performance in this season so far. Redditor Fuhghetabowtit feels as though Shea has been "kinda forgettable, frankly" and therefore undeserving of her position in the Top 4 alongside Jinkx, Monét, and Trinity.
Mimi Imfurst
Mimi is a bold and, at times, abrasive queen with a marmite quality. She didn't get on well with other cast , and the choice she made to throw her lip-syncing rival, India Ferrah, over her shoulders in Ru Paul's Drag Race Season 3 got her eliminated, although it did prompt Ru Paul to remind everyone that "Drag is not a sport."
Despite these faux-pas, she was called back to the show for the very first season of All Stars. Whilst some believed she had returned with a new attitude, her past drama on the show and her reputation in real life meant she had a lot to prove, and Redditors such as Diredr don't feel that any progress was made here, stating that her desperation "made for a performance that was all over the place".
Trinity K. Bonet
Appearing on Season 6 of All Stars, Trinity 'K for Kardashian' Bone't, almost made it into the Final 4. Her time on the show came to a sad end partially due to the surprise return of Eureka! and a lot of fans feel this was unfair, as TKB would have automatically been in the Top 4 had things been left as they were.
In spite of that, some fans genuinely don't feel that Bone't was deserving. She flew high at the start, the only queen to that date to have won 2 challenges on All Stars but fell to the bottom repeatedly as time went on. Rbjindigo89 rated Trinity's performance as the worst on the Talent Show episode, stating that "TKB lucked out they/we want her back on screen so bad, because this performance really was the worst of the night."
Milk
Milk is well known for her campy looks and cheeky one-liners. She first appeared on RPDR Season 6 and came back with a punch, showcasing herself in a blonde wig and a mildly frightening female bodybuilder suit for the AS 3 promo shots.
It's the AS 3 Talent Show episode that has caused fans to feel disappointment in Milk's performance. Despite the somewhat impressive belly flop onto the runway at the beginning, the overall performance and Milk's real, live singing caused Redditors such as RuPaulVisage to say (in a comically over-the-top-way), "If anyone's wondering where my ears are, I severed them off, put them in a ziplock bag and threw it in the ocean," proving that Milk's acrobatics alone was not enough to earn some viewers' applause.
Trinity the Tuck
As it stands Trinity the Tuck is waiting in line in the Top 4, hoping to beat her rival queens on AS 7. Fans will Trinity from Season 9 of RPDR as "Trinity Taylor." The queen chose to change her name in between seasons because it sounded "too boring," choosing instead to highlight her impressive tucking skills.
Trinity has been on the show three times, and fans were not impressed with her lip-syncing performance of "You Spin Me Round" against Latrice on AS 4, where she made her first comeback. Trinity's lip-sync really sucked ass". Let's hope that Trinity is redeemed in the final stages of AS 7.
India Ferrah
This queen has been somewhat disliked since her first appearance in Season 3 of the original RPDR. Her feuds with other queens on and off set, blindness to racial commentary, and Social Media output have made her a hub of drag queen drama.
India's performance has also been a disappointment for viewers at times too, particularly during the first 3 weeks of All Stars Season 5. FirelordAlex has the view that in Episode 2, "Her vocal performance on her I'm In Love verse was not good" and that she "faded into the background" during the challenge in Episode 3. Fans have, however, expressed that India redeemed herself the following week and did not deserve to be at the bottom.
Alaska
Alaska is fondly known by several variations of the same name, including some swears and the number 5000, but when drag fans speak of Alaska, there is only one queen it could be. The and iration of this queen lead to her comeback on All Stars Season 2 and propelled her to be the eventual series winner and, therefore, her induction into the Hall of Fame.
However, not every performance of hers was appreciated. Whilst there seemed to be no issue with the performance itself during her team's performance of "Read U Wrote U", some felt let down by Alaska's choice to paint herself blue when they were meant to have a cohesive look for the performance. Redditor ThatsTheGagOfTheSea states, "She blue it (sorry)," and others have expressed disappointment at the desperation of Alaska's attempt to stand out, which they feel cheapened the overall performance.
Pandora Boxx
Pandora has made two appearances on All Stars, showing up in Season 1 and in recent years on Season 6, demonstrating that she must have had some potential to go all the way to the top. She first appeared on RPDR Season 2 back in 2009, when the show was a lot more subdued than the large-scale production of the show today.
On the 2009 show, Pandora Boxx reached the Snatch Game episode, stunning many with her iconic impersonation of old-school actor Carol Channing. She took part in this once again in AS 6, impersonating Kim Catrall, most famously known for portraying Samantha in Sex and the City. Redditor LandscapeBanana says, "The fact that Pandora thought she could do Kim Cattrall. I mean...if she did Samantha character only, sure," suggesting that Pandora's overtly sexual performance was an impersonation of the character and not the actor who played her.
Chad Michaels
Chad Micheals was formally known as "Bridgette Love" and featured on Season 4 of Ru Paul's Drag Race, coming in at a t 2nd place with Jaremi Carey (formerly known as Phi Phi O'Hara) and was crowned the winner of All Stars Season 1.
Whilst she was clearly a strong contestant due to these rankings, even Chad was occasionally a disappointment to fans, which in some senses makes the fall that much harder. Some have rated the lip sync on AS 1 of Chad VS Mimi one of the worst lip syncs of all time, and not just because of Mimi's desperate struggle to remove her clothing in some kind of performative way. Redditor Just_A_RandomCoconut still feels strongly that Mimi should have won the challenge as "Chad literally just stood there and pointed," and a lot of others feel the same. Thankfully, Chad Michaels redeemed herself and her fan's love, taking her to number 1 of the season.