Canada’s Drag Race: Canada vs. The World’ exactly where you expected | Xtra magazine

The further away we get from it, the more I think Season 15 of it RuPaul’s Drag Race it was a small miracle. Yes, the shorter episode run times for the first half initially deflated the audience’s enthusiasm. But once the season got into full swing, it drew unprecedented levels of fan engagement when it came time for viewers to let Ru know which queen team they were on. In fact, one queen broke the record for the most likes on her #Team Instagram post. That queen, of course, was the one who inspired the audience throughout the entire season, and made people think that she was very interested in winning it … Anetra?

Yes, despite Sasha Colby’s absolute dominance of Season 15, and many looking back on it as an inevitable victory for the drag legend, she didn’t even win the fan vote. Furthermore, even though she walked into the finale with four wins and no placings, many fans were rooting for the victory of Luxx Noir London or Mistress Isabelle Brooks as well. Somehow, in a season that always seemed like one queen was destined to win, the ending really felt like a battle.

Compare Season 15 to All stars 8. Like Sasha, Jimbo came in as an obvious choice to win it. The Canadian Drag Race The queen of season 1 defeated Ru again United Kingdom vs The Worldbut Pangina’s choice of Heals to eliminate her kept Ru from giving her that crown. So, on a cast full of early outs and controversial queens, Jimbo cast as the only international queen stuck out like a sore thumb. You could have guessed that she would win from Meet the Queens. Unfortunately, instead of unexpected protesters of her leadership rising, All stars 8 It was a slog, with Jimbo winning almost half of the episodes and even the most liked lines (Jessica Wild, love you forever) could make a proper argument for her victory. Jimbo deserved the crown, but the show never doubted that for a second.

And so we come on Canadian Drag Race: Canada vs. The World Season 2, with sister season OG Jimbo Lemon competing for the third time. I wrote in my season premiere piece that while much of the first episode worked, there was already a sense that Lemon held all the cards. “Lemon’s daughter is getting preferential treatment right out of the gate, the two going into final author during the introduction and then being awarded a mini-arc for winning the first episode despite her badly in its two hundred premieres,” I wrote at the time. . “I worry that Lemon will be going for the crown waltz this season, which would feel weird when she’s surrounded by real heavy hitters.”

The season is over, the final Lip Sync for the Crown battle has ended and Lemon is walking away with the crown and $100,000 after winning or placing high in every challenge this season. Big congrats to her – she absolutely slayed this season, and deserves her flowers. But despite producing an entertaining series of episodes, I can’t help but feel Canada vs. The World Finally, season 2 for free. Lemon felt like Jimbo, not Sasha Colby, and despite incredible competition, the season never felt like it could go any other way than this.

The big question that hangs over him Canada vs. The World since the start of his second season is whether he would finally break the Canadian curse vs. The World seasons. No Canadian made it to the back half of the first half United Kingdom vs The World season, and the latter did not spend a Canadian Drag Race alum at all. Canada vs. The World Season 1 saw the loss of four Canadians, with only two going home first, one losing in the first round of the Lip Sync for the Crown competition and another retiring. Ultimately, two American queens battled it out in the final, and Ra’Jah O’Hara won the crown.

Season 1 exiting queen, Icesis Couture, claimed there was pressure from production to keep the crown in Canada. And after UK queen won their first two seasons vs. The World Alternatively, Lemon, Miss Fiercalicious and Tynomi Banks have certainly had the pressure this season. Unfortunately, Tynomi got in her own way again, and Fierce seemed determined to play her “petulant” character very well (as absent judge Traci Melchor famously called her), finding perceived slights in everything and losing her drive to compete.

So it all came down to Lemon to win it for Canada, and to her credit, she held up her end of the bargain and then some. Her girl group and performances of “Snatch Game: The Rusical” earned her two wins, and she did very well in the improv task and could easily win the Reading Battles challenge. Her runways were impressive throughout the season, showing her growth since the first season. Yes, her high placement of the ball was a little questionable, but it would have been worse if she left it alone—and I don’t think it was just high placement that put her over the top for the win in the end.

None of my criticism of this season is an argument that Lemon doesn’t deserve his crown. Instead, it’s an argument that even seasons full of entertaining queens – including Fierce, Alexis Mateo, Cheryl and Kennedy Davenport – and a strong design could be challenged to feel boring if the competition doesn’t feel like a real race. Going into the finale, her only question was whether one of her fellow finalists could outdo her in synchronization to send her home. When that didn’t happen—I think “Hideaway” was actually a tie—there was no question about the outcome.

In the absence of real competition, you’d expect there to be a significant story for our championship at the end – something that could be really important for the season. But aside from Lemon’s self-doubt after going home first United Kingdom vs The Worldand a little one-sided confrontation with Fíochmhar, Lemon was the most over the top this season. As queens like Alexis, Fierce, Kennedy and Eureka! made television, Lemon was but quietly dominating the competition. Even Cheryl found a stronger arc as she consistently stood tall, increasing the hope that she would eventually get her first maximum win. Drag Race career. (What she didn’t do is ultimately down to him – a pointless story.)

Even the story of Lemon’s self-doubt, which is done right can be an interesting story for an obvious opening (think Symone in Season 13), it didn’t really go anywhere. Part of the issue is that Lemon did so well in her original season, judged by Brooke Lynn Hytes, so it was no surprise that she was doing well again with the same head judge. Moreover, because it was sent home on United Kingdom vs The World for a performance that many fans don’t think she deserved the bottom for, there was no real sense among the audience that she had to “come back” from something. ​​​​​​She got a bit of a raw deal on another franchise, and came home where the panel understands her better.

That is not to detract from her own feelings of insecurity, which I have no doubt were real. But because the feelings are legitimate, that’s not fodder for good news. It’s a lesson in why reality TV is important to show, not tell: we can hear over and over again how Lemon feels, but if she’s winning or nearly winning everything without breaking a sweat, it’s not anyone will do that. strong story.

Drag Race as a franchise seems undecided on how they want to handle editing the winners this year. Queens like Sapphira Cristál and Roxxxy Andrews got dream changes in their seasons this year, only to lose to the queens who were not edited much (Nymphia Wind) or were mostly edited as the rival of the front person (Angeria Paris VanMichaels). Over on Online Game Drag Race FranceIn the third season, Nicky Doll won a queen with no maximum win; Le Filip was only the second queen ever to win in such a way, after Elecktra Bionic from Drag Race Italyand the first season. United Kingdom vs the World probably did the best job of presenting each member of the top four as potential winners…but the show’s take on crowning hometown heroes meant it always felt too potential towards Tia Kofi.

I think looking back at Season 15 is the way forward here. (I would also say that Season 13 had a strong winner lineup without feeling inevitable, but I recognize that I’m in the minority in terms of the stories that I liked that season). the victory. There’s a reason Anetra had historic levels of fan support: the show made you believe she stood up to Sasha. Imagine if Kennedy’s arc this season felt really competitive, or Alexis’! Imagine if Cheryl had won one of the talents, which suddenly made her arc like a Cinderella story. Imagine if, instead of focusing a lot of editorial time on Fierce’s “petulant” behavior, the editorial focused on the other members of our final four as serious threats to win it.

Alas, instead we got to see Lemon waltz to victory. No soul can take that away from her, and no one can in good faith argue that she didn’t deserve to win it. It’s just a little deflating from the point of view of watching television that we all knew during how it would end.

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