Canada's Drag Race

[Elliott]

Did the episode seem ridiculously bright to anyone else? It seemed like they turned the saturation up to 12.

 

Anywhore, here are my rankings of the queens after the first episode:

1. Jimbo - lol I really didn't expect to come out of episode one stanning Jimbo, but she was iconique this episode.  I can see her being a more confident Thorgy.
2. Priyanka - Slay
3. Tynomi Banks - Slay.
4. Lemon - I didn't think the look was as bad as the judges made it out to be. (Not that it was good, mind you.)
5. Anastarzia Anaquway - She had some good moments.
6. Rita Baga - How did she win?????
7. Kiara - Who?
8. Juice Boxx - The poor Haus of Boxx becoming the new first-boot royalty.
9. Scarlett Bobo - Not a fan.
10. Kyne - To quote Lily: "I also understood her frustration at BOA being in the top."
11. Ilona Verley - Not a fan.
12. BOA - My least favourite by far.

[*Lily]

7 minutes ago, Elliott said:

Kyne - To quote Lily: "I also understood her frustration at BOA being in the top."

[Solaris]

I dont have any strong attachments week 1.  

 

 

I really liked Jimbo (but he is weird AF), Priyanka and Lemon.  I enjoyed Tynomi, Juice Boxx (RIP) and BOA (for putting Kyne in her place).  I dislike Anstarzia's name, its hard to say, but shes aiight.  I disliked Kyne (seriously go home).  The rest I dont' really remember or have a strong opinion on.  So I guess right now I am rooting for Jimbo, Priyanka and Lemon.

[JC]

I feel like I do not know these queens enough to accurately rank them, especially ones that I do not remember at all but here are my thoughts on the ones that did make an impression:

 

Rita Baga deserved her win, when I saw her runway, I immediately designated it as the best of the night.

Priyanka has the best confessionals so far, definitely the most likable thus far.

I felt bad for Juice Boxx and Lemon, but their runways were definitely not great and very unpolished. Glad Lemon stayed though because of her connection with NYC  

Kyne needs a chill pill. Her arrogance is grating, she's worse than Tyra because she does not even know how to keep it together with the judges. At least Tyra was nice enough to the judges to get the crown. Like gurl, you need to recognize who's gonna be determining your fate, def the villain so far.

BOA is a mess, not sure how her runway was in the top, and I tried to understand where the judges were coming from, but I honestly could not. Although Kyne shouldn't have been such a bitch about it, not a good look.

 

I honestly cannot remember much about the other queens yet, but hopefully more of them will make an impression soon. Obviously some queens did not make the impressions they wanted, but I did remember them so there's that. Anyways, there's no frontrunner for me yet, I'm more of a look queen stan, but there really aren't any this season or at least they haven't shown it so far. Might be the season of the off-beat queens.

[Zoey]

I really didn’t like the premiere but I’ll continue with it since there seems to be a lot of decent queens. It seems really cheap and bright. What the f*ck is Brook Lynn Heights doing on this? She’s hardly a legend.

 

Love Boa and Illona.

Edited July 4, 2020 by Zoey

[*Chris]

13 minutes ago, Zoey said:

I really didn’t like the premiere but I’ll continue with it since there seems to be a lot of decent queens. It seems really cheap and bright. What the f*ck is Brook Lynn Heights doing on this? She’s hardly a legend.

 

Love Boa and Illona.

Because she's the most known Canadian drag queen, around the world? And she's the one who pitched the idea to WOW about finally having a Canadian version. 

[*Chris]

On another note, it'll be interesting to see non-Canadian's reaction/thoughts on next week's challenge

[Zoey]

38 minutes ago, *Chris said:

Because she's the most known Canadian drag queen, around the world? And she's the one who pitched the idea to WOW about finally having a Canadian version. 

I’m sure they could’ve found someone better than her to judge. I don’t think featuring on one season qualifies her but each to their own.

 

I also hate the fact they have a different host each week. 

[*Chris]

36 minutes ago, Zoey said:

I’m sure they could’ve found someone better than her to judge. I don’t think featuring on one season qualifies her but each to their own.

 

I also hate the fact they have a different host each week. 

lol, your hate boner for brooke Lynn is hilarious. 
 

Trust me, as a Canadian, I can tell you there’s no other drag queen out there that’s at the same level as Brooke Lynn in term of name recognition. Tynomi Banks is probably the closest but they probably wanted her to compete & win...  And outside of BLH & Tynomi, the other name that comes to mind is Mado but she's purely french Canadian which I doubt they would have casted her as the host, even though she started her own cabaret in Montreal & appeared in movies and whatsnot.  But even then, not enough of a name to pull in fans of RPDR to tune in & watch it, which is probably why BLH is involved - in my opinion, that’s one of the the reason why many people never seen Thailand DR despite having some of the most talented queen.  

 

and I don’t mind the guest host, no much different then having a guest judge - not like they’re making any decision regarding the show. 
 

But if her involvement on the show bothers you that much and how it’s being done then don’t tune in - it’s easy as that. 
 

 

Edited July 4, 2020 by *Chris

[FrogLenzen]

judging placements were super wack but overall very very impressed with the level of talent, and it was one of the more impressive and organic episodes we've had in a while. Very excited about this season. Judges' chemistry was also better than I expected, and it should only go up from here (in theory). Like the guest judge concept for now, we'll see. If it wasn't a first episode this was a borderline double-shante. 

[Zoey]

On 7/4/2020 at 1:11 PM, *Chris said:

lol, your hate boner for brooke Lynn is hilarious. 
 

Trust me, as a Canadian, I can tell you there’s no other drag queen out there that’s at the same level as Brooke Lynn in term of name recognition. Tynomi Banks is probably the closest but they probably wanted her to compete & win...  And outside of BLH & Tynomi, the other name that comes to mind is Mado but she's purely french Canadian which I doubt they would have casted her as the host, even though she started her own cabaret in Montreal & appeared in movies and whatsnot.  But even then, not enough of a name to pull in fans of RPDR to tune in & watch it, which is probably why BLH is involved - in my opinion, that’s one of the the reason why many people never seen Thailand DR despite having some of the most talented queen.  

 

and I don’t mind the guest host, no much different then having a guest judge - not like they’re making any decision regarding the show. 
 

But if her involvement on the show bothers you that much and how it’s being done then don’t tune in - it’s easy as that. 
 

 

I don’t hate Brooke? I don’t know where you’ve plucked that from. A bit confusing but I suppose you’ve created some story in your head about me disliking her and you’re running with it.

 

I think your post was a bit rude so I’m just going to leave it at that. 

Edited July 6, 2020 by Zoey

[Elliott]

ugh stan Jimbo

[Elliott]

Priyanka should’ve won that challenge, the f*ck

[*Chris]

Absolutely love this week’s episode.

 

Didn’t agree with the top, per say.

 

Ill give my thoughts during my ranking. 

[sublymonal]

Tops for me this week: 

Priyanka - Winner

Jimbo

Kiara
 

Bottoms for me this week:

Tynomi - I’d have had her safe but it was nice to see her turn it out for the lipsync.
Boa - Bottom 2

Kyne - Bottom 2

 

I thought Lemon was fine. Group 2 was, overall, far weaker. 
 

 

Edited July 10, 2020 by sublymonal

[JC]

Ok I'm not gonna lie, I was kind of underwhelmed by the maxi challenge, I really wasn't loling at all. Priyanka was the only one that I found amusing, but I wasn't like blown away, her character was just funny and she delivered it well.

 

I do feel the judges are really just judging based on the runway because I did agree with them about Lemon because she had my favorite look of the night.

 

Glad Kyne did eat some humble pie, although not sure I would have had her eliminated. I would've had Boa and Tynomi in the bottom for being clearly the worst in the maxi challenge simply because they could not remember any lines and neither had runways that made up for that.

 

Anyways, based on confessionals, I am starting to connect with Kiara and Scarlett more. I also felt for Anastasia after her story about being shot three times, so awful and it really makes you appreciate Canada for being such an open country and accepting refugees AS THEY SHOULD. Trump has ruined the US, so it was nice to hear that there is a country in North America that hasn't gone off the rails. Priyanka I think is still the most likable to me so far, but there's no clear frontrunner for me yet. I also like Lemon as she's coming out of her shell and she has a connection to NYC so WERK. I still do not feel like I like the group enough to rank them all, I'm not sure if it's because we're watching All-Stars at the same time and I have mad connections to the returning queens, but I just find the Canadian version to be a bit lackluster overall so far (even the Kyne drama went away this episode LOL she was like BFFs with Boa after she dragged her last week) Hopefully it'll pick up. It's not really fair to compare these queens to the likes of Juju and Shea.

 

Was the guest judge famous to Canadians? I had no idea who he was. You know what I think Canadians are just too nice, which may be why I'm not finding everything too interesting so far. They're going to need to find a new villain now that Kyne is gone.

[sublymonal]

Lol @JC I had no idea who the guest judge was. I mean he was a gay up and coming musician so they probably just picked him for the promo like they did with Madison Beer on the US Show.

[Elliott]

However we did know who Elisha Cuthbert is because of Happy Endings.

 

[JC]

24 minutes ago, Elliott said:

However we did know who Elisha Cuthbert is because of Happy Endings.

 

Lol to me she was a famous actress so she was clearly a celebrity guest judge  

[*Chris]

My thoughts!

I absolutely loved this episode - for me, it just feel very fresh & very Canadian which I am enjoy. I absolutely loved the challenge - I laughed at different parts esp. Group #2 as that Historica commercial is one that's still with me; I remember when we watched them in school. Anyway, I thought Kiara & Rita should have been the top - they both killed esp. Kiara who should have been the winner. Lemon did good but nothing too remarkable; and Priyanka was hilarious throughout. I thought Jimbo was decent but nothing spectacular; the rest were meh. 

 

I really enjoy how it seem that the judges rotate every week to do the call-out & whatsnot.  

 

And my ranking after this episode;

1. Rita Baga (=): She killed it for me, once again. There's just something about her that I absolutely love - loved her runway and loved her performance in the challenge.
2. Priyanka (+1): Clearly a front-runner - fun personality, did good in the challenge, and loved the runway.
3. Jimbo (+1): An icon.
4. Kiara (+2): I see you, ma soeur. Absolutely the star of the week, despite a basic runway.
5. Lemon (+5): Improvement of the week; her runway was everything but her performance wasn't winner worthy. 
6.  Tynomi Banks (-4): She's still a queen but I feel that she has so much pressure to do well consider her name. She absolutely killed the lipsync so watch-out people!
7. Anastarzia (-2): Love her for opening up about her past & story. Her runway look was decent but performance was mediocre.
8. Ilona Verley (-1): I still love them but I need something more. I know they are making it for a few more weeks, as we saw in the previews that she will eventually serve us an Indigenous runway look. 
9. Scarlett (=): She's fun but something not connecting, so far. 
10. Kyne (+2): Delusional queen  
11. Boa (-3): Fun personality but that's it.

 

Overall, I really love these queens - they each have something special, and whoever wins will certainly represent Canada well. 

[*Lily]

I feel like Priyanka was my standout in this challenge. Lemon did well but admittedly, I kinda forgot about her performance by the time they gave her the win? I thought Priyanka and Kiara were the standouts. (This shows me not to trust pre-season judgement too much, as I didn’t really have high expectations for Kiara and she’s impressed me in both challenges so far!)

 

I don’t think Kyne did that badly in the challenge, but her runway was weak. Boa and Tynomi were probably the least impressive for me in the challenge. But Tynomi did a great job in the lip-sync! I’ll miss messy Kyne  

 

Overall rankings:

1. Priyanka

2. Jimbo

3. Starzy

4: Kiara

5. Tynomi

6. Lemon

7: Scarlett

8. Rita

9. Ilona

10. Boa

[sublymonal]

@*Chris agree with you that I love this cast and this is showing WHY I love Canadian reality TV. The lower budget means the focus on what matters. I love that we get to see the whole lipsync and judge for ourselves.

[Solaris]

I really liked this weeks episode.  I am liking BOA less and less.  She was bad in the challenge, her personality is grating, and her runway looks are unpolished.  To a lesser degree I feel the same about Ilona, which is unfortunate because she brings two important perspectives to the season.  I hope that will change.  I really liked the lip sync this week, but I am happy Kyne is gone.  I thought Lemon/Priyanka were the Top 2 in the challenge, and I would have given Priyanka.

 

 

Overall rankings:

1.  Priyanka

2.  Lemon

3.  Jimbo

4.  Rita Baga

5.  Tynomi Banks

6.  Kiara

7.  Scarlett Bobo - who?

8.  Anastarzia Anaqua - meh

9.  Ilona Verley 

10. BOA

[sublymonal]

Rankings:

1. Priyanka - Slayed as usual. Great verse, great runway.

2. Jimbo - She was a little weak sauce in the challenge but the hair in her runway was on point and she’s still entertaining af.

3. Rita Baga - A consummate professional. Always love her looks.

4. Tynomi Banks - Such an underdog. I’m rooting so hard for her to succeed.

5. Lemon - She’s annoying in her confessionals but her looks have been good and she’s killed the last two challenges.

6. Anastarzia Anaquway - Starzy I liked her a lot as a person even if I agree that she was week in the challenge and her runway was a little scatter brained. If she was up against someone else in that lipsync, she probably would have won.

7. Scarlett Bobo - I want to like her. I really do. But none of her runways have impressed me so far. Her verse and dance moves were good this week though.

8. Kiara - I’m glad the judges called her looks out for being basic. She needs to step it up. I thought her verse was better than the judges gave her credit for this week though.

9. Ilona Verley - She was an absolute mess this week and she’s lucky she had a good runway otherwise she’d have been B2 for sure and either of those girls would have eaten her alive in that lipsync. 

10. BOA - I just... don’t get what the judges see in her. I liked her runway until she took off her coat. I get that she’s a campy comedy queen. It’s just not my shtick.

Edited July 17, 2020 by sublymonal

[Deeee]

Still sad that delusional icon Kyne was eliminated!