RuPaul's Drag Race - Season 17

[Solaris]

 

 

 

 

 

Meet the queens is out.  I will update this post with the cast once I get it!

Edited December 4, 2024 by Solaris

[ungodlyhour]

This group of girls is interesting. I wasn't grabbed by anyone super intensely but I never really am until later in the season. I've seen people saying they don't like the water theme, but honestly I think it turned out much better than the hodgepodge that last year's was. Not 15 level, but definitely better than 16

Edited December 4, 2024 by ungodlyhour

[*Lily]

I’ve followed Lana for a while so particularly excited for her (also as an unapologetic member of #Luxxnation I have no doubt I’ll Stan)

 

Jewels, Kori, Lexi, Lucky, Lydia and Suzie were my other standouts from the MTQs I think or at least what I’ve seen so far

[Elliott]

Lana and Kori are related to Luxx and Plane Jane, so I already know they’ll be carrying this season  

[Elliott]

3 hours ago, *Lily said:

I’ve followed Lana for a while so particularly excited for her (also as an unapologetic member of #Luxxnation I have no doubt I’ll Stan)

When they ask Lana who should go home tonight and why >>>>>>

[#jeah]

Lexi, Lydia, and Suzie are immediate standouts for me. Lexi is giving Auntie Raja mother energy and I need more

Edited December 5, 2024 by #jeah

[Solaris]

Standouts for me were Suzie, Lexi and Kori.

 

 

Best name award goes to Onya Nurve and Hormona Lisa. 

 

Other thoughts:

When I saw Jewels face, I thought it was Miz Cracker. Also can we drop one of the S's in the name?  Jewels Sparkles sounds not english.

Who calls themselves butthole?  That is something. Butthole gave me Mirage energy for some reason.

Edited December 5, 2024 by Solaris

[#jeah]

Premiere is tonight! I’m super excited for this group of queens.

[*Wallace]

Lol oh dang, I just saw this thread right now. I knew the season was coming in January but didn't know when. So now I learned this airs tonight.   LOL I'm so out of the loop.  But fun stuff and I'll follow the season as best as I can. I don't know any of the queens nor looked up anything on them so it'll be fun trying to get to know them in the upcoming weeks.

[Solaris]

Butthole.

[Zoey]

Suzie is the moment. 
 

Talent show

01. Suzie - Not the greatest tap dance performance of all time but she knows how to sell what she’s embodying. She’s so intriguing!

02. Lucky - Pretty good showing but I didn’t love the talent show look. I couldn’t see her through all the paint.

03. Lydia - I loved her performance and aesthetic.

04. Joella - I’m glad she’s safe because I really enjoyed her talent show.
05. Jewels - She can dance but I’ve seen everything she did tonight a million times before on the show.

06. Acacia - Not the best tonight but it showcased her talent.

07. Arrietty - It was just a bunch of twirling at the end of the day.

 

I already know that I’m not going to enjoy Kori. It seems as though they are basing their personality on the relationship with Plane and want to try make some sort of impact like she did. No thank you.

 

 

[#jeah]

Fun first episode, but the talent show itself was kind of rough. And Katy’s energy was so off-putting. This was definitely filmed before her latest album flopped  

 

Talent show ranking:

 

1. Suzie Toot - That lipsync was so stupid lol I thought she was toast until she looked Ru square in the eyes and started Morse coding the chorus lol wtf was that

2. Jewels Sparkles - Still undecided on her but she did the Thing and was kinda top two by default.

3. Lydia Kollins - I guess? I don’t think her number hit the way she wanted it to but I’m still very into her style of drag.

4. Lucky Starzzz - She probably saw the success of Plane’s talent show last season and was like “sexualizing food and drink in an original song will get me to next week” so good for her lol

5. Joella - It was so bad it was camp. Love her confidence because she needs it

6. Arrietty - Girl  

7. Acacia Forgot - I actually agree with her being last place. Yes the guitar was impressive but she seemed SO nervous and it was just so rushed and not good or entertaining  

 

From the other seven, I was really vibing with Hormona, Onya, Lexi, and Sam. Kori is really fun too but I’m not sure if I’ll be annoyed with her as the season goes on?

Edited January 4 by #jeah

[Solaris]

I agree with the Top 2 of round 1!

 

 

1. Suzie - I love her already.  The morse code had my cackling.  Her vibe is everything, I hope she goes far!

2. Jewels - I hate her name.  It could bew Jewel Sparkles or Jewels Sparkle and I would be happy.  With that said her track and dancing came correct.

3. Butthole - I am sorry but anyone who calls themselves Butthole does not want to be taken seriously.  I am sure I will come to hate that, but for now it was fun. The talent was interesting at least.

4. Lucky - It was like Jimbo and Plane had a baby.  Her make up sort of gives me Nina Bo'Nina Brown vibes.

5. Arrietty - Latin Dawn had a pretty performance.  

6. Acacia - I see why she got last but I liked her more then my last place.

7. Joella - I can't.  The weeping for Katy Perry, the bad track and dance.  Oof.

 

 

From the other girls I am loving Kori, Sam and Lexi.  But they all seem interesting and I am excited to see waht they do next week.

Edited January 4 by Solaris

[*Wallace]

I just watched the premiere episode. I wrote down some thoughts as I was watching:

- The Squid Game inspired intro for the premiere was..... certainly interesting. I didn't get the point of it but it was  new and fun, I guess?
- Oh Kori King is from Boston? I guess she's an early favorite I got to root for then. Oh it makes sense that Plane Jane is her drag sister as they are from the same area.
- I can see the Luxx daughter inspiration from Lana Ja'Rae. I am curious to see if she will be as polarizing as Luxx.
- I can also see the Trinity drag inspiration from Sam Star.
- LOL the name Onya Nurve stood out to me and cracks me up.
- I wasn't sure if we'd only get to see half of the queens or all of the queens. I'm glad we got to see all of the queens in one episode but the problem with that is, it's SO many queens and I'm seeing these names for the first time that it's sooo hard to remember all of them. I lost track of the number of queens after like 6 or 7 of them. This will take me a good 5 weeks to get everyone's names.
- Wow at the Rate the Queens twist having half of the queens judging the other half. I just hope they won't be too strategic to rate the best queens low. Though I know at least one of them will.
- Aww the Katy Perry & Joella moment was really sweet. I loved hearing Joella's fandom for Katy.
- I enjoyed the Drag Queens Got Talent main challenge. But as a whole, I think this could have been stronger so I hope the next group can really bring it. I would not have been mad if two of the queens were in the Bottom 2. My favorites were: Jewels Sparkles, Lucky Starzzz and Suzie Toot.
- Aww bummer, I'm disappointed that the judges didn't give their critiques to the queens, at least for fun. But at least they did give their recap commentary so we got to know some of their thoughts.
- I do feel like the judging queens were fair with their comments and rankings. I'm glad that none of them (from what we saw) rated the stand outs low.
- Of the last three, it was obvious that Acacia Forgot would be the bottom queen. While not a huge robbery, I do think that was kinda unfair on her. She did have a good legit musical but it was a little safe/boring and forgettable, so I guess I get that. I do think a few others should have been the bottom queen though.
- Very pleased with Jewels Sparkles and Suzie Toot being the Top 2 this week. Oh, I wasn't expecting them to do a lip sync battle at the end but yay. And of course it's to a Katy Perry song. Kinda surprised it was "Woman's World" as it seemed like Katy forgot/dropped that song real fast from her latest album promo, lmao. Both performed well, but oooof Jewels really slayed this and outperformed Suzie like whoa here. This definitely doesn't seem like Suzie's kind of song to perform and more in Jewels' wheelhouse, so that makes sense. Suzie did have some fun and hilarious comedy bits in there but Jewels really performed it like a true star with star quality. It was an easy decision for me that Jewels won but ohhh danggg, Suzie actually won that lip sync? I couldn't disagree more but oops.  Congrats to Suzie though.

 

Also what is this Drag Queen Ex on the Beach inspired show called Slaycation show all about? It looks fun. 
 

[ungodlyhour]

I enjoyed the premiere! Not as punchy as I like for Drag Race but that's kinda just how the modern era is. At the very least, the lip-sync was pretty evenly matched and entertaining (despite the shit from a butt song), which is more than I can say for last year's premiere lip-sync!

 

My pre-season and immediate fav is Lexi  She has an edge and realness to her that made her stand out even in an episode where she didn't perform. Great confessionalist, good at bantering, funny, pretty... I'm on the stan train! I also really enjoyed Lana's presence in the episode and I think her little crochet top in her confessional look is adorable.

 

I think Jewels was 100% the standout out of the girls who performed, between her personality, performance & lip-syncing ability. Lucky probably had my personal fav talent show, but I think the top 2 was correct still. I don't connect too much with Suzie but she's talented and I think she absolutely deserved her win; Arrietty I really connect with despite her less engaging talent show, though I do think some of the critiques of her performance are a little questionable. There wasn't much variety in the performance and it was low on the dynamics, which I think is fair to point out, but I think the way Sam & the fans are reducing it to "just twirling" is a bit ignorant to the art and undermines the technique that proper folklórico requires - just my 2 cents

 

Acacia was horrendous - not only was it a stagnant number, her singing was bad! I actually kinda dig her mullet out of drag so I lowkey want her to stick around but we'll see who she has to lip-sync against next week & see if my opinions are the same lol.

 

Personal ranking of the first 7 (not based on performance, just my taste lol)

1. Jewels

2. Arrietty

3. Lucky

4. Lydia

5. Suzie

6. Acacia

7. Joella

Edited January 6 by ungodlyhour

[Elliott]

On 1/4/2025 at 4:38 PM, *Wallace said:

Kinda surprised it was "Woman's World" as it seemed like Katy forgot/dropped that song real fast from her latest album promo, lmao.

The season was filmed before the song even came out.

[*Wallace]

3 hours ago, Elliott said:

The season was filmed before the song even came out.

LMAO that makes sense then.  

[Elliott]

Doechii as a guest judge

[Elliott]

This is just a non-elimination premiere with extra steps.

[#jeah]

This episode was kinda garbage tbh. Besides Lexi every talent performance was either boring or bad. 

[*Lily]

Lexi and Suzie definitely made themselves stand out, straight out the gate, and I'm excited to see more of them.

 

Otherwise, I'm not sure I'm really vibing with many people yet?  I think I'll like Onya Nurve. Lucky Starzzz will be interesting. I can see myself liking Crystal and Lydia. Maybe Jewels, but she's getting a little much for me already.

 

I had high hopes for Lana (and still excited for her) but I was underwhelmed by her talent show. Kori's doing a little too much for me. Joella is doing way too much. Nobody else made a big impression for me yet.

 

Early days though!

Edited January 11 by *Lily

[*Lily]

33 minutes ago, Elliott said:

Doechii as a guest judge

+ "Alter Ego" lip sync!! I was ready for them to play in our faces and give us a non-Doechii song so I was relieved (and that it was actually good)

[Elliott]

1 hour ago, *Lily said:

+ "Alter Ego" lip sync!! I was ready for them to play in our faces and give us a non-Doechii song so I was relieved (and that it was actually good)

The fear I felt thinking they were going to make Acacia and Hormona lip sync to Doechii as well.

Edited January 11 by Elliott

[Solaris]

For Episode 2: I don' think the Top 2 was correct, but I do think the winner of the week was.  

 

1. Lexi - loved her talent number and her in the lipsync.

2. Sam - I think she had my favorite runway.  I see Trinity all over her.

3. Kori - I liked her routine, it was different. Stealing Monets look for her runway was fun.  I just enjoy her personality and that made me like her talent more.

4. Onya - I liked her song, cute.  The little dance moment could have been viral!

5. Crystal - It was cute, but not top worth for me.

6. Hormona - at least she tried something different, even if it was terrible.

7. Lana - Go girl give us nothing. Terrible number.

 

 

Other notes:

Hormona is getting on my nerves.  Jewels is also doing the absolute most at annoying me.  

[*Wallace]

Just finished watching the latest episode so I'll post my thoughts:

 

- I thought this was a stronger group with more consistent performances. Though I do wish there was more variety of talents shown, as I do get tired of everyone using lip sync performances for their talent shows.
- Favorites this week were: Onya Nurve (hahaha I found her song so fun and catchy), Crystal Envy, Kori King, and Lexi Love. Also liked Sam to a lesser extent.
- Dangg I had a bad feeling that Hormona Lisa's comedy act was gonna flop. That comedy act felt very flat and boring.... and wasn't very funny.
- Well done to Crystal Envy and Lexi Love being the Top 2 this week. I was not expecting Lexi to have one of the strongest performances of the night but I always love a good surprise. The "Alter Ego" lip sync was a lot of fun and both ladies did a great job. Both were strong but I felt like Lexi really owned the stage and commanded my attention more throughout that performance. So I'm happy that RuPaul agrees with me this week.
- It was no surprise that Hormona Lisa polled in last from the talent show. She was my easy least favorite of the group.
- Hormona Lisa vs. Acacia Forgot lip sync.... ooh they got a fun song choice with "yes, and?" Sadly this lip sync felt quite underwhelming compared to the previous one. This lip sync felt.... quite boring. I kept waiting for something exciting to happen but nothing really happened? I guess Acacia's moment with the makeup brush was her moment but it was just eh.
- Oh goshhh not really a fan of this Badonka Dunk twist but I did hear about it. Just didn't really know the details of it. So there are going to be two comebacks up for grabs this season? Gosh I feel like this is gonna be a reallly long season.
- Oh wow, Hormona really lucked up in choosing #7 and getting to dunk Michelle, which was so hilarious. But ugh..... already a non-elimination. Honestly.... don't really think Hormona really needed or deserved a second chance, and now she got saved. Well done to her but just.... ugh. Someone that's really strong/consistent that could have a bad week and deserving of another chance will end up getting screwed later in the season.  

The Vivienne tribute at the end was really sweet and touching.