‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 6’ Episode 1 recap: A gorgeous gaggle of Glamazons

With a great new platform comes great… branding? That’s the sense I get watching RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 6’s first episode, at least. The show has departed VH1 for its latest All Stars installment, landing on the recently launched Paramount+ streaming service in the United States, and the advertisements for the new season have leaned into this transition. As Ru declares in the trailer, “Second chances are Paramount.” And despite a cast that has gotten flack for not having enough star wattage, there’s a definite vibe that the production is hoping to expand its audience with this season, the way All Stars 2 did five years ago.

To that effect, everything about this episode is very sleek, very polished, very professional and, to be blunt, very safe. There isn’t even a hint of drama, and almost everything we see from the queens themselves is about establishing, redefining or furthering their personal brands. It’s an entertaining hour of television, but it lacks the sharp, propulsive energy of that halcyon All Stars 2 premiere. 

For example: In the AS 2 premiere, Ginger Minj trash-talked Violet Chachki for winning Season 7 just for wearing a corset, then made a joke about how the show would never edit that out. Here, Ginger leans into her self-styled frog/toad brand, and only shows a glimpse of her more cutting side during the Reading Is Fundamental mini-challenge—which she wins.

Drag Race as a show has evolved, in part due to a shifting culture around it, as well as a fanbase that has grown to expect—and, in many cases, demand—a quixotic blend of traits. Bring drama, but don’t be mean! Look polished, but don’t rely on money! Be funny, but don’t overuse catchphrases! It’s no wonder so many queens play it safe in this episode. As the show and the audience have changed, so, too, must they.

The best thing I can say for the premiere is that it makes me very excited for what’s to come, after the first-day jitters wear off and the queens can let their hair down. There’s real potential for this season to be a race to the crown; the cast, and the show itself, may just need a minute to get into the groove.

After the 13 queens enter and we see who’s truly glowed up (Season 4 icon Jiggly Caliente!), who’s ready to fight for the crown (Season 2’s Kylie Sonique Love, looking absolutely gorgeous) and who’s a surprise bit of casting (regarding Season 5 second boot Serena ChaCha, I quote Season 11 returnee Ra’Jah O’Hara: “Okay!”). There are some overly complicated taglines, as memorably parodied on Twitter by user @mellowtonin, but the best ones keep it simple: Kylie parodies the show’s previous RuMail opener by saying “Ooh, girl, you got female,” while Season 3 and All Stars 1 queen Yara Sofia howls, then lifts her dog mask and says, “I hope you like it doggy-style.”

Yara is a light throughout this episode because she seems mostly unconcerned with her brand or fan perception. Perhaps it’s the benefit of having not been on the show for quite a while, or for having done well in both her seasons. She leans into her eccentricities that delight RuPaul so much, earning major kudos, and even makes a decision that she likely knows will be unpopular. In this very image-conscious cast, it’s hard to see Yara sticking around for too long, but I deeply hope she does.

Ru teases a “14th queen” entering the competition, but it’s obviously a fake-out to introduce a special guest. And indeed, via video link, we meet Miss Piggy! She’s annoyed it’s taken Ru so long to bring her on the show, but she’s happy to be here to announce the Reading Is Fundamental mini-challenge. (She even gets to say, “‘Cause reading is what?” which is an utter delight.)

The reading challenge is one of the best installments we’ve had in a while, owing to some fresh joke formats. Of the COVID-19 variety, we get Jiggly’s roast of Season 2 and All Stars 1’s Pandora Boxx: “When the CDC said there should be no gatherings of more than 10 people, Pandora said, ‘My shows should be fine.’” We also get a roast of Season 12’s perpetually safe queen Jan by Season 11’s Scarlet Envy that was particularly clever: “Jan, in the midst of a global pandemic, we should stay safe every week. Do you have any advice?”

But from the moment Ginger starts with, “Look at this cast, Ru. My cholesterol’s higher than your standards these days,” it’s pretty clear she’s got the win. Ginger actually didn’t win the reading challenge in either of her previous seasons, losing to Trixie Mattel and Alaska, respectively. And while I think she does really well here, I might have given the win to Ra’Jah (to her Season 11 sister and self-described Miss Ass Almighty, A’keria C. Davenport, Ra’Jah says, “Ass almighty? Ankles all tiny!”) or Pandora (to Season 9 and 10 competitor Eureka!: “Eureka O’Hara from HBO’s We’re Here! We wish you weren’t.”) instead. But Ginger is a deserving winner, and it gives her a confidence boost after not having won anything on All Stars 2.

The maxi-challenge is the dreaded All Stars Variety Show Extravaganza. Sorry—is “dreaded” too harsh? Show me a person who truly loves this challenge and I’ll eat my words. After the mess of last season’s variety show, in which everyone who did something original was shuffled to safety while the queens who did lip sync numbers were rewarded, it’s clear the queens have learned to do the safest possible act. 

Only Ra’Jah, Scarlet, their Season 11 sister Silky Nutmeg Ganache and Season 6’s sole returnee Trinity K. Bonet break the mold—and two are promptly punished for it. Silky scores low for her song-and-piano act, while Trinity falls into the bottom two for butchering her stand-up set.

If I had my way, Ra’Jah would’ve won. She makes a dress in 60 seconds, and pulls off a very clever reveal in which what appeared to be just a simple black dress is actually rendered in a vibrant purple. Like Manila Luzon in All Stars 4, whose upside-down painting reveal really played on audience expectations for the gag, Ra’Jah uses the build-up to her reveal to increase the ultimate payoff. It’s a great act, and it deserves the win.

Instead, Ru goes with Yara, who goes all out with a fake boobs dance number. It’s quite funny, and I get why Ru cracks up throughout. But it lacks the originality of Ra’Jah’s act, and feels like just a funnier take on the same kind of number that everyone else does. Still, I appreciate how Yara handles the responsibility of being the winner: she says she’s uninterested in considering anything but strategy, referencing Naomi Smalls’ iconic, controversial elimination of Manila in All Stars 4. “I want to Manila everybody,” Yara says in confessional.

As part of that plan, when faced with eliminating either Trinity or Serena (whose wig-based lip sync act goes awry), she chooses Trinity’s lipstick. The rest of the group, save Serena herself, chooses to send Serena home, making this the first time since the split vote twist was introduced in All Stars 5 that the two options are not the same. That adds some genuine tension to the lip sync, as Yara winning would send a big threat home right out of the gate.

Our first Lip Sync Assassin of the season is Coco Montrese, the Season 5 legend who never got a chance to lip sync again on All Stars 2. It’s wonderful to see her, dressed in a gorgeous look that literally drips in silver. She squares off against Yara to Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk,” which is the kind of song that’s fun, but not likely to produce a great lip sync. Yara dominates the first half, but Coco pulls off a reveal halfway through that gives her more dance flexibility. It’s close, but Ru calls it for Coco, sending Serena home—but not before promising her a potential chance to stay in the game.

Honestly, the All Stars premieres are just too formulaic at this point. Entrances, reading challenge, variety show, deliberations, lip sync. It’s been this way for five seasons now. Just like Drag Race proper eventually dispensed with the first episode being a photo shoot mini and design challenge maxi, so, too, must All Stars evolve. If the format isn’t going to surprise us—and if the queens are too focused on their brands to really step out of the box—the result is always going to be these safe, standard episodes.

But I do think there’s a lot of potential here. This is a dynamic, interesting cast, and All Stars 6 is going to be long enough (owing to just how many queens there are) for some real stories to build over the course of the season. I’m considering this a cautious first step, but I want to see All Stars 6 be bold. The show can only thrive if it’s really willing to put on a show.

Untucking our final thoughts

✨RuPaul breaks down the full rule-set for All Stars before the critiques on the main stage, which is probably for clarity (or even legal) reasons now that the show has hopped to streaming. But it gives me a bit of “In a moment, I’ll ask one of you to shantay, which means stay” from Drag Race UK Season 1.

✨With her win in this lip sync, Coco Montrese extends her Drag Race career record to 4-1. She’s beaten Monica Beverly Hillz, Jade Jolie, Alyssa Edwards and now Yara, only losing to Detox in her final lip sync of Season 5.

✨Seeing that Jiggly and Ginger are such close friends is very nice, but the inclusion of that clip in an episode that had very little time for extraneous material is a flashing warning sign that we’re heading toward some kind of one-eliminates-the-other moment.

✨Something obvious that I hadn’t really thought about until Trinity says, “You know they done fucked up, right?”—Drag Race is uncensored now! Let the fucks fly!

✨A couple of remixes used in this episode: the “Covergirl” remix is back on the runway, while the theme song has actually been re-recorded at a lower pitch to change the final line to “may the best drag queen win.” Interesting to debut that now as opposed to on Season 13 or Down Under!

✨Silky says she’s “so glad that we got the girls this season” after both Jiggly and Kylie enter, and Kylie responds, “We’ve always had the girls.” It’s really important to note—it’s great to reflect on the herstoric nature of Drag Race finally casting two trans women in one group, but trans women have been a major part of Drag Race all along. In celebrating this new season, we don’t want to erase the experience of queens like Monica Beverly Hillz, Peppermint, Stacy Layne Matthews, Gia Gunn and so many more.

✨Untucked is a largely emotional affair, as the queens open up about their experiences before, during and after their seasons. There’s clearly some significant trauma that these queens have worked through (and, in some cases, are still working through), but there’s a catharsis to hearing them share their experiences. There are not many shows on TV where you can see this kind of connection between queer and trans people; for all of Drag Race’s foibles, that remains one of its greatest strengths.

✨Very cute Untucked moment: Scarlet met Ginger at a meet-and-greet years ago in New York! They even share a photo!

✨All the hype of a “game within a game” is interesting, particularly since the show abandoned any kind of comeback twist last season. Details are scarce, but if it’s anything like the RuDemption twists of All Stars 2, 3 and 4, it should shake up the game in a big way.

✨It is not lost on me that, eight years after they fought in Untucked, Coco is the one to announce Serena’s departure this week. That is some narrative for you.

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The next episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 6 is currently available for streaming on Paramount+ in the U.S. and on Crave in Canada.