I expected the first season of Canada's Drag Race to not be that great. The first season of RPDR wasn't picture perfect, and the first installation of the UK series last year was also rather abysmal. I think it's to be expected, but the lack of RuPaul's presence has definitely had an effect on this series. His prefilmed blurbs suggests to me that maybe he's not in Canada because he might be inadmissible? It's possible he can't physically come to Canada, for legal reasons. But why not send Michelle? Or Carson or Ross Matthews? Something about using Brooklyn just because he's Canadian feels so awkward.
The show tackles many of the challenges we've seen in the franchise before: pageantry, acting, comedy, sewing, and the results have been a mixed bag. I don't think it's entirely the fault of the queens though as much of their pre-scripted dialogue challenges are terribly written to begin with! Sometimes the challenge ideas themselves are lame. Take the Beauty Pageant, the whole thing was kind of stupid and ended up being boring and one note because they were given boring one note characters.
The judges flip flop a lot, it seems like they don't have a cohesive set of standards, and sometimes it feels all too personal, especially coming from Brooklyn. Brooklyn and Stacey are super awkward on TV, Jeffrey is very comfortable and funny, and he basically carries the other judges. Now I know that some people have slammed him for being rude but I honestly don't think he's said anything that Michelle Visage wouldn't say, I think it's just because he's a gay man that people are taking his critiques more personally.
Overall, I love the majority of the queens and you really can't fault them for being casted into a bad, underdeveloped show. I just hope if there's a next season they fire the writers and get a better judging panel assembled.
Review of Canada's Drag Race
