âRuPaulâs Drag Race: All Starsâ season four is too much, too soon
By Roshni Riar, Staff Writer
If you were to stop me in the middle of the street and ask me to blurt out a random fact about RuPaulâs Drag Race, I can confidently say that I would be able to do it.
Who went home season five, episode one? Penny Tration. First double eviction? That was season four, to the dismay of both Honey Mahogany and Vivienne Pinay. Was Shangela robbed? Yes, yes she was.
All this is to stress that I am a huge fan of the show. So, when it was announced that RuPaulâs Drag Race: All Stars season four is set to premiere on December 14, you would expect me to be excited. Instead, I was confused and pre-emptively exhausted. I feel this way because just earlier this year in March, the third season of All Stars concluded with Trixie Mattel as the new crowned queen. With season three wrapped up, I anticipated that the next time Drag Race fans would see an All Stars season would be in a couple of years, at least after a few regular Drag Race seasons introduced fans to new drag queens. Instead, here I am a mere 10 months after Trixie Mattelâs win, not as excited as I would like to be. Itâs way too soon for this season to be happening.
The point of All Stars is to show what drag queens have done with their careers after their original seasons. Itâs supposed to be about showing growth and bringing back infamous and iconic queens as well as fan favourites. All Stars season one aired in 2012, season two in 2016, and season three in 2018. Spacing them out works because it allows regular seasons to pass and the pool of potential stars to grow. It also gives fans the chance to witness beloved queensâ development outside of the show and be excited to root for them if they do return. Shoehorning another season of All Stars into the end of the year doesnât allow for the same amount of hype to be built up. Sure, itâs exciting to see the cast and have the show to watch again, but the announcement makes me second-guess the meaning of an âall starâ in the context of RuPaulâs Drag Race.
Not everyone can be an All Star or should be for that matter. There have been over 120 queens on RuPaulâs Drag Race after season 10 ended this summer. This year alone, three seasons of Drag Race will have aired, two of those being All Stars seasons. Maybe itâs harsh, but I wonder if weâll run out of âall starsâ at this rate.
Iâm really happy to see that Drag Race has exploded in the mainstream and is afforded the ability to put out so many seasons so quicklyâbut I canât help but feel like the announcement of season four so soon is overkill. Iâd rather discover new queens over the course of two or three regular seasons and then happily accept another All Stars in 2020, when the hype and anticipation is nearly unbearable. At least Iâd feel it was worth the wait.
