"I Don't Want to See Any Fucking H&M!"

(Almost) Every 2021 Season of Drag Race, RANKED!

A confession that will surprise no one: I am a Drag Race superfan. It’s the only TV show besides Survivor that I constantly rewatch seasons of, in addition to consuming every single after-episode breakdown video by Bussy Queen and The Drag Detective. The saying is true: Drag Race is the queer version of sports.

In 2021, fans of the franchise were blessed with not one, not two, but SIX English-language seasons of the show and I watched… all of them. Some were horrible, some were incredible. Here is (almost) every 2021 season of Drag Race, RANKED!

6 - RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under (Season 1)

The first season of Drag Race Down Under, with a cast of queens from Australia and New Zealand, might be the worst I’ve ever watched (and I’ve seen Season Twelve). This season was so bad I couldn’t even bother to finish it.

A queen eliminated in an early episode gets to come back into the competition… for absolutely no reason. While it’s not the first time the show has brought back contestants, they normally have to fight their way back in. The arbitrary nature of bringing this white contestant back adds a real damper to the show, particularly when the two queens of colour eliminated early on aren’t extended the same courtesy. 

If you can believe it, that’s only the beginning of the controversies. In one of the most baffling episodes of TV I’ve ever watched, “Marketing Hats,” during the on-stage judging, RuPaul asks white contestant Scarlet Adams to address the fact that she has photos of herself in blackface online. However, RuPaul doesn’t force her to exit the show; instead, he gives her the space to apologize, and she does, surviving the elimination. 

Likewise, it was revealed online around the same time that white contestant Karen From Finance had a tattoo of a golliwog doll, a children’s doll created in the late 19th century that depicts a racist caricature of Black people. 

The fact that neither of these contestants was eliminated was ridiculous, especially when other queens have been forced off the show for far less. While neither of these contestants ended up taking the crown, it was clear that they were favoured by the show to win due to their pre-existing popularity in Australia. Ultimately, this season was condemned by fans as one of the absolute worst of all time. 

RATING: 0/10. Do not watch under any circumstances!

5 - RuPaul’s Drag Race (Season 13)

The thirteenth instalment of the franchise that started it all arrived right at the beginning of January 2021 and lasted until THE MIDDLE OF APRIL, making this season a sixteen-week viewing experience that only slogged on more and more as time went by. 

The premiere dreadfully changed up the format of the show, splitting the queens into two teams and forcing them to lip-sync against each other off the bat. The losing queens weren’t featured again until the fourth episode, making a month pass by without any contestant being eliminated. Although it was nice to spend more time with some of these queens, it also extended the narrative for very little payoff. 

However, the cast felt a bit lacking, particularly when UK 2 was airing simultaneously with one of the best Drag Race casts in recent memory. While I loved watching queens like Symone, Kandy Muse and Gottmik, the first openly transmasculine contestant ever featured on the show, the rest of the queens were, to put it in the parlance of RuPaul, “Meh.” How did someone like Elliott with 2 Ts last NINE EPISODES?! 

While I enjoyed the Bag Ball Eleganza and the Snatch Game, the makeovers, the roast and Honey, I Shrunk The Drag Queens were rough, to say the least; don’t even get me started on the Bossy Rossy challenge, which I remember literally falling asleep to. Overall, I think the lacklustre cast combined with the format changes and long season made this really difficult to enjoy watching in real-time.

RATING: 4/10. Don’t bother unless you’re a Drag Race completist. 

4 - RuPaul’s Drag Race UK (Season 3)

The second UK series to air in 2021 was a very mixed bag. Production of the show felt rushed while watching it, so rushed there were rumours the season was filmed in only ten days. While there were some unique standouts in the cast like Victoria Scone, the first AFAB queen featured on the franchise, and alternative queen Charity Kase, both contestants had disappointingly short runs on the show. As well, comments towards Charity Kase felt unfair compared to how the other queens were judged, simply because they had a very different style of drag than what is normally featured on the show. 

Speaking of which, there were some other judging choices in this season that didn’t make sense. There were a few double shantays and double sashays that felt bizarre, like RuPaul was just trying to speed up production. There were also some challenges that were truly brutal to watch, namely the Dragoton and Draglexa segments. It was also very strange that RuPaul made almost every contestant rethink their choice of character for the infamous Snatch Game episode. 

Still, I did enjoy moments of this season, like the Night of a Thousand Spice Girls runway and (shockingly!) the acting challenge, Bra Wars: The Fempire Claps Back. Overall, this was a very low-to-average season for me that (unfortunately) often had me reaching for my phone during the episodes out of lack of interest. 

RATING: 5/10. It’s whatever!

3 - Canada’s Drag Race (Season 2) 

I never realized how much fun a Canadian season of Drag Race would be until this franchise premiered last summer! The second instalment returned this fall and is still currently airing. Overall, I really like the low-budget energy of the Canadian version: it has the same chaotic-good feeling that the early seasons of the original show had before every queen came in super polished and filled with pre-fabricated slogans to brand on merchandise later.

However, my favourite part about Canada’s Drag Race is definitely the lack of RuPaul. If you watch the franchise often, RuPaul and Michelle’s commentary and sex jokes can become quite groan-worthy, so it’s nice to see some fresh faces on the panel. I especially love this season’s inclusion of Tracy Melchor, who lights up the screen every time she’s featured.

I also feel like since RuPaul’s not directly involved, the production takes some risks with judging that the US franchise would never do; for instance, front-runner of this season Gia Metric was placed in the bottom two in the first episode. I also think the lip-sync songs are much better in this franchise, as well as the overall level of quality on the runways, which are my two favourite parts of the show. It’s also fun to see minor Canadian celebrities like Bif Naked and Fefe Dobson show up as guest judges. 

While there have been a few moments of odd judging so far (Kendall’s Snatch Game performance was BAD), this has been a really fun and less predictable season. Plus, every time it says during the introduction that the winner “will receive a sickening supply of make-up from Shopper’s Drug Mart,” I absolutely die of laughter, which counts for something.

RATING 7/10. Solid, unpredictable and enjoyable season (so far) that feels akin to the earlier seasons of the original franchise. 

2 - RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars (Season 6)

I’ll admit it: When the cast for All-Stars 6 was announced, I was not very impressed. Ginger Minj, Eureka and Pandora AGAIN?! Not only were there too many returning contestants but there were also quite a few queens from recent lacklustre seasons, as well as forgotten queens from seasons long ago. I thought this shit was supposed to be the best of the best!

Oddly enough, casting a group of queens that were all more middle-of-the-pack was the best thing this season did. In many seasons of Drag Race, it’s very clear from the first episode who the bottom, middle and top tiers of contestants are, making it easy to predict who will make it to the top four from the very first episode. 

The cast for this season, however, made it very hard to figure out who would succeed from the jump, making it that much more satisfying when certain queens like Kylie Sonique Love and Trinity K. Bonet started to perform very well. 

And then there was the infamous lip sync battle, one of the best episodes of Drag Race EVER. All season long, the ending of each episode foreshadowed a “game within a game.” But by episode nine, the viewers had yet to be informed about what it meant. 

All that changed in the “Rudemption Lip-Sync Smackdown,” which featured the eliminated contestants fighting to get back into the competition Mortal Kombat style. It was an extremely entertaining episode to watch and featured iconic moments like the “Heartbreaker” and “Barbie Girl” lip-syncs. 

Overall, a lot of the queens on this season got a satisfying redemption arc that changed how the viewer saw them (apart from Jan, that is), which is always the best part of All-Stars. While many believe All-Stars 2 to be a franchise highlight, I would say that this season gave it a real run for its money. 

RATING: 8/10. A really entertaining season with a great pay-off for those who have already seen most of the original seasons. However, I would recommend new viewers spend more time with old seasons before watching it. 

1 - RuPaul’s Drag Race UK (Season Two)

Although I might sound insane for saying this, watching Drag Race UK Two in real time was one of the best parts of 2021 for me. After several US seasons featuring lacklustre queens, I truly fell in love with many of the contestants on UK Two for their performances, looks and personalities. It was the first season in a long time where I was rooting for everyone to succeed. 

Bimini Bon-Boulash and Tayce are two of my favourite contestants ever featured on the show. Watching their performances and runways every week was something I greatly looked forward to. Besides the overall quality of the contestants, this season had so many iconic challenges and lip-syncs it’s hard to name them all.

I loved Rats: The Rusical (and Tayce’s “Memory” lip-sync, which literally brought tears to my eyes) and the Snatch Game. Additionally, there were tons of fun and unpredictable moments like Ginny Lemon’s FU walk-off and of course, RuPaul screaming, “I don’t want to see any fucking H&M!” 

And then there was episode five, “The RuRuVision Song Contest.” In what is one of the best episodes of reality television ever made, the queens return from a seven-month break in the competition due to lockdown, reassembling to compete as dual girl groups.

The United Kingdoll’s performance of “UK Hun” was an all-time best song ever written by contestants in a challenge for the show and had me singing “Bing bang bong / Sing sang song / Ding dang dong” for weeks on end, much to the dismay of every single person around me. 

Overall, UK 2 was a really special and incredible season that reminded me why I love Drag Race in the first place.

RATING: 10/10. One of the best seasons of the last few years and essential viewing for all Drag Race fans. A great introduction to the show for someone who’s never watched it before. 

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