‘RuPaul’s Drag Race UK’ Is Fiercely Revolutionary in Its Kindness

There are plenty of reasons to watch RuPaul’s Drag Race. There are the sick’ning looks, the jaw-dropping lip syncs, the scantily clad menseses, the popping personalities, the intense fights, and—is this controversial to mention?—the genuine friendships. I ask if it’s controversial because lordy does Drag Race and its fans love the drama. That’s why the companion series Untucked! exists (which you can now stream on Hulu). It’s a whole series devoted to the tea-spilling tomfoolery that the queens get up to during deliberation. And it’s in Untucked! that the iconic line “This is not RuPaul’s Best Friend Race” was coined by Season 4’s Lashauwn Beyond.

Over the years, that line has become the unofficial ethos of much of Drag Race, perhaps more so the fandom than the show itself. The show loves serving up conflict and the fans love scarfing it down even more. So many of the most iconic moments come from that drama, too (two words: Party City; two more words: sugar daddy). And sometimes that drama comes with a larger point to make beyond being messy, like the Vixen’s (completely justified) rage against the implicit cultural biases against queens of color during Season 10. The conflict is baked right into the show (it is a competition!), and Drag Race without drama is like a cookie without chocolate chips.

But I’ve felt an imbalance in the Fierce (which is the gay Force, BTW) over the past few seasons, as the show gave us more drama than camaraderie. That wasn’t a problem in Season 9, a season that gave us the tightest Top 4 ever, real bonding (Sasha Velour and Shea Coulee for the win, every time), and truly emotional discussions (eating disorders, Russia’s anti-LGBTQ regime, the trans community’s struggle, Pulse—what didn’t those girls cover?!). And then Season 10 stirred the pot, Season 11 devoted so much time to Silky and Yvie’s feud, as well as the saga of Ariel Versace’s wigs. There was the Trixie(‘s Thorgy Thor note) vs. Shangela(‘s expert moment-producing skills) event in All Stars 3. And even when BenDeLaCreme sent herself home, fans—as well as her AS3 sisters—immediately jumped to shady conspiracy theories rather than believing that a queen did something selfless.

That’s why RuPaul’s Drag Race UK has been an absolute joy to watch. These are 10 queens that not only like each other, but respect each other—and they still find room for the shade that even I crave! Maybe it’s that fine and dandy UK disposition that keeps them polite, or maybe it’s the fact that these 10 people immediately bonded over being the start of a brand new dynasty. Whatever the deal is, it’s made for magical television, the kind that I believe reality TV was created to host.

Each week, we get to learn more about these queens, even the ones that went home rather fast. Gothy Kendoll’s insecurity about her teeth broke my heart in Episode 1. Episode 2’s convo between 19-year-old Scaredy Kat and seasoned queens Vinegar Strokes and Sum Ting Wong about how life has changed for the queer community just over the past decade was vital. The newly-forged friendship between Vinegar and Sum Ting, fully on display in many a teary moment, made Episode 3 so emotional. And Divina de Campo gave us quite possibly the line of the season in Episode 4 while talking with Blu Hydrangea about Northern Ireland’s backwards thinking about same-sex marriage: “Your belief is a belief. My existence is a reality.”

And between all those big moments are the little ones, like The Vivienne and Baga Chipz going full Thelma and Louise in the middle of the Werk Room, or the way Crystal offered blunt but constructive criticism to a struggling Vinegar, or how Divina let Baga borrow a better Margaret Thatcher look for Snatch Game. Even The Vivienne, clearly the season’s front-runner, told all the girls to ask for help if any of them ever need help leveling up their drag! There was also Vinegar’s gasp of horror when she found out Sum Ting was in the bottom with her, and multiple times now, a lip sync has ended with the competing queens hugging each other tightly, offering out-of-breath praise to their competitor. These are small moments of sincerity, sincere affection, sincere connection, or sincere delight. Call me basic, but I love a show that makes room for a big group of queer people to just be nice to each other.

That’s not to say that the show hasn’t had conflict! The London girls have been very confused about the Alyssa Edwards-ification of Cheryl Hole, and some rivalries are brewing between the girls with a Ru Peter Badge and the rest. There was even a whole mini-challenge designed around The Vivienne subtly reading the 8 queens left standing (which was so shady and I loved it). But so far, no queen is snooping around for drama or playing up a Level 3 offense like it’s a Level 9 just for screen time.

I think the team crafting Drag Race UK is savvy enough to know that at this point, so deep in the franchise’s run, the drama isn’t as real as it used to be. The queens nowadays know how the show is edited and know how to find their light (and give us good TV, don’t get me wrong). But those lightning strike moments, Shangela throwing a drink in Mimi Imfurst’s face or Tatianna’s point blank “Tyra is a complete bitch,” they don’t happen as much because the queens now know how the fandom will react to such actions and they’ve (mostly) adjusted accordingly. But the friendship? It still feels real, and it feels new, and it feels needed (did you know that the world is, generally, awful?). And also, need I point out that a lip sync between two queens that hate each other is nowhere near as wrenching as one between two queens that love each other. Raven and Jujubee taught us that, and now Vinegar and Sum Ting know it to be true.

I’m not saying Drag Race needs to ditch the drama. I am saying that RuPaul’s Drag Race UK brought back a level of heart to the franchise that I’ve been missing. It’s still RuPaul’s Drag Race, but there’s no shame in it also being RuPaul’s Best Friend Race.

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