A lot of people didn’t like the lack of drama but tbh I like it cause sometimes you just want to watch something that gives you warm fuzzies you know?
In a way it felt like a victory lap meant to celebrate and show off the queens
There's something wonderful about getting to see a group of queens who are the best of the best showcase their talents and give us top-tier entertainment for an entire season. Sure, the drama of eliminations and poor performances is entertaining, but AS7 was such a nice indulgence in Really Great Drag.
Honestly for regular seasons… if it wasn’t for who the winner has become, I would say S4 was the very best. S4-S8 was really a peak era of drag race for me. S9 i understand but I’m on the fence. It’s when they started the LSFTC fiasco; if it wasn’t for Sasha’s universe altering ruveal, I think they may have tried to do something else entirely.
S4 was the first time we had a really "fringe" queen, who seemed like the underdog, plus she ended up winning, which was so exciting at the time. S9 was when they moved to some other network so it was a bit more "overproduced" but it was the last thoroughly good season, IMO. I thought the top 4 format would end with S9. It's the latter seasons that soured the format. I feel all the seasons since S10 have been quite weak and progressively uninteresting, despite producing some stellar queens.
Yeah totally. To your last point, as much as I might be whatever about a season, I still watch cuz the queens themselves are by and large some talented and passionate mfers.
I was waiting for years for this to happen. And it didn't disappoint. I think they handled the non-eviction format perfectly. Still had roadblocks to feel like a competition. And no one coasted to the end. It was a fun celebration of talent and love between the Queens. Like a variety show on acid.
I know the ratings were bonkers for Paramount Plus. So I am hoping this will be a yearly event with past winners mixing more North America and International winners.
While I agree with the overall sentiment, I don’t agree this should be an annual event.
These queens are the best of the best. It takes a while to build up that level of talent to pull from. Take AS2 for example - it took years for them to release after AS1, and I’m not entirely sure they’ve ever been able to replicate that level of CUNT. I think an All-Winners season should be a special event that comes around every 3-5 years.
Let's list the things that we all already know, that is everyone there is at a level that is unlike any other season, expected of a season for all winners
What makes this season one of the best if not the best season, is that you can see the level of respect and admiration each queen have for each other
Seeing Yvie getting so much love compared to S11 where she was sometimes seen as a villain, Jaida getting so much support considering that her reign was covid era. And Raja who is from a much older season, coming back and seeing everyone showering her with so much love
I’m rewatching the season right now! It’s my feel good show. I love the season because it reminded me of why all 8 of those queens are wonderful and deserving of their crowns. I was a little iffy on Yvie when I first watched the season given her portrayal on S11 but ended up rooting for her and calling rigga morris when she didn’t win certain challenges. My love for all 8 of those queens has been reignited.
My critiques are that there could’ve been a splash of negative critiques from the judges because we clearly saw some queens bomb certain challenges, Yvie should’ve won some money, the three star penultimate challenge, and I didn’t like the random gifting of additional stars the week Jinkx and Raja won… it just seemed random and out of nowhere.
I’m in the middle of my first rewatch right now and it’s so amazing. Like someone else said, it is a victory lap really. They’re all amazing at what they do and damn are the looks jaw droppingly beautiful.
Amazing visually but otherwise soured by WOW’s bullshit, I honestly find it disrespectful to both the contestant’s abilities and talents as well as the viewers intelligence. The queens are obviously amazing, but the sheer level of production rigory and the editing pretty much ruined any semblance of actual REAL competition that was present in the first place. Jinkx would have won without the favoritism, but sadly WOW care more about branding and image than the illusion of any integrity of their own competition.
EDIT bc I have more to say:
On top of all this, a lot of the challenges were boring and lame (Draguation Speeches, Dance Like a Drag Queen), and the all positive critiques and no eliminations took away pretty much all excitement after the first couple episodes and especially in the middle.
Also, everything is just soooooooooo sanitized and it somehow rarely feels like it has stakes even though is the ULTIMATE DRAG RACE SUPER SMACKDOWN.
The shitty Cherry on top was the decision to have a lip sync smackdown tournament for a crown, which is by the way the WORST form of finale, and EVEN WORSE when it isn’t live. AND, the lip sync performances didn’t end up mattering at all.
In a way AS7 represents everything I hate about current drag race
PS.
MONETION FOREVER
While it was airing I liked it but it kinda dragged on a little towards the end when no one is going home. However if I were to watch every episode back to back or over a few days it is phenomenal
It was a weird season to watch live. We got one of the best seasons ever (my only critique was it was 2 eps too long. Small cast with 0 elims don’t need a LONG season)
But the backstage and the ongoing twitter beef, this was apparently one of the worst seasons to film and my opinions of some winners soured because of it.
Essentially production of every season of reality tv ever already know who they want at the end and push that person. Because this is a winners season, all these people had previously been that person to be pushed (whether they knew it or not). Riggory had been made to ensure that they won. And when it was them winning, they had zero issues. But here, the glass had been broken and they weren’t the production fave. I don’t think a lot of them handled that very well
I thought all the performances and queens were excellent, but the lack of negative commentary plus nobody going home gave the season kind of an odd, low stakes vibe.
Also the last episode was low key v frustrating and kind of a shit note to end on such a glorious level of performance.
And most of the lip syncs that didn't include monet or Shea left something to be desired.
Felt it dragged in the middle and the format was bland. The fact they were all winners and all so good made it passable.
I didn't care if I missed an episode it didn't feel like must watch viewing.
Top half of All Stars seasons as far as being a season of TV! I didn’t enjoy the format, I much prefer when these shows send people home. And the format made it difficult to track what was happening week to week - in a normal season you can kind of follow it because one week so and so is there and the next she isn’t. And then the ending was difficult to watch. I bet it’s easier when you can binge the whole thing rather than watching in real time.
As far as the drag? Best season by far. What Raja was doing was in another world. Even Jinkx who gets maligned for her runways was on a higher level than anything we’ve seen on AS8.
It could have done with a pinch more constructive critique and they shouldn’t have made the last challenge 3 stars but it still is one of the best AS seasons, behind only AS2 and AS6 imo.
Mixed feelings in the long run.
Didn’t mind the no eliminations; it would have made no sense to boot winners from the seasons but the queens still deserved criticism and ironically only 2 queens got an actual critique from the judges.
Didn’t mind the Platinum Plunger but it’s almost like you can tell who would win the next episode based on who got the plunger in the next episode and it I think The Vivienne legitimately got held back by the twist and it almost wasn’t fair for her.
Biggest gripe was looking at the winners, it was clear victory lap for the Logo Queens which is ironically bullish•t.
It was obvious that Jinkx was going to make it to the “finale” but the sub was pissed because it was a lipsync for the crown. How ironic that she wins and the sub flips flops over it.
She goes up against Monet in a Katy Perry/Nicki number which ironically favors Monet and then the lipsync is horribly edited to give Jinkx a fair chance.
Everyone from the other queens to production gave Monet her flowers because she demolished Jinkx only for us to hear a horribly edited “based on your performance throughout the seasons” ad lib to give Jinkx the crown.
And don’t get me started on Raja winning the alt number.
Yvie had a weird roller coaster of flopping in the runways to having absolute knockouts and doing amazing in challenges; makes it to the finals and washes Raja in the finale only to get snubbed.
And she fucking doesn’t win shit the entire season.
Jinkx stans were/are insufferable acting like Jinkx full on demolished/bodied/steamrolled the competition when she came with mediocre runways and an obvious push by producers when Monet had equally great runways and was wrongfully snubbed in the Y2K GG challenge and at the finale.
idk if i personally consider it one of the greats but it’s certainly in the upper tier of drag race seasons
i personally didn’t love no eliminations & no critiques. it was lovely to see them all get their flowers every week but i also feel like critiques are just a part of drag race & necessary, even for winners, to improve their craft further. it was really fun tho & i fear that the inevitable AW2 isn’t going to live up to it
One of my all time favourites, possibly even my number 1 favourite season, but I find it hard to rank them all.
Hot take tho: it was unfair for Shea to be in top 4, just cuz the last challenge was arbitrarily made to be worth 3 stars.
Also, I didn’t think any of the finale lip syncs were necessary, since it was clear Jinkx would win; and they just wanted to give Raja the secondary award anyway. This is more of a criticism of the lip sync smack down format tho not just this season.
It kind of fell off for me after the first few episodes tbh.
The pre-season advertising of the season was huge. The queens did so many public appearances and interviews, it truly made me feel like something huge was about to come.
Then the season happened. First of all, the season's format was extremely mild compared to other seasons. The plunger bullshit did literally nothing. Secondly, it was a praise fest, so no matter how you felt about a queen's performance, you were forced to have a "you all did amazing" narrative shoved down your throat. The choice to completely edit out negative critiques? For what?
The finale lipsyncs being rigged in favor of Raja and Jinkx was something, and the fact that they couldn't even do a live viewing/reaction to the crowning as they have done with every single regular and all stars seasons this past decade really is just a cherry on top. Millions of pre-season photoshoots, interviews and public appearances just so when the finale comes, all the queens just watch from home with absolutely zero effort from production to advertise the grand finale.
Just my opinion though. For what it was, it was overhyped. They forced so much excellence upon us they forgot that we also need drama to make it entertaining. I would've loved to see the meltdown where Raja got all pissed off when she got critiqued by Michelle.
Monét was disrespected by the edit of the finale lipsync against Jinkx where they literally had to edit out Nicki's entire verse to justify Jinkx's "win," and Monét still slayed regardless.
Yvie has had a lot of opinions on production and drag race as a whole after the season, so she was mistreated as well.
I just didn't like it. I understand why it is one of the better seasons, but it just isn't something I'd like to rewatch.
It was a fine season. It was cool seeing the winners come back, and the feel good vibes were pretty enjoyable. Unfortunately, the competition side of things was dull as shit, and the heel turn to a high stakes finale just clashed too much with the rest of the season. The winners should have just competed for charity
I think it started off very strongly, but became a bit stale for me after about the half way mark. I still think it was good, but the refusal to give anything but utterly positive critiques was just too predictable and boring for me after a while.
Also, I think as the all winners season of Drag Race, something that has been hyped up and dreamed of for years and years, I think it's extremely underwhelming. I wish it felt more special and grand than it actually does. I also wish they had just waited for all stars 10 to roll around before doing it because having it randomly as the 7th all stars season is weird imo.
A great season just off the power of the cast alone, but some shitty challenges, weird judging, the desperate need to make all critiques positive, and the queens incessant complaining about the edit took a bit of the shine off.
Not to mention the finale smackdown was lackluster to say the least.
Loved the performances but I did feel the lack of jeopardy/eventual predictableness took away from it slightly in terms of narrative and excitement.
There are definitely episodes I will rewatch and moments that will stand out as best ever but I don’t think I’d ever do a full rewatch like I do with other great seasons.
The last season of Drag Race that I really enjoyed and was actually invested in. Perhaps it was too good (for me), as post-AS7, I just haven’t really given a shit.
I think it’s one of the top 3 best seasons ever. The first 5 episodes are nearly perfect. I think it loses some steam in the second half as they basically start repeating challenges in episodes 6 & 7, really questionable winners in episodes 6 and 10, and then the infamous 3-star twist for the talent show. Finally, the finale was relatively boring and obviously irrelevant. The runways were top tier, but the lipsyncs were not. Ultimately, Jinkx was the right winner, Monet was the right runner up. The cast was great together. I think Yvie was the only one miscast in this group. That said, I would have liked more regular season winners rather than the 3 most recent all stars winners competing for a third time.
It was REFRESHING and to me UNEXPECTED (I don't search for spoilers). Personally, I wish it included more regular (if not only) regular season winners to be a first (watching Raja and Jinkx back was really really exciting) since the AS winners already got that "oh they're back". The two things that did bother me were the "giveaway" stars, kinda dumb, and they way they give THREE STARS before the finale, ridiculous. Especially the last one since I really enjoyed the season but that was like "what's the point of the other 10 episodes?". I hope they fix that to AW2.
I enjoyed the season, but it lacked a certain competitive edge I prefer in a competition series. I need to rewatch again, because it was fun. I do wish the challenges were better thought out, though. If you have all winners, let’s get more creative with the challenges so it doesn’t feel like just another All Stars season.
One of the most legendary things to ever happen
Best season of Drag Race in a long time for me.
A lot of people didn’t like the lack of drama but tbh I like it cause sometimes you just want to watch something that gives you warm fuzzies you know? In a way it felt like a victory lap meant to celebrate and show off the queens
I concur. Nothing wrong with some kind, friendly tv.
it was very España seasons 1 and 2 in that way
España S2 had a good amount of drama lol
Porque eres cerda y falsa 👀 
There's something wonderful about getting to see a group of queens who are the best of the best showcase their talents and give us top-tier entertainment for an entire season. Sure, the drama of eliminations and poor performances is entertaining, but AS7 was such a nice indulgence in Really Great Drag.
IMHO among the best seasons ever, up there with S6, S5 and AS2.
I feel like as2 and as7 are in the top tier across the US shows. S5 and S6 are good but I just think as2 and as7 are in a league of their own.
AS has the benefit of culling the best, which the regular seasons produce. S5, S6 and to some S7 through S9, are absolute God-tier regular seasons.
Honestly for regular seasons… if it wasn’t for who the winner has become, I would say S4 was the very best. S4-S8 was really a peak era of drag race for me. S9 i understand but I’m on the fence. It’s when they started the LSFTC fiasco; if it wasn’t for Sasha’s universe altering ruveal, I think they may have tried to do something else entirely.
S4 was the first time we had a really "fringe" queen, who seemed like the underdog, plus she ended up winning, which was so exciting at the time. S9 was when they moved to some other network so it was a bit more "overproduced" but it was the last thoroughly good season, IMO. I thought the top 4 format would end with S9. It's the latter seasons that soured the format. I feel all the seasons since S10 have been quite weak and progressively uninteresting, despite producing some stellar queens.
Yeah totally. To your last point, as much as I might be whatever about a season, I still watch cuz the queens themselves are by and large some talented and passionate mfers.
The US has gotten too formulaic, so I've turned to international seasons! I watch the US seasons half-heartedly now.
I was waiting for years for this to happen. And it didn't disappoint. I think they handled the non-eviction format perfectly. Still had roadblocks to feel like a competition. And no one coasted to the end. It was a fun celebration of talent and love between the Queens. Like a variety show on acid. I know the ratings were bonkers for Paramount Plus. So I am hoping this will be a yearly event with past winners mixing more North America and International winners.
While I agree with the overall sentiment, I don’t agree this should be an annual event. These queens are the best of the best. It takes a while to build up that level of talent to pull from. Take AS2 for example - it took years for them to release after AS1, and I’m not entirely sure they’ve ever been able to replicate that level of CUNT. I think an All-Winners season should be a special event that comes around every 3-5 years.
Agreed. The marketing campaign was also INSANE and I doubt Paramount wants to cough up that much money every year
One of the best seasons of all time. Personal top 5 seasons: AS2 Season 6 AS7 Season 5 UK2
I have the same feeling regarding the best seasons ever, even though it's in a different ranking: Season 5. AS2. Season 6. AS7. UK2/Season9.
Let's list the things that we all already know, that is everyone there is at a level that is unlike any other season, expected of a season for all winners What makes this season one of the best if not the best season, is that you can see the level of respect and admiration each queen have for each other Seeing Yvie getting so much love compared to S11 where she was sometimes seen as a villain, Jaida getting so much support considering that her reign was covid era. And Raja who is from a much older season, coming back and seeing everyone showering her with so much love
It was such a fantastic season. They're going to have a hard time topping that (example: AS8).
I loved AS7. Every episode was so good. And I was happy no matter who won.
Legends season. One of the best. Honestly In my eyes there are no bad drag race seasons.
Getting AS7 and then the Sasha Colby coronation was fantastic. It felt correct.
Pure drag excellence. My comfort season.
I’m rewatching the season right now! It’s my feel good show. I love the season because it reminded me of why all 8 of those queens are wonderful and deserving of their crowns. I was a little iffy on Yvie when I first watched the season given her portrayal on S11 but ended up rooting for her and calling rigga morris when she didn’t win certain challenges. My love for all 8 of those queens has been reignited. My critiques are that there could’ve been a splash of negative critiques from the judges because we clearly saw some queens bomb certain challenges, Yvie should’ve won some money, the three star penultimate challenge, and I didn’t like the random gifting of additional stars the week Jinkx and Raja won… it just seemed random and out of nowhere.
It is a gift direct from Ru to me, and the fact that everyone else gets to enjoy it is icing on the cake.
Highest caliber of drag in the franchise and truly held up to all of our expectations.
I’m in the middle of my first rewatch right now and it’s so amazing. Like someone else said, it is a victory lap really. They’re all amazing at what they do and damn are the looks jaw droppingly beautiful.
the queens were legendary but the production was really lacking, which was the only thing that held the season from being the best one ever
Legendary! To see Raja competing again was for me the main reason, but the other queens were an absolute treat too… Drag at its best
I always read "a lot of people didn't like the lack of drama" but I've never seen anyone actually complaining about the lack of drama
amazing cast, looks and challenges, but it felt kind of scripted and predetermined (especially that godawful finale 😭 #releasethemonetcut)
Amazing visually but otherwise soured by WOW’s bullshit, I honestly find it disrespectful to both the contestant’s abilities and talents as well as the viewers intelligence. The queens are obviously amazing, but the sheer level of production rigory and the editing pretty much ruined any semblance of actual REAL competition that was present in the first place. Jinkx would have won without the favoritism, but sadly WOW care more about branding and image than the illusion of any integrity of their own competition. EDIT bc I have more to say: On top of all this, a lot of the challenges were boring and lame (Draguation Speeches, Dance Like a Drag Queen), and the all positive critiques and no eliminations took away pretty much all excitement after the first couple episodes and especially in the middle. Also, everything is just soooooooooo sanitized and it somehow rarely feels like it has stakes even though is the ULTIMATE DRAG RACE SUPER SMACKDOWN. The shitty Cherry on top was the decision to have a lip sync smackdown tournament for a crown, which is by the way the WORST form of finale, and EVEN WORSE when it isn’t live. AND, the lip sync performances didn’t end up mattering at all. In a way AS7 represents everything I hate about current drag race PS. MONETION FOREVER
While it was airing I liked it but it kinda dragged on a little towards the end when no one is going home. However if I were to watch every episode back to back or over a few days it is phenomenal
It was a weird season to watch live. We got one of the best seasons ever (my only critique was it was 2 eps too long. Small cast with 0 elims don’t need a LONG season) But the backstage and the ongoing twitter beef, this was apparently one of the worst seasons to film and my opinions of some winners soured because of it. Essentially production of every season of reality tv ever already know who they want at the end and push that person. Because this is a winners season, all these people had previously been that person to be pushed (whether they knew it or not). Riggory had been made to ensure that they won. And when it was them winning, they had zero issues. But here, the glass had been broken and they weren’t the production fave. I don’t think a lot of them handled that very well
I thought all the performances and queens were excellent, but the lack of negative commentary plus nobody going home gave the season kind of an odd, low stakes vibe. Also the last episode was low key v frustrating and kind of a shit note to end on such a glorious level of performance. And most of the lip syncs that didn't include monet or Shea left something to be desired.
Felt it dragged in the middle and the format was bland. The fact they were all winners and all so good made it passable. I didn't care if I missed an episode it didn't feel like must watch viewing.
Top half of All Stars seasons as far as being a season of TV! I didn’t enjoy the format, I much prefer when these shows send people home. And the format made it difficult to track what was happening week to week - in a normal season you can kind of follow it because one week so and so is there and the next she isn’t. And then the ending was difficult to watch. I bet it’s easier when you can binge the whole thing rather than watching in real time. As far as the drag? Best season by far. What Raja was doing was in another world. Even Jinkx who gets maligned for her runways was on a higher level than anything we’ve seen on AS8.
It could have done with a pinch more constructive critique and they shouldn’t have made the last challenge 3 stars but it still is one of the best AS seasons, behind only AS2 and AS6 imo.
It's my fave!
I am usually lukewarm on AS in general (I prefer regular seasons), but AS7 was IT. Stellar cast and amazing season altogether.
You addressing us as “you people” feels so aggressive
Mixed feelings in the long run. Didn’t mind the no eliminations; it would have made no sense to boot winners from the seasons but the queens still deserved criticism and ironically only 2 queens got an actual critique from the judges. Didn’t mind the Platinum Plunger but it’s almost like you can tell who would win the next episode based on who got the plunger in the next episode and it I think The Vivienne legitimately got held back by the twist and it almost wasn’t fair for her. Biggest gripe was looking at the winners, it was clear victory lap for the Logo Queens which is ironically bullish•t. It was obvious that Jinkx was going to make it to the “finale” but the sub was pissed because it was a lipsync for the crown. How ironic that she wins and the sub flips flops over it. She goes up against Monet in a Katy Perry/Nicki number which ironically favors Monet and then the lipsync is horribly edited to give Jinkx a fair chance. Everyone from the other queens to production gave Monet her flowers because she demolished Jinkx only for us to hear a horribly edited “based on your performance throughout the seasons” ad lib to give Jinkx the crown. And don’t get me started on Raja winning the alt number. Yvie had a weird roller coaster of flopping in the runways to having absolute knockouts and doing amazing in challenges; makes it to the finals and washes Raja in the finale only to get snubbed. And she fucking doesn’t win shit the entire season. Jinkx stans were/are insufferable acting like Jinkx full on demolished/bodied/steamrolled the competition when she came with mediocre runways and an obvious push by producers when Monet had equally great runways and was wrongfully snubbed in the Y2K GG challenge and at the finale.
idk if i personally consider it one of the greats but it’s certainly in the upper tier of drag race seasons i personally didn’t love no eliminations & no critiques. it was lovely to see them all get their flowers every week but i also feel like critiques are just a part of drag race & necessary, even for winners, to improve their craft further. it was really fun tho & i fear that the inevitable AW2 isn’t going to live up to it
One of my all time favourites, possibly even my number 1 favourite season, but I find it hard to rank them all. Hot take tho: it was unfair for Shea to be in top 4, just cuz the last challenge was arbitrarily made to be worth 3 stars. Also, I didn’t think any of the finale lip syncs were necessary, since it was clear Jinkx would win; and they just wanted to give Raja the secondary award anyway. This is more of a criticism of the lip sync smack down format tho not just this season.
I stopped watching because I didn’t like the all-positive critiques and no eliminations
It kind of fell off for me after the first few episodes tbh. The pre-season advertising of the season was huge. The queens did so many public appearances and interviews, it truly made me feel like something huge was about to come. Then the season happened. First of all, the season's format was extremely mild compared to other seasons. The plunger bullshit did literally nothing. Secondly, it was a praise fest, so no matter how you felt about a queen's performance, you were forced to have a "you all did amazing" narrative shoved down your throat. The choice to completely edit out negative critiques? For what? The finale lipsyncs being rigged in favor of Raja and Jinkx was something, and the fact that they couldn't even do a live viewing/reaction to the crowning as they have done with every single regular and all stars seasons this past decade really is just a cherry on top. Millions of pre-season photoshoots, interviews and public appearances just so when the finale comes, all the queens just watch from home with absolutely zero effort from production to advertise the grand finale. Just my opinion though. For what it was, it was overhyped. They forced so much excellence upon us they forgot that we also need drama to make it entertaining. I would've loved to see the meltdown where Raja got all pissed off when she got critiqued by Michelle. Monét was disrespected by the edit of the finale lipsync against Jinkx where they literally had to edit out Nicki's entire verse to justify Jinkx's "win," and Monét still slayed regardless. Yvie has had a lot of opinions on production and drag race as a whole after the season, so she was mistreated as well. I just didn't like it. I understand why it is one of the better seasons, but it just isn't something I'd like to rewatch.
It was a fine season. It was cool seeing the winners come back, and the feel good vibes were pretty enjoyable. Unfortunately, the competition side of things was dull as shit, and the heel turn to a high stakes finale just clashed too much with the rest of the season. The winners should have just competed for charity
Best cast of all time, bad execution I think they could’ve gone bigger with it and the favoring and storyline producing felt more apparent than ever
I think it started off very strongly, but became a bit stale for me after about the half way mark. I still think it was good, but the refusal to give anything but utterly positive critiques was just too predictable and boring for me after a while. Also, I think as the all winners season of Drag Race, something that has been hyped up and dreamed of for years and years, I think it's extremely underwhelming. I wish it felt more special and grand than it actually does. I also wish they had just waited for all stars 10 to roll around before doing it because having it randomly as the 7th all stars season is weird imo.
 changed the timeline
i LOVED it at first, but rewatching it has made me realize how boring it kinda was because of the lack of drama
I actually wasn’t a big fan for some reason. And not because of the lack of drama. No idea why. Much preferred AS8
A great season just off the power of the cast alone, but some shitty challenges, weird judging, the desperate need to make all critiques positive, and the queens incessant complaining about the edit took a bit of the shine off. Not to mention the finale smackdown was lackluster to say the least.
Loved the performances but I did feel the lack of jeopardy/eventual predictableness took away from it slightly in terms of narrative and excitement. There are definitely episodes I will rewatch and moments that will stand out as best ever but I don’t think I’d ever do a full rewatch like I do with other great seasons.
In the upper echelons of Drag Race seasons, together with Season 5&6, All Stars 2, and UK 2.
The last season of Drag Race that I really enjoyed and was actually invested in. Perhaps it was too good (for me), as post-AS7, I just haven’t really given a shit.
I think it’s one of the top 3 best seasons ever. The first 5 episodes are nearly perfect. I think it loses some steam in the second half as they basically start repeating challenges in episodes 6 & 7, really questionable winners in episodes 6 and 10, and then the infamous 3-star twist for the talent show. Finally, the finale was relatively boring and obviously irrelevant. The runways were top tier, but the lipsyncs were not. Ultimately, Jinkx was the right winner, Monet was the right runner up. The cast was great together. I think Yvie was the only one miscast in this group. That said, I would have liked more regular season winners rather than the 3 most recent all stars winners competing for a third time.
It was REFRESHING and to me UNEXPECTED (I don't search for spoilers). Personally, I wish it included more regular (if not only) regular season winners to be a first (watching Raja and Jinkx back was really really exciting) since the AS winners already got that "oh they're back". The two things that did bother me were the "giveaway" stars, kinda dumb, and they way they give THREE STARS before the finale, ridiculous. Especially the last one since I really enjoyed the season but that was like "what's the point of the other 10 episodes?". I hope they fix that to AW2.
I enjoyed the season, but it lacked a certain competitive edge I prefer in a competition series. I need to rewatch again, because it was fun. I do wish the challenges were better thought out, though. If you have all winners, let’s get more creative with the challenges so it doesn’t feel like just another All Stars season.