There are two moments in the history of television that I never thought I would live to see. The first came nearly six years ago, when Twin Peaks: The Return began airing, and slowly transformed into one of the most important artistic achievements since the dawn of the moving image. The second is today, when Mrs. Kasha Davis returned to my screen in RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 8 (the first two episodes of which are now streaming on Paramount+), knocking The Return off its pedestal.
Kasha—who was essentially booted from Season 7 of Drag Race proper after she flubbed the word “welcome,” and pronounced it as “wel-cyoom,” in one of my favorite franchise moments of all time—never really got her due. And that’s why All Stars was created, to give a shot to the queens who showed massive potential, but didn’t get to bask in the spotlight of primetime reality television long enough.
This means that it can be a place for just about anyone in Drag Race herstory, as long as they made some kind of lasting impression during their time in front of the camera. Queens who were eliminated early can compete alongside queens who were inches from the crown, and have a legitimate shot at winning. (Hello, Kylie Sonique Love!)
After a brief pause on that conceit for a spinoff within a spinoff—All Stars 7, if you’ll remember, was the all-winners season, where previously crowned queens duked it out for the title of Queen of All Queens—the original recipe is back. And dare I say, better than it has been in years!
[Minor spoilers, not including eliminations, for Episodes 1 and 2 of All Stars 8 follow.]
The Drag Race formula has been devised to ensure that there is one franchise of the show airing (or about to air) at all times. This means that All Stars has been consistently welcoming back talented queens, sometimes seemingly without thinking about the broader picture of how the cast will play off of one another. For instance, All Stars 3 was a collection of alumni desperate to prove themselves in a burgeoning spinoff still finding its footing, and All Stars 4 was a true mess of personalities all around, ending in a lackluster double crowning. Each ensuing installment after the top tier second season—which stands as one of the best, of any reality show, ever—has had very clear peaks and valleys from the start.
But with All Stars 8, producers have rounded up a group of queens so multifaceted, so different, and so very dripping with personality, that the season looks like it’s only headed up from its first two episodes.
This season, All Stars welcomes back 12 queens: Jessica Wild from Season 2; Monica Beverly Hillz from Season 5; Darienne Lake from Season 6; Mrs. Kasha Davis from Season 7; Naysha Lopez from Season 8; Alexis Michelle and Jaymes Mansfield from Season 9; Kahanna Montrese from Season 11; Heidi N Closet from Season 12; Kandy Muse and LaLa Ri from Season 13; and Jimbo, from Canada’s Drag Race Season 1.
It’s a collection of unexpected divas from across the franchise’s legacy; queens who slayed their way through the competition (Kandy Muse) and others who were the first ones to leave (Kahanna Montrese and Jaymes Mansfield). This alone would be enough to give this season an edge, but even the queens who have been reasonably quiet since their time on the show are returning with a fight in them. And that’s evident from just their workroom entrances alone. Performers from the early seasons like Monica Beverly Hillz, Darienne Lake, and Jessica Wild walking into these hallowed, hairspray-reeking halls, with their drag turned up to an 11 compared to their first appearances. It is beyond gratifying.
These queens are all equally matched in both ability and personality, and no one is sauntering in too big for their britches (or their breastplates). They can even appropriately mock their first time on the show, like when Monica, Darienne, and Jessica laugh about the DIY ambience of Drag Race pre-Season 7, saying that competing was like seeing “who had the best Forever 21 drag.”
But these queens are keeping their friends close, and their competition even closer. Literally. Take one look at the way Kandy Muse eyes Jimbo up and down, when the two of them form an alliance in the first episode, or how Alexis Michelle bites her lip after confessing a crush on LaLa Ri. No, that’s not Season 9’s Farrah Moan floating through the workroom, those are actual pheromones. Perhaps that’s why All Stars 8 is imbued with such a lightness. As much as this group of queens is here for the crown, they’re also here to have fun, and really showcase what they can do.
That trickles down to this season’s “twist” as well, in which eliminated queens have an opportunity to win the “Online Fame Games.” The competitors tossed out of the race will post their unseen, planned runway looks from week to week as the show airs, and leave the fans to vote online for their favorites. The power is in the hands of the people, and this new gimmick feels like it could easily go awry or become rigged somehow, as there are seemingly no rules or regulations. But that’s something we’ll only know for sure as this season plays out into the dog days of summer.
The first couple of maxi challenges in Episodes 1 and 2 are a live performance, and a sketch comedy challenge, respectively. The on-stage show features the queens rewriting and recording their own lyrics to the underground club hit “Money, Success, Fame, Glamour,” while the comedy challenge is a straight up, surprisingly well-produced parody of Saturday Night Live. Mainstage performance challenges typically throw a few queens off, and that’s no different this time around. Jaymes Mansfield staying 17 beats behind in the choreography is an unfortunately hilarious sight to behold.
The comedy challenge, however, is far more fascinating, if largely because of how accurately the show’s producers and editors were able to mimic SNL. There’s a topical cold open (absolutely abysmal); a Weekend Update segment where LaLa Ri and Heidi N Closet are basically battling to see who deserves to audition for Lorne Michaels (both of them); and even one of those weirdo sketches, typically saved until the end of the show. There’s also a truly uproarious recreation of SNL’s opening credits, featuring all the queens messing around with props and faking laughter, that I’ll be rewatching the moment I send this review off into the ether. It’s that good—and I haven’t enjoyed SNL since 2011!
Runway themes leave a bit to be desired thus far, but even when the designated design thesis is laughable (the “Net” Gala?!), the All Stars 8 cast is pulling some astonishing, unexpected stunts. Avant-garde fashion aficionados who tune into Drag Race for the looks alone will not be disappointed by Jimbo’s antics, which continue to veer on surrealist horror while also demonstrating a keen eye for concepts. Kandy Muse and Kahanna Montrese are completely beguiling as well, in bold color palettes. But it’s the most satisfying to watch Darienne Lake and LaLa Ri strut their stuff. LaLa is here to prove that she too can compete on the runway, after the Bag Ball incident, while Darienne glows with an effervescence she kept buried under a stony exterior on Season 6, emboldened after an significant weight loss journey.
But such a fabulous cast doesn’t just make All Stars 8 pleasant to watch, it ramps up the intensity of the game. I felt largely ambivalent about the return of Jaymes Mansfield and Kahanna Montrese, but now, I can’t imagine this competition without them. If there were ever an All Stars season that should have the rules of Season 7—where queens had to stack points and wins, as opposed to being eliminated—it would be this one. But that would strip us of the joy of seeing Lip Sync Assassins being Ru-vealed to up the stakes. Episode 1’s assassin, and the song choice she was brought on to perform, made me violently lurch forward in obnoxiously gay anticipation.
I thought I had a handful of queens to keep an eye on for All Stars 8, but had to scratch my list entirely by the third time I reordered it. It’s impossible to choose favorites here, and even more inconceivable to predict who could make it to the end of the competition. (However, I will kindly encourage you to keep an eye on LaLa Ri, who made me laugh so hard in the Weekend Update sketch, with a plainly stated joke about Lady Bunny’s prolapsed anus, that I had to swallow scalding hot coffee to avoid choking, burning a hole into my esophagus.)
Unless RuPaul ever decides to pause All Stars for a few cycles, we may never quite reach the excitement of this show’s glorious second season. But with a collection of endlessly colorful characters who are capable of making even their worst performances somehow seem charming enough to win the whole damn shebang, All Stars 8 restores the wild, unexpected, hyper-draggy fun of everyone’s favorite spinoff franchise to its appointment-television glory days.
Liked this review? Sign up to get our weekly See Skip newsletter every Tuesday and find out what new shows and movies are worth watching, and which aren’t.
