Reading Drag Race

We made it! It's the end of the season. Join Conde Nasty and Hersula the Sea Bitch as one more season finally draws to a close. We laugh. We cry. We drink margaritas. The queens face off in a Britney Spears-themed lip sync battle before [SPOILER] is crowned the new queen. It's been a long and lovely season, and we'll see you all for All Stars 6!

Please close your tray tables and put your tucks in the upright and locked position as Glamazonian Airways Flight 13 is beginning its descent into the finale. But before we can crown a new winner, we have to put the final four through some very familiar paces. Music video? Check. Tic Tacs? Check. Tearful messages to our younger selves? Check and double check.  Join Hersula, Conde Nasty, and guest Valkyrie to assess the top four queens, the season as a whole, and whatever the hell else they feel like.

Recording for the first time in person for over a year, Hersula and Conde Nasty are here to whittle down the top five into a final four and generally readjust to speaking to each other face to face. Like this season, it's a long journey.

Hersula and Conde Nasty, joined by special guest Tara, are all over the map this week. With topics ranging from why Tamisha Iman is still right to armchair psychoanalysis, nothing is off limits (or coherent). And then we try our hands at gently roasting the gurls, something this week's contestants should have considered trying.

It's time for the queens to sell themselves in a vaguely defined product challenge. (At least it's not a soup can you wear like a barrel in a 1930s cartoon.) This week Conde Nasty and Hersula are joined by recurring BFF Buffy Cummers to assess the commercials and watch the queens claw their way through another runway, this time dressed as BEASTS. Which queen will be sent back to the wilds of working a gay bar on a Tuesday night for tips? Listen and find out...  

It's the makeover challenge, and since it isn't safe to bring in a group of unsuspecting civilians, they queens are making over each other! Join Conde Nasty and Hersula to judge the queens, and later, we'll bust out the Ouija board and scare up Clara the Cow to see what she thought of Tina Burner deciding today was the day to try a new color scheme.

It's the most wonderful time of the year: Snatch Game! BFF Valkyrie joins Conde Nasty and Hersula to break down all the truly questionable decisions the queens made on this year's panel. Then the queens try to fascinate the judges with their fashion on the runway, and one queen is left without a leg to stand on.

Oblivia is back, and they. have. opinions. Join them and Conde Nasty and Hersula to attend the only musical still running right now. That's right, it's the Rusical! After the curtain falls on their tribute to social media, the gurls brighten up the runway in dazzling array of yellow looks. And, yes, Michelle. It was yellow.

No matter how chaotic and uncertain the world may be, there remains this unchanging constant: most improv performances are kind of awkward to sit through. Join Conde Nasty and Hersula as they politely watch the girls try their best before stringing together some beaded eleganza on the runway.

Conde Nasty and Hersula welcome back Buffy Cummers to break down this week's episode that sees the girls dance through a disco documentary and walk the runway serving their takes on the eternal classic, the Little Black Dress.  More importantly, this episode serves as a long, detailed, and entirely deserved love letter to one Tamisha Iman. Until we meet again in All Stars...

Conde Nasty and Hersula barely survived this week in which they had to form opinions on THIRTY-SIX looks. Fortunately, recurring guest Valkyrie is back to help manage the load. Now if we could only get the image of that baby mini challenge to stop haunting our nightmares...

Special guest host Oblivia joins Hersula and Conde Nasty for the first episode of the season to eliminate a queen for real and not just for the fun of psychologically traumatizing them. This week sees the dolls celebrating the holidays with their very own Hallmark romcom before steaming down the the runway serving trains, trains for days. One of the queens better hope the bus is still running, because their train has come to its final destination.

Has 2021 not quite washed the aftertaste of 2020 out of your mouth yet? Then slip into a new episode of Drag Race and let your cares melt away in a warm bath of no eliminations, the welcome return of Nicole Byer, and literally one of the most beautiful gowns ever seen by mortal man. Conde Nasty and Hersula are here to break down another three runways' worth of looks and to get to know the queens really well before they finally start sending them home. So it hurts more. Like it should.

Intrigue! Espionage! Lamé! Last weeks winners (plus Elliott with 2 Ts) have to go from daytime to nighttime in the season's first mini-challenge before writing, directing, producing, choreographing, lighting, editing, and catering their performance to a Ru number. Finally, they shimmer across the main stage in their best lamé looks. Join Conde Nasty, Hersula, and special guest That Gurl to wade through the many looks and lip syncs.

Happy Ru Year! It's 2021 and what better way to forget the shitshow of 2020 than by launching a new year with a new season of drag race? But Ru has a new batch of challenges in store for our queens, leaving more than one contestant gagged and/or gooped. Though, to be fair, it's probably not the first time some of the queens have been fucked in a loading dock.

The weather outside (and frankly, everything else) is frightful, but an inclusive queer romcom with an all-star cast is delightful! Join Hersula, Conde Nasty, and guest Valkyrie as they break down Hulu's contribution to the holiday canon, Happiest Season. Come for the familiar family drama, stay for Aubrey Plaza's raging sexual allure. Afterwards, Hersula and Conde Nasty take a deep dive into an unexpected subject: video games. Both of them discovered PS4's Ghost of Tsushima during pandemic and the combination of beautiful landscapes, gorgeous costumes, and emotional resonant storytelling has them shook. Have a safe and happy holiday,  if you live in Georgia, go vote, and see you all for not just one but two seasons of Drag Race dropping next month!

Conde Nasty, Hersula, and BFF Buffy Cummers light some candles, join hands, and form a circle around a bonfire to celebrate Halloween and three other equally ancient autumn celebrations: their birthdays! They break down their favorite horror movies before diving into Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor. And let's not forget the scariest thing of all: the possibility of your vote not being counted. Go to vote.org to find out how to register and cast your ballot. Now.

Hey, look at that! A season of All Stars finally got it right and didn't let shenanigans get in the way of crowning the correct queen! Conde Nasty, Hersula, and recurring guest Buffy Cummers were all drunk, sleep deprived or both for this, so it's going to be ride. Enjoy, and see you next season!   And though it's not Pride Month anymore, the work continues and still needs your help. Brave Space Alliance (https://www.bravespacealliance.org/) is the first Black-led, trans-led LGBTQ Center located on the South Side of Chicago. They were the leaders of the protests that took place in lieu of the parade in Chicago last week, and they still deserve your time, your attention, and, if possible, your money.

It's the final four! The queens take to a slightly smaller stage in the form of a comedy club where they have to make the judges laugh to secure a spot in the top three. Later, the girls will all give their interpretation of a really nebulously defined runway challenge.   Lastly, as I'm sure all the fandom has heard by now, Chi Chi DeVayne was hospitalized this week with possible kidney failure. Because 2020 can't stop being so fucking extra. And because even if you have health insurance, getting sick a financially devestating event in this country, we wanted to not only send her all our love, but hopefully some more tangible support.   Venmo: @Zavion-Davenport Cashapp: $ZavionDavenport PayPal: chichikdevayne@gmail.com

It's down to the top five and to celebrate, Mama Ru is having everyone over for a good old fashioned family BBQ in her backyard. The girls come over dressed as long lost Charles family relations before hitting the runway in looks made the backyard materials. Conde Nasty and Hersula are joined by new friend Tara this week to critique the looks and to learn that India Ferrah didn't need to be picked up by Mimi Imfurst to cast a long shadow... Pride may only be a month long, but being a good ally is an all year activity. Brave Space Alliance (https://www.bravespacealliance.org/) is the first Black-led, trans-led LGBTQ Center located on the South Side of Chicago. They were the leaders of the protests that took place in lieu of the parade in Chicago last month, and they still deserve your time, your attention, and, if possible, your money.