My Review of "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars: Season 2"

I've heard of RuPaul's Drag Race for a long time but never got to see a full season. My girlfriend has been watching it non stop and I'd join her to watch an episode or two. This is the first time I watched through a full season with her.

Watching RuPaul's Drag Race requires a bit of a cultural learning curve. My girlfriend had to explain a ton of terminology to me because at some points of the show I was totally lost. I didn't know what they were saying or what they were referring to.

I learned tons of new words like "fishy", "face-crack", "shade" and many others. It was truly a culture of its own. I'm not totally well versed in the lingo so some of it was still lost on me but I got the gist of what was being said.

I have to say that it was an enjoyable ride from start to finish. They definitely got the programming of this TV series down. There were a couple of changes in this season. Apparently it was new that the two winners of the competition for the episode would win money and have to vote off one of the two losers.

This show seemed to be an emotional roller-coaster for many of the contestants. You can see that this game show is vitally important in their lives. The contestants come from all walks of life and have dealt with great hardships in the past to get to where they are today. (My girlfriend told me that this was an old season so I guess I'm a little late)

I think because each of them had dealt with so many hurdles from the past they are a touch on the sensitive side. Although some of the actions from certain contestants were kind of questionable in the first place. I had no idea what was being done on purpose and what was genuine.

The way each of the contestant was able to transform themselves from male to female was pretty astonishing. I can truly see why it is seen as an art form as much of the decor from their makeup to their hair and outfit really told a story. Each of the contestants were able to show true ingenuity and expression from their original runway pieces.

Not only are they responsible for looking good on the runway, they're also expected to be able to create dialogue, songs, act and create original pieces unrelated to runway fashion. This is a lot for one person to do, yet many of them were able to keep doing this at a high level.

The talent that came out of this season was truly extraordinary. Usually when people show their talent it's in one genre. These contestants were all multi-talented in so many things under so much pressure. The pressure was so high in fact one of the contestants even quit early on in the season.

Of course watching the show you'll get your favorites and the ones you hate. There were a few characters in the show that kind of got on my nerves but this is also a good thing. I see it sort of how I see WWE wrestling. If they can get on my nerves they're doing their job well. It'll make me want to watch the next episode to see if they get voted off. In some ways this show takes some of the drama from WWE and brings it into a game show setting.

Overall, I enjoyed this season of RuPaul's drag race even though I didn't know a lot of the vernacular or the references that they were talking about. I thought I would be lost in translation. The show is inviting to those and brings a curiosity to those that don't know too much about it. I can now definitely see the appeal of this show. I would have to give this season a 7.5 out of 10. Maybe if I watch a few more seasons I'll start understanding more of what's going on.