The US contestants are much better looking overall than they used to be. I think that has actually hurt the quality of the series. The UK ones are more 'varied' looking, less conventionally attractive, and it makes them better characters. I don't really want or need to lust after drag queens. I just want them to entertain and impress me with creativity.
What was so good about Drag Race early on? Different people will have different answers, but what I liked:
--Many of the queens obviously got into what they did because they were misfits with rough lives. Many seemed to be dirt poor, many poorly educated, many rejected from their homes, and they were scrappy and put a lot into their performances. Now there are people like Gigi Goode who are really talented but who were brought up as suburban rich kids and they're not doing this for survival but to become STAHS. That's a different show.
--It wasn't American Idol. It wasn't a mainstream star manufacturer. It was a parody of America's Next Top Model and Project Runway with lots of silly puns and camp. It was all about creativity on a low budget. This translates to the UK version, which obviously has a smaller budget with smaller sets and no cash prizes. The lower financial stakes means more riskiness.
--There used to be a lot of attention focused on making costumes, styling and "Project Runway"-type challenges. Those seem to have been eradicated in favor of endless choreographed musical performances. The creative aspects of this show are my favorite. My least favorite are the musical numbers. I usually find them boring and sometimes even fast forward through them. The songs are almost always stupid and the heavy emphasis on them has made the show predictable and boring.
--The show was a lot more creative on a lower budget. They took the queens out into the street for challenges with the public. They had them dig through dumpsters. They had to improvise. The lighting and sets were worse but everything else about the show was better. It didn't look better but it had more heart and more spirit. Now it's just a grind, knowing as soon as this season ends, the next one will be popped out for a profit. The UK version is still special because this is only the second iteration and we had to wait for it.
It's also interesting to hear the regional variations in accent. I mapped all the contestants' locations as they introduced themselves, and the show covered pretty much all of the UK, and so it's cool as an American to get to hear and place the regional dialects and also to see the people mix with one another. Some of them seem to have so much affinity for their regions, and it's curious to see that as an American since the geography of the UK is so comparatively small and yet their regions seem as culturally defined as ours do, maybe even more so.
Anyway, so far the UK season is more interesting because of its variety and its smaller budget and more interesting contestants. It feels like it's made for fun and to entertain instead of to manufacture pop stars for a drag queen profit machine.
