'RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars' welcomes old competitors for new season

“RuPaul’s Drag Race” (2009-present) may not be the highest rated reality competition show on-air, but it sure is the most addictive one. Taking in one episode of the show is enough to make anyone binge-watch the whole series on Hulu while scrolling through AV Club recaps and Reddit threads. The show’s ultimate strength is its contestants: the queens not only have to master their looks but also have to have a certain degree of charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent. They also need to be versatile in terms of their abilities, as the show is a combination of sewing, acting and singing competitions.

Having an All Stars version of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” is a tricky but potentially rewarding idea. The difficulty arises because contestants from previous seasons become known names after appearing on the show, which is truly the Olympics of drag and has immense power over the relatively small drag community. A Google search of the term “drag queen” will mostly turn up past Drag Race contestants like Sharon Needles, Courtney Act and Willam. This means each seasoned queen joining All Stars has her own brand, and her own loyal fandom. Unlike regular seasons of the show, the producers needed to cut down on the infamous villain edits, as the program’s own reputation is also at stake with the fandoms of each queen.

Judging from the second season's first two episodes, "RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars" (2012-present) is able to master its potential setbacks and truly deliver. The queens’ entrances to the workroom make it apparent why each of them is back. Phi Phi O'Hara, Roxxxy Andrews and Ginger Minj want to reverse the negative portrayal they received during their respective seasons. Tatianna wants to gain more exposure, as she is the only queen from before season four on the show. Coco Montrese, Alyssa Edwards and Adore Delano want to show to their fans how they have improved over the past few years.

Out of the all the queens, Alaska, Detox and Katya are the only ones who seem to be focusing on snatching the actual crown.There is a brilliant talking head interview with Katya in the premiere in which she comments on how, unlike the other queens with redemption goals, she wants to show everyone that she has become a monster. Katya is neither as talented nor as popular as Alaska, yet her humor, vulnerability and intelligence make her the dark horse of the season.

The new format of the elimination process makes up for the lack of drama that results from the missing villain edits. Instead of the bottom two contestants "Lip Syncing For Their Lives," the top two winners of the maxi challenge have to "Lip Sync For Their Legacy" and a $10,000 cash prize. The drawback? The winner of the lip sync battle needs to eliminate one of the three bottom contestants. The new format not only allows alliances to form between the contestants themselves, but also factors in the popularity of each queen outside the show: the fan base of an eliminated contestant are bound to turn against their favorite queen's eliminator.

Yet that twist is not the biggest turn of events that follow the first two episodes. Fan favorite Adore Delano’s swift decision to leave the show has truly shaken the drag community and created outrage. After receiving harsh criticism for her style of drag by the judges and believing that her kind of drag does not fit the show’s format, Delano decided to quit during episode two, much to RuPaul’s dismay. Delano’s non-conformist style and the judges’ condescending behavior toward it had led fans of the show to question whether drag is really about cinchers and corsets or something else.

The first two episodes bring back two fan-favorite challenges while introducing a new one. The reading mini-challenge and the snatch game this season will probably mark the show’s peak moments, yet the new talent show challenge is equally satisfying. The challenge allows queens to demonstrate skills that they normally wouldn't be able to show on regular seasons, which enables the viewers to get to know them better. During the talent show, Roxxxy Andrews was able to prove she is more than a pageant queen, while Tatianna became an early favorite with her hilarious spoken word performance.

"RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars" is a game changer for all reality-competition shows, as it is able to provide entertaining and dramatic TV without being insincere. New format changes, smart challenges and a strong cast improve an already working formula. If the show is able to stick to its new approach (O'Hara’s villain-like edit in the second episode is concerning), it will be able to set new boundaries for TV.