I’m deeply concerned for Manila.

Aight, a late, overdue set o’ Random ‘pinions. Blame my bestie who insisted we go see the new J-Lo movie. tl;dr: it’s a surprisingly affecting dramatic turn for Miz Lopez, in what was explicitly billed in the marketing as a romcom.

I’ve been thinking back to Monique getting the chop back in S10. Obviously, not knowing the words was the clearly decisive factor there. But even if that wasn’t the problem, I notice it’s an incredibly similar performance to her LSFYL tonight. A lot of delicate twirling and intense hairography, but not necessarily a…

You veer to an interesting point that I think warrants unpacking.

While clearly styled and themed differently, it was hard for me to not be instantly recalled to Sayuri’s epic stage debut segment in Memoirs of a Geisha.

There’s definitely a lot of hairography throughout Monique’s one-woman show, and in the first half of the lipsync, that definitely couldn’t have helped. I gather with a close-crop, Monique doesn’t have a whole lot to work with to pin, but Ru’s duct tape jab at the end seems like a bit of a pointed jab to that end.

I can’t help but sense that’s been a recurring theme for villainesses that’ve gone back into the All Stars grinder. Certainly for Phi Phi, and maybe to a lesser extent, Thorgy, Morgan, Mimi, Shannel, Tati, and Shangela depending on your response to them.

True, but one’s also gotten the sense that since Alaska straight-up steamrolled AS2 - Twists! seem so engineered into the DNA of the All Stars format, it’s hard not to envision Producer Fuckery hard at work for later episodes.

I’ve been thinking about that through a handful of rewatches, and I’m still not sure that - stumble aside, anyone else’s rose to the level of Farrah’s tentativeness? The closest I can think of might be Monet’s awkward introduction to her song.

There’s definitely a long storied history of the most iconic and memorable Race moments arising from unselfconscious moments of frivolity.

I’m just glad I’m not the one to point at Jasmine’s purple velvet housecoat from season 7, episode 1 supposedly being representative of her best drag.

A lot of us do, dear.

This supercut never gets old for me.

And I love how much Valentina is owning her history. Earned a bunch of points in my book, to say the least.

I got the same impression - I’ll admit that fixing a wig slip isn’t the same as a self-snatch, but it’s still a move of desperation, even if it doesn’t quite rise to the same degree.

The bones of Farrah’s burlesque number seemed like there could be something there, at least at first. Her faceplant aside, going back to watch it (thanks, immediate reruns), it seems to me like a lot of her reveals and wardrobe peels are just a bit tentative, just a bit less confident than I would expect at an All…

Hey, henny!

Welcome back, henny - for a few new Random ‘pinions:

Yes, but also, even moreso for Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

I’d lay it as much at the sense that even among the ardent prequel-haters (already a pretty popular proposition, depending on the segment of the fanbase youre talking about), Ewan’s performance is readily the most forgivable facet of the prequels.