Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
If you’re a hard-working drag queen, there’s really only been one career path if TV fame was the gig you wanted. You go on RuPaul’s Drag Race, book some cameos on cable sitcoms or network crime dramas, and then you… go on RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars. And then you do more guest spots, maybe on a streaming show, and then you go back on another season of Drag Race to mentor a challenge or steal a comedy scene. It’s a cycle–and that’s why TLC’s Drag Me Down the Aisle is such a dream!
I may be a bit late to the game, as this one-off special aired earlier this month with an encore a few nights ago. I finally remembered to stream it on VOD (thanks Sling TV!) and I want to sing its praises to every Drag Race fan. This show is exactly the kinda shenanigans that Drag Race alumni should get up to once they’ve sashayed away from the Werk Room!
The show’s premise is basically a wedding-focused Queer Eye with Drag Racers in place of the Fab Five. It’s got the same balance of cheers and tears that make Queer Eye such a satisfying Netflix binge. In the special, the queens help a young bride from Lancaster, PA find her perfect wedding dress and deck out her big day in wintry fairytale eleganza. Whether or not your basic cable viewing habits lean towards TLC or Logo, the show’s formula is a crowd-pleaser. If you’re into the usual wedding shows, you’re gonna thrill over the special’s whirlwind trip to a NYC bridal boutique. If you’re into Drag Race, you’re gonna get even more.
No shade towards Drag Race, as it’s on constant rotation in my household, but Drag Race queens get to show an entirely different side of themselves on a show like Drag Me Down the Aisle! The show casts BeBe Zahara Benet (Season 1, All-Stars 3), Jujubee (S2, AS1), Thorgy Thor (S8, AS3), and Alexis Michelle (S9) as experts in everything from decor and music to fashion and beauty. If you’re in deep on Drag Race, you are gonna welcome seeing a brand new side of each queen.
Real talk: some of these queens didn’t come off that great during their seasons! And I’m not gonna get specific, because Drag Race fans can come up with yas-worthy pros and shady AF cons for all four of them. That’s because Drag Race and All Stars are reality competition shows edited for max drama. Instead of working together as a team as they do in Drag Me Down the Aisle, all the Drag Race girls are against each other. There’s camaraderie on those shows, but the claws still come out on the runway!
What’s truly wild, though, is that some queens go through the Drag Race wringer and then come back for All Stars striving to shake off their villain-edit and rehab their image. Look at Season 4’s Phi Phi O’Hara, who came back for All Stars 2 hoping to spin a new narrative. It didn’t work (just thinking about that icy goodbye between Phi Phi and Alyssa gives me shivers). Why didn’t it work? Because she came back on a show that needs heroes and villains to thrive!
That’s why Drag Me Down the Aisle is so great. It’s a show built around building people up, and that includes the drag queens! Instead of seeing the queens as paranoid or shady or aloof, which may or may not have been how some of DMDTA’s queens were edited during their DR runs, we see them probably a lot more how they are in their day-to-day. We seem be empathetic and polite–all the things that don’t make for great competition TV! It does, however, work in the life-affirming makeover genre.
That’s why I really loved this special. I loved seeing Thorgy’s easy-going openness towards the bride-to-be’s conservative father (them bonding over music was legit beautiful). I loved seeing Alexis, overshadowed on Season 9, take on and excel in a mentorship role. I just loved seeing more of the always flashy and fabulous Jujubee (it’s been so long since AS1!). And I loved seeing the regal BeBe’s nurturing side (as well as her fantastic reaction to lanterns).
Note to future queens looking for a post-Drag Race turn: please do All Stars because I love seeing y’all compete again, but do not be afraid to go for reality shows outside of the competition genre! And a note to TLC: you gotta make Drag Me Down the Aisle a regular gig for these four, because I have a feeling there are even more sides to these queens that we haven’t seen.
