RuPaul's Drag Race UK vs the World

This is my first "allstars" format from the ever-expanding and slightly creaky RuPaul franchise and so I wasn't accustomed to a lot of the format decisions on display here but a lot of them don't work particularly well. Going into it though - I was hyped, there were some solid queens on show and it promised to be fun. The eliminations though, were poorly constructed, and ended up favoured tactics over talent which soured the experience somewhat. I call this the "Big Brother 4" effect - and it means you get fireworks early on but you end up with an underwhelming finale. Otherwise though it was still a proper hoot to watch, really nice to see some underrated international queens get a chance to shine in front of Ru.

SEASON 1 (1.5/5)

It's a shame that the first international all-stars season was a miss, after all the hype it gave. I always found "the winner chooses who leaves" rules from the previous All-Stars seasons entertaining, but this time it condemns the show to exit strong and charismatic participants way too early in the competition leaving us with drag queens that don't make good TV or that doesn't have a real motivation to win (one of them was merely putting any effort but still get to the finale). Because of that, the finale was pretty deceiving, and the winner didn't seem to merit the win.

Also, some little changes in the presentation made things a little off and cheap, which is not worthy of the "international" premise of this show.

SEASON 2 (3/5)

A huge step up after the awful first season. The cast was memorable even if some of the contestants were quickly overwhelmed by the level curve of the competition. La Grande Dame and Manilla were the stand-out of the season.

The season was still missing some good lipsynch, despite having a very good dancer like Manilla, and the challenges were not very funny or interesting, snath game included.

The winner feels right from a narrative point of view but it's hard to not see more talented drag queens in the cast.

This has tarnished the brand significantly. The format doesn't work. We were left with the dregs. Basically the show was fuelled by these queens insecurities. I think this was even worse than Australia and Italia. Painful.

Some Queens are really not giving their best as they normally could but apparently they don't even care to and the judging is far worse than any other season. Could just roll a dice and call it a day, would be easier.

With so much potential in this cast, I was ready to have my expectations blown away . Three episodes in and the strange editing choices and "holier than thou" attitudes emanating from some of the queens are starting to make them unlikeable and production unwatchable.

My guess is the finalists will not be from the smaller franchises which is so disappointing.