Oh hello, Drag Race fans. It’s been so long since I last recapped a season of RPDR, why it’s positively been *checks watch* SEVEN DAYS. Where does the time go?

Season 10 following hot on the heels of All Stars 3 was either going to give us indigestion, or be the much-needed palette cleanser after such a gassy All Stars season. Well, I’m happy to say that I am feeling cleansed and ready, because that premiere was giving me sorbet, girl, hey. Drag Race is back, baby!

I must confess, when I scoured the season 10 promo I was NOT HAVING IT. I felt like all I could see where the same 6 young white queen with the same nose contouring, and I could not and would not be going through another Pearl-Violet-Max-Fame game like we did in season seven.

Well, whoever styled that season promo needs to undergo some sensitisation training, because it turns out that this season is one of the most diverse casts of RPDR of all time! But also, two of the young white NYC queens literally look like twins, which is for sure going to be the Coco/Alyssa narrative this season. But also, this is the youngest cast in herstory so expect that to be on my damn nerves (*yells at cloud*).

Drag Race: The Next Generation

So many new queens, all with different origin stories! Except a record-breaking five queens are from New York and quite a few of the contestants are from Drag Race alumni families.

This is a symptom of a show that has been going for a decade, and it’s interesting to see how it will unfold. The workroom entrances saw a number of queens who are either the daughters or sisters of RPDR alumni. Aquaria is season four winner Sharon Needles’ drag daughter, and has been waiting until she was legally allowed to go on Drag Race (Aquaria has been doing drag since her teens.)

Hard up against Aquaria is Miz Cracker. Cracker is a fellow NYC queen, and drag daughter to season eight winner, Bob the Drag Queen. They are also two queens who look alike, but you can tell them apart quite easily: Miz Cracker is hilarious and genuinely talented, Aquaria is young and famous. Anyone who has watched Drag Race knows Ru do love to take a bratty queen down a peg, so I for one can’t wait for Aquaria to learn a thing or two.

Then there is Asia O’Hara (drag mother to RPDR super villain Phi Phi O’Hara), and Mayhem Miller who is in the same drag family as All Stars‘ Detox, Morgan Michaels and Ru’s latest hair and makeup handmaid, Delta. Finally, there is Vanessa Vanjie Mateo, drag daughter of the beloved season three finalist and All Star, Alexis Mateo. (Although Alexis clearly raised her wrong, Vanessa got sent home first!)

I have nine step and half siblings, so all these family ties (shananana) make sense to me. If you don’t get it, well… you’re being heteronormative.

The Challenges

Thank the gods for Producer, Alexis Michelle because it seems some sense has finally gotten into whoever is running the show these days. Not only did we get a revival of the OG challenge, Drag on a Dime, but we all also got my FAVOURITE thing that happens on Drag Race: returning royalty and alumni (NOT YOU, CYNTHIA).

I love it when queens from previous seasons come back to prop up the legacy of the show and remind us all just how many mens in wigs have competed on RPDR.

As if preparing the queens for a new life of intense scrutiny and public judgement, the first mini challenge of the season was literally just them being able to walk with their head held high, under the judgemental gaze of former contestants. There were winners, icons, fan favourites, and Derrick Barry! (JK Miss Thing, he’s looking great and he even made a joke about hems that was almost funny. My little girl is growing up!)

It’s this alumni that for me is the heart of the show, and why it endures. Not because of RuPaul, whose recent trans-exclusionary comments were a total cishap. The alumni queens are why the fans keep coming back, but also why they get so mean online (*waves*). We love these queens, we’ve watched them grow and prosper, fail and flourish. It’s also possibly why All Stars 3 was too hot — too much expectation, too much prior knowledge. In the mini-challenge, the alumni queens pose and prance, deliver their to-camera quips, and remind us all why we keep watching.

The return of the Drag on a Dime main stage challenge was precisely what we needed. I don’t know about you hunties, but I don’t need brand new challenges, I am totally down with a bit of rehashing of the classics. We already know Snatch Game is coming, why not also re-do the variation of the stand up/roast challenge, and more design challenges?

Speaking of design challenges! Here are the tops and bottoms of the week.

The Lip Sync

If, like me, you watch and rewatch this show too often, you might have thought you knew how this lip sync was going down. Kalorie looked like a deer in the headlights, and Vanessa was coming off all sassy and funny. Often, this suggests Kalorie would be going home and Vanessa would pull out some minimum B+ shtick and survive the first lip sync for your life of the season

It turned out to be the exact opposite. Neither queen gave us a great deal to work with, but Kalorie pulled a minor stunt queen move by making it rain cash and gave us some white beefy twerking that was more mad cow than mad decent… but it lead to great reaction shots from Carson.

Who’s Taking The Nina Bonina Crown?

Season ten out the gate, my early picks for actual top queens of the season are Miz Cracker (Alaska meets Bianca meets Bob), Monet X Change (NYC sass meets maturity and kindness) and possibly Mayhem Millar (close to Drag Race royalty, winning style, and genuine class).

However, as recent seasons have shown it doesn’t matter who has the chops. Thanks to late-scratch rule changes, picking who will take the crown is now a Nancy Drew-level mystery that requires multiple PhDs and a Xanax prescription. Aquaria is in it for the long haul, possibly as the villain.There is some interesting foreshadowing going on with Blair “Call Me By Your Name” St Blair but as yet, I’m not seeing it.

Heading home sooner rather than later will probably be Kalorie, muscle queen Kameron, Dusty Ray Bottoms, and Monique Heart.

See you next week, squirrel fronds!

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RuPaul’s Drag Race is fast-tracked from the US on Stan. Read more Drag Race recaps here.

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Nic Holas has written for The Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald, Archer Magazine, and Hello Mr. You can find him on Twitter @nicheholas, or in his role as co-founder of HIV movement The Institute of Many.