It can’t have escaped your notice that everything is awful at the moment. In times like those we seem to be stuck in, reaching for a comfort blanket of some kind is understandable. For me, that means TV. The Goldbergs, The Last Leg, anything starring otters … and most of all, RuPaul’s Drag Race.



It’s staggering to realise that, with this weekend’s grand finale, Drag Race will conclude its ninth series – especially as UK viewers have only just got (legal) access to new episodes via Netflix. The delay hasn’t stopped them keeping up: around the globe, this series has steadily gone from camp curio to the best reality show around, hands down.

For the uninitiated, Drag Race is the search for America’s Next Drag Superstar. Mentored by the self-styled “supermodel of the world”, drag performers from across the US compete in a series of creative challenges – from making their own political campaign films and creating fairytale alter-egos, to hosting breakfast TV and the infamous Snatch Game (Blankety Blank with celebrity dress-up). After a final catwalk showdown every week, the bottom two queens are required to “lip-sync for their life”, before RuPaul gently instructs the loser to “sashay away”. Ask most drag performers over here and they will likely claim to be “in talks” for the UK version – despite the fact it’s not actually been commissioned yet.

‘The library is open!’ … RuPaul with Lady Gaga on Drag Race. Photograph: Logotv

Among Drag Race’s many achievements, bringing drag subculture into the mainstream (“the library is open!”) is up there, along with casting the spotlight on Ru’s longtime sidekick and judge, the divinely sassy Jersey Girl Michelle Visage. And then there are the quite heroic levels of innuendo. Even I gulped at the mini challenge last year, in which the queens were required to identify the bunk preferences of the show’s pit crew (a man-candyish parade of West Hollywood’s finest, oiled up in their Speedos) by sending them to lie on the top or bottom levels of a giant bunk bed. Contenders are also asked to display their Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent credentials (you work out the acronym). And there is no shortage of healthy shade-throwing; catfights are an entertaining constant, though always with RuPaul’s own adage in mind – “throwing shade requires a lot of creativity. Being a bitch takes none.” Because aside from being the best and the funniest reality show out there, Drag Race is also without a doubt the one with the biggest heart.

Some of the show’s best moments come in the work room, when defences are down, shade is reserved and the queens start to open up. They bond over stories of body dysmorphia, bullying, parental rejection, self-loathing – honest to the last, but never victims. In the semi-final Ru instructs the queens to give a message to their childhood selves and you can’t help but well up. Where reality judges lapse easily into cruelty, the sense that the mentor here cares deeply for these people is palpable.

Who will be crowned America’s Next Drag Superstar? Photograph: Logotv

For the grand finale, the show gets transposed into a glitzy theatre for a gigantic prom celebration, reuniting past and present contestants. The four finalists – Ru chose to eliminate nobody in the semi – have one last chance to fight for the titles of “Miss Congeniality” and America’s Next Drag Superstar. Psychedelic Chicago queen Shea Couleé is probably the frontrunner based on past performances. “Pageant Queen” Trinity Taylor has exceptional comic timing but has proved one of the bitchiest in the cutaway narration segments. Peppermint – the apple-pie America’s Sweetheart – was impressive during the comedy roast of Visage, and has inspired viewers by revealing her trans status from the off. Sasha Velour brings avant-garde-club-kid “realness” but sometimes misses the mark in her mission to intellectualise drag.

The Drag Race finale drops in the UK at a high watermark for queer programming. As well as falling in Pride month, it coincides with Channel 4’s 50 Shades of Gay season and the BBC’s Gay Britannia, both marking the half-century since male homosexuality was decriminalised in the UK. But as proudly as it celebrates queer identity, this is not an exclusively gay show. At its heart, Drag Race preaches a very simple message of tolerance and understanding – with glitter and flair and RuPaul’s weekly life-lesson of a sign-off: “If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?” Amen to that.