The last decade saw the mainstreamification of drag so I guess it is inevitable we would get shows with a lot of drag elements in them. Cue in Netflix’s new show ‘AJ and The Queen.’ I usually would just ignore this (I have ignored the whole Drag Race entity) but I saw that it was created by Michael Patrick King (of ‘Sex And the City’) so I watched the first episode. ‘New York City.’  The show stars RuPaul as Robert E Lee, who is Miss Cocoa Butter, a drag performer leaving the club where she performs as she is set to open one of her own, which she will co own and manage with her boyfriend/business partner. Played by Josh Segarra, you just know the boif will be trouble, because of the sinister aura he projects. Lo and behold, he maxes out the card the day of the property signing (huh?) and Miss Cocoa is left alone. But wait, she is going on a cross-country tour anyway (I thought they were opening a club?) and even to make the story more convoluted, there is a little girl who tags along with her as she sashays through the country performing.

As you can see, there’s an awful lot to handle here, and I didn’t even mention the blind piano-playing drag queen. The story packs on a lot of weight, and I am sorry, to say, it is a lot more than Ru can handle. And if I may be blunt, Ru isn’t the best actor. I found his performances shallow, and relies mostly on his charms, which can only go a long way. The fifty or so minutes of the first episode felt like forever, and the whole set up for the series didn’t really interest me that much. Maybe on a lazy rainy Sunday I would go back and check out the next episodes, but really, who has time?