Super Drags (2018)
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Super Drags Review
Super Drags is a Brazilian animated comedy streaming series that premiered on Netflix in 2018. The first season consists of five episodes and the show was afterward cancelled.
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“Chill out, mom!
I’m dressed all masculine?
Isn’t that what you want?“
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The series follows the adventures of Donizete, Patrick and Ralph, three friends working in a department store who are also drag queen superheroes: Scarlet Carmesim, Lemon Chiffon and Safira Cyan, the Super Drags responsible for protecting the LGBT community. They need to combat the homophobic villain Lady Elza. This is a very adult show, but I wanted them to be even edgier at the end of the day.
The nudity is present in only a couple of scenes while the blue humor was quite adult, but again too often the series was too silly for the sake of being silly. More sophisticated narratives and themes were thoroughly lacking here and what we’re left with is a show that is best seen as a fun gay romp and nothing more than that.
My main issue with Super Drags is the characterization, which was very slim. I watched a US dub version and hearing the voices of RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni such as Shangela and Trixie was lovely, but even though they did a surprisingly good job voicing them, the characters needed stronger personalities and better development.
Lemon was the most entertaining of the three heroes and some of his scenes were quite funny. Goldiva, Champagne and Elza also were quite memorable and it was a shame that these three stole the show from our main trio. I liked the score quite a bit and the animation style with a curvy character design and colorful palette was quite pleasing to the eye.
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The first season consisted of just five episodes, so it was way too fleeting. Lipsync Time started the season solidly, though not all that memorably. Image Is Everything was the best episode by far. Lemon was hilarious in it and it’s a shame that this was the only episode where we could see personal lives from its heroes as others were concerned with superheroics way too much. The Gay Cure is typical in its plot, but well executed. A Single Voice was a fun concert and fighting episode, but it ended the season and the entire show way too soon.
Overall, Super Drags is a fleeting season of animated comedy television that failed to make a bigger impact because it was too short, slim in character development and lacking in thematic substance. The animation, score and voice acting were great and the humor could be quite good at times, but the show left a lot to be desired in terms of drag queen and LGBT community commentary.
Worst Episode: Be Who You Are.
Best Episode: Image Is Everything.
