GAYLETTER

We live in an age where people are obsessed with instant gratification. Viral success propels forward the tastemakers in entertainment; with audience numbers reaching towards the populations of small countries, it’s no wonder why more queens than just RuPaul are now queer-household names. Evolving from their cult-followed internet series, UNHhhh, Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova have made it (back) to television to teach the children all about… whatever they damn well please because it’s their show…and not yours!

Viceland presents The Trixie & Katya Show, which is the glorious extension of the drag duo’s regular internet antics: post-verbal, inappropriate, beats for the studio-camera gods, and sweaty in all the right ways. As a fan of UNHhhh, the World of Wonder YouTube series, I was nervous that the show wouldn’t survive the transition from computer screen to TV screen (something about watering down or selling out, or whatever) but the content of the show is still so utterly confusing it’s like nothing ever changed.

What’s marvelous about these two particular queens is that their concurrent personalities bleed through our pages as well as they bleed through the drag medium. In GAYLETTER Issue 6, Katya rolled around a studio backdrop for photographer Slava Mogutin. In Issue 7, we insisted Trixie let us print a makeup swipe of her beat. Whether it’s on a page or on a stage, the duo is truly a riot and they excel on screen.

Unlike the Web-show, in the televised series Brian and Brian (Trixie and Katya’s birth names) make appearances to do really serious reporting on Hollywood Boulevard. Seeing drag queens entertaining out of drag is kind of like watching a dog walk on its hind legs: exposed, hairy, and kind of unsettling. That said, every moment with Katya and Trixie is a really a hoot and a half; they grasp at the comedy of nothingness and somehow their rapport always comes to fruition via the many meandering streams of consciousness that flow incessantly out of their mouths. This new segment, along with some more familiar content, make the show more multifaceted for returning fans and new viewers to enjoy.

The first three meta-narratives of the series cover porn, hooking up, and death, and so it’s basically no different than a lot of conversations one might overhear between two gays at dinner. Nevertheless, Trixie and Katya breathe new life into this series as they do with all of their topics. Their unique perspectives, although riddled with self-deprecation and some latent nihilism, usually spin positive for whatever the conversation may be about. Drag queens aren’t exactly known for being wholesome, but these two get pretty close to it. Something else to mention is the show’s production values. What made UNHhhh loved by so many was the brilliant video editing that highlighted all of the wild tangents the girls went on. On Viceland, that same style of guerilla editing is present, and the design clearly’s got more funding, because their graphic team is pulling out their best tricks to help Trixie and Katya shine.

The show provides more of the same kind of content Trixie and Katya fans crave in more or less the same way, and we can all be satisfied now that episodes are filled with a constant 22 minutes of their rambling. GAYLETTER is a big fan of these two, and if we can sign off on it, you know it’s good.

The Trixie & Katya Show premiers on Viceland on Wednesday, November 15 10:00PM ET.