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HBO have finally thrown their hat into the ring and jumped on the Drag Queen bandwagon with a new reality TV Show of their own. ‘We’re Here’ has just reached our screens a week after TLC had launched Dragnificent! their own makeover reality show with drag queens whizzing around the country physically turning plain janes into dazzling divas for one night.
HBO has enlisted three Drag race alumni Bob the Drag Queen, Eureka O’Hara, and Shangela Laquifa Wadley to act as both Hosts and also as Executive Producers in their new six part series. The three Queens are despatched to the heart of rural America where although they may not face outright hostility (well not on camera) they will however have their work cut out trying to charm the local residents.
The first edition has them swanning into historical Gettysburg and where the Queens get to meet the people they are going to transform to take part in a Drag Show before they leave town. Where ‘We’re Here’ really scores against the other shows is their intention to ensure that the transformation is so much more than a mere physical one.
We can see why the Show’s creators Stephen Warren and Johnnie Ingram cast these particular Queens as they have not only gained such confidence and professionalism since their Drag Race days, but they show a remarkable sincerity in carrying out their tasks. In this unscripted show they appear genuinely eager to help empower the volunteers , most of whom, are dealing with issues of either self-esteem and/or acceptance in their community.
During the five days they spend in each town, each of the Queens, forge relationships with these strangers that judging by the wet eyes at one time or another affects everyone involved.
Bob, Eureka and Shangela have very distinctly different styles which makes the program visually stunning, but also in the way they deal their new alloted ‘friends’ that brings out the therapists in them which makes for compelling viewing.
After Gettysburg, they head off to Twin Falls Idaho where they lend their talents to 3 would-be-local-dragqueens, and a transman who they give the wedding that his parents had denied him. The third program finds our Queens in Branson Missouri which is the home of “Christian Theatres” and in the first few minutes a local store owner wants to call the police on them. However he has met his match with the Queens who are so proud to be called ‘fierce’.
HBO lends its high production values to ‘We’re Here’ which feels like it is going to be a ratings hit for them, except maybe for the fact that TV audiences may be starting to get ‘drag fatigue”. RuPauls Drag Race is still making its mark, although it is desperately in need of a makeover and some new ideas…… (there is no point doing a Celebrity edition without any real celebrities). And it’s being moved from VHI to Showtime so it can rake in more money which may or may not work.
Plus RuPaul’s other two ventures : a Sitcom and a Chat Show were very quickly taken on the air after very short runs, possibly indicating that this is the beginning of an end . He may have proved that ‘No-one Loves a Fairy When She’s Forty‘ is no longer true, but for how long?
‘We’re Here’ screens on HBO or Amazon’s HBO Channel
