Summary
Vibrant and colourful, Super Drags is a pointed critique of the ultra-Conservative right with plenty of dick jokes thrown in for good measure.
Belt Buckle Bay is a town so conservative, so behind the times, that it still boasts a Blockbuster Video and needs to be rescued from its ultra-right conservative preacher and an arch villain Drag Queen intent on stealing everyone’s glitter by a group of superheroes; a team that is not just super, but fabulous too. If you were wondering what RuPaul’s Drag Race crossed with The PowerPuff Girls would look like then you have come to the right place.
Super Drags is the latest adult animated comedy (so adult that it opens with a disclaimer message) from Netflix and follows a group of super drag queens who band together to form the Super Drags, a superhero team whose mission is to protect the special life force possessed by members of the LGBTQ+ community. This is a show of high fashion and low brow; a celebration of drag and gay culture. Super Drags is colourful, snappy and very self-reflexive. No doubt it will provoke some form of backlash from the conservative right (in fact it’s already subject to a petition by the Christian Film and Television Commission) but it is lots of fun, with a sharp script and a great hit-rate of visual gags.
Super Drags has a kinetic animation style that recalls the kids’ animated TV show Fresh Beat Band of Spies. This cartoon is, however, very much not for kids. It is vibrant, well-directed and hugely entertaining, though. This cartoon could be described as a satire, tackling a range of issues from Christian fundamentalism, gay conversion therapy, body image and of course gay discrimination. Despite engaging in some pretty weighty themes it has a liberal sprinkling of dick jokes and never takes itself too seriously.
As a heterosexual man, it is important to acknowledge that I am not a core part of this cartoon’s intended demographic so I am not the best person to discuss how the show represents gay and drag culture. There is likely a much more nuanced dissection of where this fits within the media as an expression of the LGBTQ+ community to be written about this, but I personally found this cartoon to be good, silly fun. It takes on some pretty serious issues and frames them with such a clear sense of fun that it is impossible not to have a good time with the Super Drags.
