Summary
A Queen Is Born doesn’t pretend to have an original concept, but it’s another rival to Drag Race on Netflix, so it’s guaranteed to find an audience.
There are many great things about Netflix, contrary to popular belief, but perhaps the most significant is that it provides a platform for shows that, not too long ago, would have been considered too niche for a mainstream, global audience. Those days are, thankfully, long gone, and the streaming giant continues to provide a direct avenue for different lifestyles and experiences to enter the homes of the sheltered and closed-minded. The latest is Brazil’s first original reality show A Queen Is Born, an obvious distant cousin to Drag Race, a series in which aspiring queens are coached to creativity, glitz, and glamour with the help of regionally well-known celebrity hosts.
The format – and now, indeed, the subject – is nothing new but remains endlessly popular, so A Queen Is Born will be popular, no doubt about it. This is a good thing, obviously, since good reality television is simply a delivery mechanism for personal stories, and good reality television about drag queens is, more often than not, also a lesson in tolerance, self-expression, inclusivity, and personal and creative freedom. This new effort ticks those boxes, even if it’s content not to try and push the formal envelope into new territory.
With the presence of Brazilian rapper Gloria Groove and actor Alexia Twister, there’s a pop-cultural specificity to A Queen Is Born that’ll appeal specifically to South American viewers, but the themes are universal enough for a global audience. The Netflix Original is available to watch exclusively on Netflix from today.
