TV
Season 3 of “The Boulet Brothers Dragula” Makes the Jump to Amazon Prime Next Week!
The third season of the hit underground web series “The Boulet Brothers Dragula” will be launching exclusively on Amazon Prime Video on Tuesday August 27, 2019. Produced by Dracmorda and Swanthula Boulet (affectionately known as the Boulet Brothers) in association with OutTv, this season of the show will break new ground by being the first drag reality competition show to feature both a “Drag King” and a female drag artist competing on a reality series in North America. “The show has gotten bigger on every level so fans are essentially getting more of everything they love,” said the Boulet Brothers. “More guts, more glamour and more level-10 looks from our newest brood of drag monsters. We’re also delighted to say that we’ve given special attention to new ways in which we can truly terrify our contestants and our audiences”
In the series, 11 monster drag artists from around the world will compete to win a $25,000 grand prize, the crown, and the title of Dragula – the world’s next drag supermonster. Each episode the competitors are given challenges to prove their skills at costume design, special effects makeup, acting, and performance art. The weakest monsters of each episode must face extreme fear-based challenges to prove they deserve to remain in the competition or they will face extermination. From being buried alive to eating maggots, jumping out of a plane or getting tattooed, the extermination challenges are thrilling, shocking and truly must-see-TV. Think of it as Drag Race meets Fear Factor.
Lest you think this is a ripoff of VH1’s RuPaul’s Drag Race, rest assured that “The Boulet Brothers Dragula” puts a spin on the standard drag competition formula that caters specifically to horror fans. If you’re not into horror, never fear! There’s plenty here for everyone. The series is notable for shining a light on a corner of queer life that is rarely depicted on television, including the harsh reality some gay men, lesbians, and trans people face while living and performing as underground queer artists in their respective communities.
The Boulet Brothers
Queer horror has become extremely popular over the past year, so it’s refreshing to see the drag community get the opportunity to showcase their love for it to a wider audience. The sub-genre isn’t going anywhere, especially since Shudder will be releasing a documentary on the very subject some time next year (and, you know, Bloody Disgusting’s own queer horror podcast and article series “Horror Queers“, hosted by Joe Lipsett and myself, exists too). The Boulets are fully aware of how perfectly the arts of drag and horror mesh well together. “Drag and horror are both subversive by nature and share so much DNA,” they said. “The fans of both often reject the mainstream and share a common love of celebrating the moment when the popular girl dies a grisly death and the un-celebrated outcast gets her revenge! Horror and drag also have the common threads of darkness and danger weaved wondrously through their fabric.”
The new season also boasts a rotating panel of celebrity guest judges from the worlds of horror and music. These guest judges include Henry Rollins (Black Flag), Bonnie Aarons (The Nun), Milly Shapiro (Hereditary), Rachel True (The Craft), Danielle Harris (Halloween 4, 5), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), Michael Varrati (Dead for Filth) and Darren Stein (Jawbreaker), along with surprise guest judges featuring queer icons and nightlife legends to be revealed during the season.
The Boulet Brothers Dragula will air on Amazon Prime Video every Tuesday beginning Tuesday August 27, 2019.
Blade Runner is headed to the small screen in Prime Video’s upcoming Blade Runner 2099, set 50 years after Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, in a world where replicants have emerged on top after an uprising.
Humans are no longer in power.
At the forefront of the new series are stars Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once) and Hunter Schafer (Cuckoo), and EW has shared the first images of their characters.
Yeoh stars as a replicant Blade Runner named Olwen, facing the final days of her life. It’s a twist on the Roy Batty story from the first film; here, that story will be told from the replicant’s perspective.
Opposite her is Schafer as Olwen’s partner, Cora, a human fugitive pretending to be a replicant. Olwen and Cora will be working together to investigate missing rogue replicants.
Blade Runner 2099 comes from Alcon Entertainment, Scott Free, and Amazon Studios. Silka Luisa (“Shining Girls”) is writing, showrunning, and executive producing.
Jonathan van Tulleken (“Shōgun”) will direct and executive produce the first two episodes.
Luisa tells EW that Ridley Scott’s seminal sci-fi noir acts as the series’ North Star, but it’ll forge its own identity: “We leaned into sunshine noir. You’re still very much in the Blade Runner world, but the show is about a birth. It’s about a birth of a city. It’s about a birth of a replicant era. These characters are discovering who they really are. And so the climate is hot, it’s sticky, it’s sunny. We’re on the coast a lot. We’re in Santa Monica a lot. So it’s like you’re seeing Ridley’s texture, but you’re seeing it in the sunshine noir filter.”
The showrunner adds, “The show is really imagining what comes after us, and what does it mean to be human in a world where humanity is no longer relevant?“
Dimitri Abold (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes), Lewis Gribben (Somewhere Boy), Katelyn Rose Downey (The Nun II), and Daniel Rigby (Renegade Nell) also star in the upcoming series. Johnny Harris (A Gentleman in Moscow), Amy Lennox (Only Child), Sheila Atim (The Woman King), and Matthew Needham (House of the Dragon) join as recurring guest stars.
Blade Runner 2099 is expected to premiere later this year, so stay tuned.
Credit: Clay Enos/Prime Video
Credit: Clay Enos/Prime Video
Credit: Clay Enos/Prime Video
Credit: Clay Enos/Prime Video
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