'AJ and the Queen' Season 1 Review: An unfiltered dark comedy starring a drag queen and a scrappy 10-year-old
This article contains spoilers for 'AJ and the Queen' Season 1
Netflix's 'AJ and the Queen' goes behind the curtains revealing the realities of many social struggles. Tying in the innocence of a 10-year-old perspective on street life and the unfiltered emotions behind a drag costume, this is a must-watch dark comedy.
Saving up for years to start his own club, Drag Queen Robert aka Ruby Red (Ru Paul), finally quits his steady job with $100,000 in his bank account.
Sharing that bank account with his boyfriend Hector Ramirez (Josh Segarra), he asks him to run the club with him. Unfortunately for Robert, Ramirez turns out to be a grifter who targets "old drag queens" and steals all of Robert's cash leaving him with nothing.
Starting a police investigation, Robert and his best friend Louis (Michael-Leon Wooley) not only find out that Ramirez's real name is Damian Sanchez but that he's not gay and used to be married.
The police tell them that Lady Danger (Tia Carrere), a woman who injects cheap silicone or motor oil to beauty enthused drag queens told Sanchez about how AJ had saved up the $100,000 and that the duo ended up targeting Robert.
With nothing else to his name, Robert, with the support of Louis, decides to go on his cross country club tour across US cities in an old RV. What he didn't bank on was a 10-year-old girl to tag along with him.
AJ and her mother, Brianna Douglas (Katerina Tannenbaum), live in the same building that Robert lives in, and the little girl comes from a tough home life. A drug addict and hooker for a mother, AJ is left to fend for herself becoming a scrappy streetwise riot.
Learning some tricks while living on the streets, she tries to steal from Robert and gets caught. In the midst of being chased, she finds out that Robert is on his way to Dallas, Texas, and stows away in his RV without his knowledge.
Her plan — to go live with her Pop Pop (grandfather) on his farm, the man she would always get birthday money from and who her mother would always talk about.
After tricking Robert into taking her with him on the road, they find out that two criminals are following them because Robert filed a police case against his ex-boyfriend, Sanchez.
Sanchez and Lady Danger try many a time to trap the duo following them across many cities but were outsmarted at every turn. While on the road, the criminal duo runs into personal struggles of their own, with Sanchez possibly hinting at being gay and eventually wanting nothing to do with this chase anymore.
After Lady Danger gets caught for credit card fraud, Sanchez steals her money and makes his way to Dallas, Texas, to confess his feelings to Robert, who takes the money but doesn't take the scammer back.
When AJ reaches her Pop Pop's farm in Dallas, she finds out that her mother had lied to her the entire time about there ever being a Pop Pop. Feeling unwanted, the little girl becomes hysteric and Robert tells her that he wants to take care of her.
Unfortunately, her mother Brianna makes it to the farm at the same time and we're left wondering who AJ will end up leaving with.
Robert and AJ meet a lot of his old friends while they stop at different cities, and not to mention, Robert gives the most epic performances from 'Grease', songs by Diana Ross and many more.
The relationship that Robert forms with AJ goes beyond antics on a road trip, from sharing the "roses and thorns" of the day to leaning on each other through family, and love troubles.
The series reveals the darkness behind large wigs and bright make-up, diving into social themes of drug addiction, the LGBTQ community, racism, and social acceptance of all.
This unlikely duo goes through some rough battles including criminals with guns and social services, only to realize that they could only get through them because they had each other.
The characters in the show have a lot of depth and the actors did an excellent job having to portray such challenging roles.
RuPaul told CBS, "This role calls on me to bring those emotions up and be vulnerable," and he was right on the mark. Don't forget to stalk up on some tissues on this cross-country club tour with our new favorite duo.
All episodes of Season 1 of 'AJ and the Queen' are now streaming on Netflix.