Stream It or Skip It: ‘We’re Here’ Season 4 on HBO Finds the Drag Show at Its Realest and Rawest 

HBO’s We’re Here is back for Season 4 with new queens, new cities, a new format, and a new mission. What was once a feel-good tour of small town America and a celebration of the tiny-yet-mighty queer communities therein now has the urgency of a full-blown activist documentary. The stakes are higher than ever for the LGBTQ+ community, and that’s why new commanders-in-glam Sasha Velour, Jaida Essence Hall, and Priyanka are spending half of the season at ground zero for all things anti-drag: Tennessee. But after dealing with all the harrowing legislation and deeply personal trauma drama, is the all-new, all-different We’re Here still able to uplift and entertain?

WE’RE HERE SEASON 4: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Main Street of Murfreesboro, Tennessee — which, full disclosure: is my hometown. Shots of an all-American town square are underscored with what sounds like a ticking clock (or time bomb?) as the voiceover of a news anchor sets the stage: a drag ban is about to go into effect.

The Gist: Filmed in Summer 2023, We’re Here Season 4 is set against a backdrop of — well, a wave of anti-drag, anti-trans, and just anti-LGBTQ in general legislation that is still very much in effect in Spring 2024. And with America’s queer community living under the constant threat of our lives becoming illegal, it’s impossible for We’re Here to be the show it once was. That’s not to say that the previous three seasons weren’t dealing with very real nightmare scenarios; Bob the Drag Queen, Eureka!, and Shangela had to coach their drag kids through the pandemic and a tumultuous election cycle. But somehow, things have just gotten worse — so We’re Here once again rises to the occasion.

The show’s new format means that our three queens — Sasha Velour (winner, RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9), Jaida Essence Hall (winner, RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 12), and Priyanka (winner, Canada’s Drag Race Season 1) — are going to spend a lot more time in one place. The first three episodes of Season 4 are all set in Middle Tennessee, with the queens visiting Shelbyville and Old Hickory while being more or less stationed in Murfreesboro (a.k.a. The Town That Canceled Pride).

I have to say “more or less” because there’s no honest-to-god glam HQ this season. Also gone are the elaborate themed buses dedicated to each queen, as well as the elaborately staged photoshoots in local-yet-exotic locations. Season 4 is We’re Here at its most stripped down, thus adding to that sense of urgency. There’s no time to erect a gorgeous drag boot camp in the remnants of the old Red Rose Cafe (where indie singer/songwriter Sharon Van Etten once waited tables — I told you, this is my hometown). This generation of drag kids is getting made up at home and getting pep talks from the queen in the passenger seat of their sedan.

But at its heart, We’re Here remains devoted to telling queer stories and letting the fantasy of drag be the catalyst for real world change. The premiere finds Sasha Velour working with Norm, a Murfreesboro drag queen who feels responsible for getting Pride canceled; Jaida Essence Hall working with Maleeka — a trans woman just trying to live her life in one of the most conservative towns in Tennessee — and Bradford — a Christian musician and father of two queer teens who’s trying to learn what it means to be an ally. As for Priyanka, she faces a surprising hurdle when her initial drag daughter bails on the show, thus sending her on a search for anyone willing to do drag in a town that’s bullied its citizens into thinking lashes and heels are of the devil.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The old choice was, of course, Netflix’s Queer Eye, but We’re Here outgrew those comparisons years ago. While We’re Here is nominally a show about drag that gives people drag makeovers, it goes deeper than any other drag or makeover show would ever dare.

Parting Shot: The queens’ mission to host an open-stage drag event at a local watering hole over on the college side of town is a success — but there’s still lots of work to be done.

Sleeper Star: It may be because Jaida has two drag kids in this episode, thus giving her more screen time, but it’s Ms. Essence Hall who really shines. As a Drag Race super-fan, I do think that Jaida is an example of a queen who has grown more and more into herself with every subsequent TV appearance. And the Jaida Essence Hall that we get in We’re Here is so much more emotionally open than she was in Drag Race Season 12, and she’s putting the confidence we saw her cultivate in Drag Race All Stars 7 on full display here.

Memorable Dialogue: Priyanka said the quiet part out loud: “I never would have predicted that four seasons later it would be harder to be out and proud.”

Our Take: Okay, a second disclaimer: not only is Murfreesboro my hometown, but I’m actually in this episode of television. I am also a drag queen named Barb Hardly, and I performed as part of the premiere’s open stage show in August 2023. I’m also a TV critic who has been writing about We’re Here for exactly four years, so — I don’t know. Life intersects in bizarre, unexpected ways. Do with this information what you will.

All of that out of the way: I remain impressed with the way that We’re Here has persevered and managed to level up to meet circumstances that no producer could have ever foreseen, not even in their nightmares. But despite the worsening political climate, We’re Here is still able to spread queer joy to screens across the world.

That’s due in large part to the hosts, a rather odd trio that all work well together once you see them in action: Sasha’s the head, Jaida’s the heart, Priyanka’s the humor. Nowhere is that more evident than when our heroes sit down with two southern women who proudly participate in Tennessee’s thriving pageant scene. The banter is natural, disarming, and charming — which gives Sasha an opening to ask why it’s okay to put literal children in pageants but it’s not okay for children to see drag shows. There’s a repeat of this later in the episode when the queens visit a league of old timey baseball players and get gentle shade about drag from men wearing 100-year-old baseball uniforms. The point being: drag is everywhere, even on the baseball diamond.

These moments of daytime, out-on-the-town levity — albeit moments that do include homophobic slurs because lord knows a queer person can’t just exist in public — keep We’re Here grounded. The stakes are higher, the situation is dire, but the point of We’re Here is to show queer people rising to meet the moment. In the Season 4 premiere, that means getting Norm out of his house and back in drag. That means giving Bradford a platform to publicly express his love for his queer kids and their community. That means showing Maleeka how to shine instead of dimming her light. And if We’re Here can do it, then so can we all.

Our Call: STREAM IT. We’re Here remains the most relevant and important reality TV show airing today, and now it’s also the most urgent.