The Emmy, Peabody, and GLAAD award-winning series We’re Here returns to HBO this Friday, April 26th at 9pm ET/PT, with new episodes debuting weekly and also streaming on Max. Created by Stephen Warren and Johnnie Ingram, and once again deftly directed by Peter LoGreco, this six-episode fourth season powerfully builds on what has come before to create something even richer, more nuanced, and ultimately even more meaningful. Everything about this series, from its casting, to its framing, editing, sound design, music, and song choices, feels considered and intentional, and all contribute to the show’s impact. We’re Here remains a glittering example of what can be achieved with unscripted television.
Since the last season of We’re Here aired, the Human Rights Campaign has declared a State of Emergency for LGBTQ+ Americans and the ACLU is currently tracking 487 anti-LGBTQ bills across the nation. We’re Here tackles this urgency head-on by taking its new cast of superstar queens—Sasha Velour, Priyanka, and Jaida Essence Hall—to Tennessee, where the country’s first drag ban was signed into law in 2023 and then on to Oklahoma—with Latrice Royale joining Sasha and Priyanka—where an alarming proliferation of anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced (the ACLU is currently tracking 54 in the state). Without sugarcoating, or sensationalizing, the fight that our community is up against in many parts of the US—especially trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming folks—We’re Here continues to find light and genuine hope. It is there in queer and trans people simply being their authentic selves, the power of being visible when the outside world is urging us to hide, and our strength in coming together as a community supported by vocal allies. At a time of intense polarization, this series reminds us of what connects us all as humans.
The new queens, all Drag Race alum, immediately feel like part of the We’re Here family; warm, funny, insightful, unguarded, compassionate, and kind. Not to mention fierce and fabulous; the lewks and the performances do not disappoint this season, honey. They share their own stories of growing up queer as they begin to meet the locals who they will prepare for a drag performance in their small conservative cities. With three episodes devoted to each state, the expanded timeframe enhances the storytelling, allowing for us to get to know both the new hosts and their drag kids in a deeper way than was possible with the one episode per city format that the previous seasons generally adhered to.
When it comes to the drag kids, We’re Here continues to create significant representation for those in our community who are rarely in the spotlight. In Shelbyville, Tennessee we meet Maleeka, a Black trans woman who is learning more about her Intersex identity, and finding reassurance and self-understanding in it, with Jaida’s guidance. Jess in Tulsa, Oklahoma is at the beginning of her transition, learning to accept herself and let go of what has been holding her back, with tender encouragement from Sasha. It is also in Tulsa where we meet John, a transgender two-spirit elder who is empowering her two-spirit relatives by reminding them of the history of how they traditionally were not just accepted, but revered in Indigenous culture before colonization brought Christian morality with it. We see Priyanka and John gradually build a close bond, just as she does with her other drag kids in Tennessee, where she helps Princey to bring some of the confidence that he exudes with his out and proud wrestling persona “Pha’Nesse” into his life outside the ring. While Princey’s coach Brian walks the walk of allyship, even in heels, as he gets into drag to support his friend and local LGBTQ+ folks with a showstopping Barb Wire-inspired look.
We also meet parents sending a message of acceptance, such as Jaida’s drag kid Bradford, a musician and singer with a conservative Christian background who writes and performs an affecting song at an open stage night in Murfreesboro with his queer daughter and trans son present. While Sasha’s Murfreesboro drag kid Norm, a veteran drag queen of twenty years in his own right who goes by Veronica Paige, is joined on stage after he performs by his mother in a touching public sign of her support for him. In Tulsa, Priyanka connects with the lovable Kris whose TikTok posts as @krazykris88 giving out “free dad hugs” at Pride have gone viral, guiding him towards a fabulous lip-sync performance to Avril Lavigne’s “I’m with you”.
Establishing how heightened things have become with regressive legislators, conservative pastors, and loud right-wing voices focused on stripping away our rights, or worse, we see news footage of armed protestors, with a Nazi flag, outside drag brunches in Tennessee. Given the movement against drag, certain sequences this season have the uncomfortable tension of a real-life thriller, like the queens being warned that stepping out in drag in public in Tennessee might see them get arrested. In Murfreesboro, a city where pride was cancelled, Jaida, Sasha, and Priyanka defiantly don their finest drag to attend a city council meeting which opens with a prayer that God will guide the proceedings before a jeering father encourages his daughter to speak. She goes on to warn that “the LGBTQ rainbow movement is a religious cult” before chillingly receiving a round of applause from some of those gathered and utter disbelief from the queens. Sasha and Priyanka attempt to have a face-to-face conversation with the pair following the meeting, but their talking points have become so entrenched that no real dialogue is possible.
Later in the season, there is an unsettling sit-down with Sasha, Priyanka, and Latrice with a Republican political strategist in Tulsa. Stating that her work is led by her faith, she tells the queens about how she encourages those running for office to take up familiar anti-LGBTQ+ talking points, including spreading misinformation about gender-affirming health care. Although she has never seen a drag show, she has plenty of misconceived opinions about what happens at them.
Without being able to secure a performance venue for a drag show in Bartlesville, Oklahoma and with the local equality group nervous that the production’s very presence will only make things worse, Sasha, Priyanka, and Latrice publish an open invitation to the town to join them for a meet and greet in a public park. When the day comes, they are met with a vitriolic welcome of hatred spewed from megaphones and insulting signs and banners. The atmosphere feels threatening, but those voices are soon drowned out by a far louder message of love and support for the city’s queer community in a stirring scene that conveys the strength that we have when we show up for each other in solidarity.
In stark contrast, in Nashville the queens are greeted with open arms by Representative Justin Jones. Before he gives them a guided tour of the House Chamber, we see a clip of him on the floor saying that “drag shows are not a threat to our community, mass shootings are” as he urges his colleagues to recognize their hypocrisy in defending the second amendment while they seek to regulate freedom of expression. His voice is a reassuring and invigorating one, with his commitment to “fighting extremism” in the state legislature as it puts it. It is also heartening to see him attend a drag show at a time when the art is under such scrutiny in his state.
Religion is a recurring theme throughout this season, with many of the drag kids, such as Christian in Oklahoma, recalling feeling unworthy, shameful, and rejected as they grew up sitting through countless church services where they were told that their queerness would condemn them to hell. We also see the Bible weaponized against the community by legislators and in the words of extremists protesting against drag. This makes the environment of inclusivity fostered by Father Joshua at his independent Catholic church of St. Jerome in Tulsa all the more poignant.
Not only does Father Joshua open his church as a venue for the queens to host their drag show in the final episode of the season, but he preaches a message that welcomes everyone into his fold and even talks of drag being “sacred” and celebrates the “ministry of drag” that he views the queens as practicing. His message is transformative for Latrice, a person of faith who has never heard such words spoken by a religious leader. Encouragingly, Father Joshua is not alone in his approach and is part of a group of clergy in Oklahoma from various religions, known as the Affirming Alliance, who want to make their spaces truly open and inviting to all. Seeing Latrice attend a service, then take to the stage in drag at St. Jerome is one of the highlights of the season, as is Sasha Velour’s breathtaking lip-sync to Kesha’s “Praying” that follows.
This is an urgent, profoundly moving, and uplifting season of an essential series, which maps a way forward as it continues its mission of fostering connections between LGBTQ+ folks in communities where they are often isolated. The first season arrived as a ray of light during the early months of the pandemic in an election year. This fourth season launches as there is another consequential general election ahead of us, and while the media focus is often on the presidential race, We’re Here underscores the major impact that state and city legislatures can also have on our daily lives. At a time when some would like to see us retreat, there is power in our visibility and in saying that we’re here, we’ve always been here, and we’re not going anywhere.
By James Kleinmann
Season 4 of We’re Here debuts on HBO this Friday, April 26th at 9pm ET/PT, with new episodes weekly and also streams on Max. Read our reviews of We’re Here season one, season two, and season three.
