Stream It or Skip It: ‘Trixie Motel’ on Discovery+, Where Trixie Mattel Puts a Palm Springs Motel in Drag

Trixie Mattel expands her drag empire with Trixie Motel, a renovation series on Discovery+ that finds the skinny legend donning a hardhat and swinging a sledgehammer as she and her team retrofit a ’50s motel into the ideal Palm Springs getaway. Trixie Motel is a new kind of drag experience, one that pushes the subversive art form into the feel-good reality/makeover genre that we’re used to watching on cable on Saturday afternoons. The question is: is Trixie Motel a serve or a flop?

TRIXIE MOTEL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: The pink diva supreme herself, Trixie Mattel, in full vintage Barbie regalia delivering the show’s premise directly to us, the fans.

The Gist: It turns out that Trixie and her partner David Silver spent the pandemic doing what we all did: scrolling through Zillow in a dreamlike state, looking for any way out of our hellish existence. Unlike all of us who closed our laptops and continued to putter around our teeny apartments, Trixie and David did the deed and bought an old, pink motel in Palm Springs for a hefty chunk of change. Now they’ve got to put the whole thing in drag while staying under budget and on schedule. Fortunately they’ve got the help of designer Dani Dazey and project manager David Rios.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Trixie’s cited A Very Brady Renovation as the main influence on Trixie Motel, and that is correct. Both shows sincerely revere kitsch and approach the traditional home makeover show from a more, shall we say, chaotic point of view. It’s truly just refreshing to watch another reno show that never says the word “shiplap” or features straights crying about their “open concept.”

Our Take: My expectations for Trixie Motel have been higher than Trixie’s stacked wigs ever since the show was first announced. It’s rare that one show encompasses so much of what I love. I was promised drag, extreme renovations, Palm Springs, midcentury vibes, and my queen Trixie Mattel. That’s a tall order! Surely the show would skimp on one of those requests, right?

Wrong. Trixie Motel is everything I wanted out of this show, if not more. The renovation tropes are all there, from a limited budget to unpredictable hurdles and innovative workarounds. The vibes are right; all of the graphics sparkly and shimmy like they’re in a Frankie and Annette beach movie. The series is uniquely Palm Springs thanks to a few trips into town, one to a vintage furniture store with Lisa Vanderpump and another to get the blessing of The Old Gays. And the transformation — honey. Huhhh-neee! It has to be seen to be believed but, trust me, I’ve never been more in love with a tub than the one featured in the first renovated room.

What’s really innovative, though, is the mixing of two tastes that I assumed would not form a tasty cocktail. The renovation genre is just incredibly TV-G and debilitatingly heterosexual even when we get a gay or two in the mix. And I have suffered through enough home makeover shows that turn what could be a gorgeous midcentury experience into a Pottery Barn fiasco — just, why does everything have to be rustic? Mercifully, Trixie Motel manages to take the effervescent vibe of this style of show and effortlessly sprinkle in the weird, over-the-top, sarcastic, innuendo-laden madness that drag fans live for. For example, Trixie describing the ugly old carpet in one room as “it looked like a muppet with worms scooted his ass across the floor.” That’s a phrase that would never even form in Drew or Jonathan Scott’s brain. God bless Trixie’s gay brain, and god bless Trixie Motel for letting it run free.

Sex and Skin: Oh, can you handle Trixie going shopping for vintage furniture in nothing but a pink bathing suit? The body is here — it’s padded, but it’s here. But also this is a gay renovation show set in Palm Springs. There are going to be men in speedos, and it looks like they’re going to be there to entertain Leslie Jordan. I feel so seen.

Sleeper Star: I love that Trixie’s partner David Silver is getting so much airtime! He’s a fantastic filmmaker in his own right (please, watch Moving Parts!), but to see him onscreen playing the “straight” man to Trixie’s extroverted showgal? It is a treat. It’s also lovely seeing the unexpected moments of realness between the two, like when Trixie says that the motel is David’s dream and she’s excited to see one of his dreams come true. Come through, sincerity!

Our Call: STREAM IT. I cannot think of a better, brighter, and bawdier summer series than Trixie Motel.