AJ and the Queen is a dramedy series created by RuPaul and Michael Patrick King (Sex and the City) on Netflix.
After getting scammed by his boyfriend and business partner, drag queen Ruby Red (RuPaul) is left penniless. While embarking on a cross-country tour originally meant to be his last, he discovers bratty half-pint AJ (Izzy G) stowed away in his RV, seeking to escape her own bleak life in New York. What begins as a begrudging arrangement between them becomes an unlikely friendship both of them desperately needed.
Alongside Ru Paul are Josh Segarra as Ruby's scamming ex Hector, Tia Carrere as his eyepatched sidekick Lady Danger, Michael-Leon Wooley as Ruby's best friend Louis, Matthew Wilkas as hot cop Officer Kennedy, Katerina Tannenbaum as AJ's mother, and a host of RuPaul's Drag Race alumni (including Katya, Valentina, and Bianca Del Rio) as various drag queens Ruby encounters on the road.
Cancelled after 1 season.
AJ and the Queen contains examples of:
- Act of True Love: AJ gets a puppy after Ruby buys it off from a homeless couple and is ecstatic. However, upon seeing that the puppy was always crying at night and is refusing to eat, she decides to give it back to its old owners, though it's not easy for her. This is especially noteworthy since she was whining about wanting a dog of her own in past episodes, but she loves dogs too much to see them unhappy.
- Actor Allusion:
- This isn't the first time that Michael-Leon Wooley has played a musically talented character named Louis.
- One of the names for Josh Segarra's character in the show shares the same first name and initials with another character he portrayed
- Ambiguously Bi: Hector/Damian. Ruby learns he has a wife after skipping out on him, but it's not clear if he was just playing Ruby or if he really did have mutual feelings during their relationship.
- Ambiguous Gender Identity: Ruby is initially confused by AJ's gender identity after learning she's not a boy. AJ makes a point of saying she doesn't want to be a boy, but she doesn't want to be a girl either.
- Blind Black Guy: Louis is black and blind.
- Cast Full of Gay: Downplayed, but one can't deny that the series puts a major focus on queer characters.
- The Cameo: Alumni of RuPaul's Drag Race appear throughout the series as various drag queens Ruby encounters on the road. Some of them include Katya, Valentina, and Bianca Del Rio.
- Character Name and the Noun Phrase: AJ and the Queen.
- Deuteragonist: AJ and Ruby are both protagonists in the story.
- Driving a Desk: Ruby driving the RV, which looks pretty conspicuous from the studio lighting compared to the green screen footage of cars driving by.
- Embarrassing First Name: AJ considers her full name, Amber Jasmine, to be "unfortunate," presumably because it's so girly.
- Family of Choice/Parental Substitute: Ruby and AJ eventually regard one another in this way, with Ruby becoming very protective of her.
- The First Cut Is the Deepest: Ruby has a fling with a friend of a friend during his and AJ's stop in Jackson. Although the two obviously like each other, he tells him he's not ready to enter a relationship yet due to Hector/Damien's lies leaving him with a broken heart, so he lets him down gently.
- Heroes Love Dogs: AJ wants to own a dog, and loves dogs in general. She finally gets a puppy while they're in Mississippi when they buy it from a homeless couple but due to the puppy crying for its old owner, an understanding but heartbroken AJ takes it upon herself to bring the puppy back, realizing that "[the puppy] misses its mommy, even if she's a bad one."
- Hot Cop: Officer Kennedy is very attractive, which doesn't go unremarked upon.
- It's All My Fault: Ruby blames himself somewhat for the stroke that blinded Louis, as he urged him to comically stuff his face with sweets during a show despite Louis saying it was too campy.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming/Location Title: Episodes are named for the stops on Ruby's tour.
- Important Haircut: AJ cutting her hair after Ruby's first show represents her willingness to get along with him.
- Latin Lover: Hector/Damien puts on this persona when grifting Ruby.
- Left Hanging: Due to the show's cancellation, the possibility that AJ is now resenting her mother for lying about Pop Pop's existence and Hector/Damien coming to the realization that he might have genuinely loved Ruby may never be explored.
- Missing Mom: AJ's reason for wanting to go to Texas is that her negligent mother who is never home. She's later revealed to care deeply for AJ despite her lack of parenting skill.
- "Near and Dear" Baby Naming: A flashback to AJ's birth reveals the origins of her hated full name, Amber Jasmine: those were the names of the two kind nurses who helped her mother give birth.
- One Last Job: Ruby's cross-country tour was meant to be her last before opening the club with Hector, but it soon becomes his only source of income.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Ruby and Louis.
- Tank-Top Tomboy: AJ's choice of clothing signals that she's one of these.
- Tomboyish Name: AJ wouldn't be caught dead going by her full name, Amber Jasmine, preferring a more gender-neutral nickname.
- The Snark Knight: AJ hides a lot of hurt behind a metric ton of snark.
- Twofer Token Minority: Ruby is a gay black man, while Louis is a threefer as a gay, black, and blind man.
