40 minute episode still feels rushed and weird. Maybe this will get better in the last episodes when there will be fewer queens. The unlucky queens that will leave in the first episodes will barely get any screen time, which is really unfair considering how much they spend on looks and taking time of their own lives to go on the show. As a viewer, I feel really bad for them, and It's not the feeling I'm looking for on a show like this.
In this particular episode the looks were actually good. The cast is amazing. What threw me off was the reading challenge: with only one rushed read for each queen it was one of the most annoying things ever on the show, on my 10 years of watching it.