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Stop! That! Train!

By Golu
Coming out of the same studio that gave us RuPaul's Drag Race, and stacked with a whole crew of former contestants, Stop! That! Train! plays like RuPaul basically taking a bow for the entire franchise she's built. It's not really a gay film in the traditional sense, but with so many drag stars from Ru's shows popping up alongside a few cameos from well known out gay actors, I figured it earns a spot on this blog anyway. The whole thing is completely over the top, packed with GenZ slang, loud flashy visuals, and humor that's constantly winking at you knowing how ridiculous it is. Going in you'd assume it's meant to be a laugh riot, and a lot of critics online seem to be eating it up, but I just couldn't get into it at all. I've never really been someone who vibes with campy silly stuff like this, so honestly my reaction doesn't surprise me one bit. The setup follows Tess and DeeDee, two low level stewardesses who sneak onto the fancy Glamazonian E...
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Romeu & Romeu (Portuguese) (Web Series)

By Golu
This Brazilian web series is definitely not the first one to be adapted by Romeo and Juliet for gay sensibilities, but surely I think from a web series perspective, its gotta be one of the first ones. Clocking at 10 episodes , each of about 25 odd minutes, it is a time investment and it take s couple of episodes to understand all the characters involved. Thankfully , the series doesn't imbibe all the death and tragedy aspect of the original Shakespeare story, instead it adapts it in a modern setting where you can be more hopeful of the eventual outcome.

The two rival families involved here are Monteiro and Campelo families, about which the entire knows about. Their hatred for each other has been so long, that current generation doesn't even know whether hate each other. Romulo Campelo is suffering from Parkinson's disease and is openly gay and his family is very supportive of him including his elder brother Thales. In a party hosted fo this mom, he meets Ramon Monteiro and a strange connection and love soon starts to develop between them, knowing very well about each other's identities. Ramon's father is very conservative and he has a brother and a cousin. He used to always date girls and his ex-girlfriend is now dating Thales. We are also told that Ramon's uncle is gay and lives in Sao Paolo. After initial back and forth, the two lovers decide to live their life and Ramon comes out to his two brothers who support him fully well. But neither tells their family about who they are in love with. When Thales' friend sees a Monteiro boy leave Ramon's home, he attacks and a tragedy strikes. Romulo's brother gets injured by knife and because of his actions, Ramon's brother gets paralyzed. This is around the time, when the two also tell their families about who they love. The current generation of kids try to understand and convince their parents that they need to forget age old hatred because its not even relevant anymore. But when Ramon's father finds truth, he ends up hitting Ramon who eventually runs away. This incident sort of brings the two families together but the eventual loser is Ramon's father who just refuses to see the purity of love and forget everything else.

As I had mentioned before, This series is an interesting adaptation of the play and has not been blatantly copied. A lot of elements of love, laughter, melodrama, passion is all incorporated between various characters. And of course, lot of conflict between siblings, friends, parents and children, as well as between the star-crossed lovers. The two leads Ramon and Romulo have both done a brilliant job anther roles and have great chemistry. You witness their growth as lovers while also being very real about their family situations. Romulo's Parkinson's disease is also given a lot of weight because that itself becomes a central point at many places. Similarly, we see that Ramon's family is dealing with some evils of their family history with his uncle being gay and a diary by his grandfather which spells out some hidden family secrets. But one commenting that you see is the family loves each other. Some things that got me confused were why the drag queens every now and then would just show up trying to be the narrator of the story . I don't think that was needed at all. And secondly, there were way too many parallel stories that took me a few episodes to understand who all these people are. The story of Ramon's ex-boyfriend meeting a guy in party and their love story with a closet case friend of Thales was all so very confusing and absolutely not needed at all. Also, are there no other people in the town, because it seems anyone who was dating anyone in the two families had something to do with the other family. Romulo's brother is dating Ramon's ex and Ramon's cousin is dating Romulo's best friend and many other such instances.

Despite some of these issues, this series still definitely deserves a watch. I'm surprised it took me this long to discover this hidden gem. Its not the best series out there but its a nice tribute to love and is acted well with some good looking people. A fresh and engaging take on Shakespeare classic, I think most people would end up enjoying the story here. (7.5/10)
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Sailor Maan said…
Very good series indeed, your great review says excatly what I think. Great for the good chemistry, parkinson handled very well, family interractions, and the fact it's not a complete copy of shakespear story. And not so good with too many characters and stories. The drag part was interresting whith what I guess is Shakespear texts. Except that with the translation written in old english I couldn't understand half of it haha (and also they ruined the first kiss imo). Greatly recommended, thank you Golu for letting me know about this one.
January 30, 2022 at 1:17 PM
Golu said…
You are very welcome my dear friend. I do look forward to your feedback and others as well and always feel happy if my views make someone watch a nice film/show or skip some and save on time
January 30, 2022 at 5:20 PM
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