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...
Khasan is a LA native, a choreographer by profession, in along distance relationship with his New York boyfriend. He wants to explore moving to NY, so he invites some friends and friends of friends to spend a summer in FireIsland. So we have Khasan's BFF Jorge, a Venezuelan doctor who left his career and boyfriend to move to New York City. We have Patrick, young 21year old student and wanna be photographer, Cheyenne, a model and entrepreneur , Justin, a graphic illustrator , who has self confidence issues regarding his body and finally Patrick, a southern boy who works on the island as bartender and is just spending the whole summer. This group gets a huge beach facing house ad decide to spend 6 weekends here on the Pines. Different weekends have different themes and overall we get to see various details of lives of almost all contestants and their friends. Khasan and Juston's boyfriends visit the island and they have a good time. Jorge hits a rough patch with his boyfriend back home and gets naughty with two of his "mistresses", Patrick, the biggest drama queen participates in drag show and also is always at loggerheads with Cheyenne. Cheyenne and Brandon had hoped that this summer they will be sluts but before you know suddenly Cheyenne has a boyfriend and is all monogamous now. Brandon wants to have fun and a guy gets serious about him (who happens to be Patrick's friend and co-worker) and that creates tension. We also have Khasan and Justin's parents visit the island one weekend which thankfully passes through without drama. But the ending episode shows us whole lot more drama (very forced one) with Patrick's ex-boyfriend showing up and Patrick and Cheyenne blowing up again.
“Fire Island” is reality TV. That alone sums up the kind of show it is, and I will freely admit that it was a total guilty pleasure for me. You know its scripted, its drama, forced humor and sex and it was all fun. It did remind of a couple of holidays that I had in Fire Island over ten years ago, so of course there isa nostalgia factor too. After watching the first episode, I was drawn in for the rest because of the drama and thank you Patrick for that. The equally masculine and feminine Patrick, who passionately embraces both his sides feels like thinly one who knows this is reality show and that t needs drama. Rest everyone is playing their parts but don't try to bring anything concrete. Khasan, the leader seems to be the only logical person of the group trying to keep the. Group together, The extremely sexy Jorge is most interested in being with Khasan and spending time with him and occasionally complaining about his boyfriend neglecting him for past few weeks. Brandon has one motive, which is have sex, which to be honest, was most real since what else would you expect from a horny 21 year old and he owns it. Although it is also clear he is young and immature. Justin is mostly focused on his relationship and is a character you care about . Cheyenne was the most shallow of them all and however hard he tried, you could just never care for him.
As much as I enjoyed the forced "reality" of the show there were many aspects which just didn't make sense; especially the whole Brandon and his summer fling with a potential suitor. How does a guy fall so hard fo rosmeonie just after a few days is beyond me and no one in todays' day and time want commitment so soon, least of all gay people. People want to hang out, spend time together and not suddenly force yourself on someone as boyfriends. That was odd. And secondly, when Patrick's ex shows up in theist two episodes. He cries at drop of a hat multiple times and it is so fake that you have to watch it to believe it. Every time he cried, and that too for really no reason, it made me laugh so loud, because I also know he is an actor and I have seen him in a few bad films with really bad acting. I mean, all these guy seem professional educated folks, so why are they all acting like teenagers is beyond, but then hey, isn't reality TV shows all about not real and bunch of over hyped drama for high ratings. We should all know this by now and accept it. The idea is simple, bring a few hot guys, show parties, booze, naked bodies, forced drama , comedy and a whole lot of sex. Throw in some relationship advice, parents acceptance, some struggle and hey you got a recipe for a hit show. The show also tries to show brief snippets of some older couples who hav been together for decades, but they have clearly been thrown is just to avoid any wrong publicity. Overall, its a show that is aimed at pure fun. Not to be taken seriously, watch it for time pass, make judgements (we all love to do that), do some trash talk, look at LOT of hot men is speedos, get conscious of your own body image and then quickly forget all about it. (5/10)
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