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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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Between Us (Filipino Series)

By Golu
It was an embarrassment to watch this show. Where do I even start? Right from the very basic storyline (non existing), to awful acting and direction to the very questionable trans representation (where their only job is to have loud makeup and flirt with school boys). Even school projects would do a better job than this show. The makers also had the audacity to have first 3 episodes 40 plus minutes long. Thankfully, somewhere they had sense and the episodes were then reduced to 20 minutes. Still at a total of 15 episodes, this should not have been even a short film.

The series shows us two love stories centered around students attending the same university. Sai and Khel meet at the school library while trying to check out the same book. While Khel did not leave the best impression on Sai, soon after the two agree to become friends. Both are later named candidates for the school's pageant where they spend more time together, and their friendship grows deeper. The second couple is Art and Mack. Art is a friend of Khel. He is a smart student but begins to face financial difficulty.  He joins cafe as a waiter and his first customer is Mack who is very rude to him. To make matters worse, the school assigns Art as Mack's new tutor in exchange for financial relief. The show then focuses on these two stories and how eventually the two couples fall for each other. In between there is plethora of side characters, for whom, 'annoying' doesn't really describe the extent of cringe that they bring.

Too many story lines, too many characters. I started getting confused as to who each character was, and what they were even about. It would still hav been ok, if the acting and direction was even half decent. You know it is gong to be a long journey when within first 10 minutes, you start rolling your eyes in disbelief that you may have to endure such torture for 15 more episodes. But thanks to high speed and fast forward button on my player, (trust me, this is the only way to watch this atrocity) I was able to finish it. Between the toxic female characters in hooker heals and the tropey completely over-the-top trans characters; the very uninteresting lead two gay couples, this show has a big NO written all over it. Run away from this as far as you can. (0.5/10)
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