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...
Charn, a high profile lawyer who is ruthless and not above bending the law to further his will and benefit his clients. And then we have Tinn, a martial arts coach who believes the law is just. Fate brings them together a couple of times, the most notable being when they meet as plaintiff and defense in the case involving the death of Tin's niece in a car accident by the son of a high profile politician. As Charn starts to realize that something with the politician is not right an maybe the real story is even deeper, he starts helping Tinn. Over a period of many weeks and months, the dup get learn more about each other. Tinn is the more idealistic version, the one who never lost faith in justice, in good in the people. Charn’s loss turned him into this heartless version of himself, he doesn’t believe that justice is possible by following the law. He wants power, something that he can use to protect himself from going through what he went again. Neither of them had it easy, but they chose two different paths in how to deal with it. It turns out that niece had heard the politician making a shady deal and recorded the chat on her recordable teddy bear and hence was murdered. The show thins about accident/murder investigation; bth Charn and Tinn working with each other with help of their friends to find out the truth. During this course, the flirty Charn is also shared by Tinn and does his best to make him fall for him and the duo become a couple as well. Of course, we all know how the show will end and thats exactly what happens.
I will have to start with some obvious issues/plotholes of the script. First of all, the show has a very soap opera vibe. Also the romance between Charn and Tinn is not organically developed. On minute they are rivals and somehow the next minute Tinn starts trusting Charn. Also many scenes just happen and then we get a 3-5 minute flashback to explain the sequence. This is one issue that I am noticing in more and more shows. The pattern is ok when done in smaller doze but having a flashback every 15 minutes in all episodes is just badly edited and scripted show. And finally, the secondary couple of the politician's son and his bodyguard. Now that is something which was absolutely not needed. That whole section can easily be completely eliminated. Coming to some of the positives, Charn and Tinn have amazing chemistry even though I may not agree with the hurried romance and love. Charn has charisma and a smile that can both be sweet and cunning and he uses his charm to the fullest and it makes sense in the show. But same can't be said about Tinn. It feels like he was being taken for a ride with just about anyone. The only funny character was that of Charn's ex-boyfriend who leaves a lot more impact in the few 20-30 minutes he is on screen. A lot is compacted in last episode butane also last 30 minutes have been spent in giving the couple a finale with wedding and all; which in principal I would have enjoyed, but somehow just did not make sense in the overall genre of the show. Overall, the plot seemed new and interesting but it fell flat on it's face multiple times in the execution. I understand I should probably be used to all this by now, but somehow my tolerance level goes down every single day. (5.5/10)
Comments
The plot kept me on my toe, and surpised me some times too. Like in the beginning when you expect Charn would be helping Tinn when he is only here to warn him he is in the opposite side. Or when you know the real reason behide the little girls death.
It is a soap opera though, so definitely over the top, and as for To sir with love I can't believe I didn't run away from it given how horrible I usually think it is (immunity here you go). Except for those catastrophic "special effects" I should say. The explosion of the lawyer's office was something...
The beginning with the little girl was really hard to watch. Of course transfering the image of my little girl here (and had my husband hate me for a week suggesting we should watch this together). So maybe I made Tinn's rage mine too and was eagerly waiting for the bad guys to pay.
I just think they had a poor timeline at times. You think the action follows immediately the precedent only to realize after a while several days/weeks have probably passed.
But other than that I just loved it.
I remember you both recommended this show and I am glad I saw it. It definitely didn't excite me as much but wasn't outright bad, which I am guessing is what many of the shows which are in my pipeline are going to be.