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...
The story is simple, straight forward yet weird. Sunshine is an actor who has got his first major role. The shoot takes a break of 7 days before making the big announcement of the project n valentines day. And this is the day it happens his boyfriend Rain decides to breakup within saying it is not working between them. Demoralized, he comes back to his apartment drunk, where a mysterious man Q is waiting for him. Introducing himself as the cupid reaper, he gives Sun a wish that for next seven days, every day he can eliminate anyone's existence from the universe. All Sun has to do is think and ask. He gets excited and the first day as expected he asks for Rain's current boyfriend to be gone so he can win him back. But he realizes that Rain has another boyfriend now. Rain's new lover disappearance didn't change the fact that he broke up with Sunshine. The politician disappearance changed the policy against gays. The ex-lover disappearance made Rain forget Sunshine. Then, Rain 's best friend disappearance made Rain kill himself. All those actions made Sunshine question himself about who he is, still not accepting the fact that Rain disappeared because of his choices and blaming Q. HE then wishes himself to disappear since he seems to be the problem, but this is when everyone comes back. He realized that he was, in fact, in love with the only person who understood him and helped him : Q. Unfortunately, to make the world as it was, he wished for Q to disappear.
Despite an interesting premise, the narrative is so tedious and lethargic, I lost my interest very early on. Q and Sunshine talk and talk and talk and there is very little focus on actual action. Yes, this is more philosophically focused drama and in a normal setting, it would have even worked. But when I sit-down to watch BL shows I expect romance and drama, and this one gave me zero feeling at all about watching a BL at all. Sun gets on my nerves with his pettiness, recklessness, and cluelessness. His decisions to erase certain people seem irresponsible, but he acts shocked and outraged by the repercussions. Sun and Q's bond eventually grows but by then it's already too late. Personally, when I lost the interest in the show early on, I wasn't even ready to give it a chance since I ha made up my mind. In my opinion, this show will only appeal to a very niche audience who wants to talk and debate morality and philosophy and have nothing to do with eating to see cute boys romance and kiss. The show is about looking back into yourself when bad things happen into your life and how to move on without blaming anyone and such things are never easy to look back at. For me, this show was a big bore. (2/10)
Comments
Because Sunshine is a horrible unreasonable and selfish character, because it's slow and repetitive at first, because they make you wait too much to get explanations (when they give some...). Because the ending and some other things (like they are each other cute reaper?) are not very clear. Because the looong dialogues and self mourning monologues made it tedious at times. And because the atmosphere won't be for everyone.
I particuliarly like that atmosphere though, with a lot of work made on the lightning and stylish choices. The premise is unique too. Hard to explain but there is something poetic about this show. Like how Sunshine symboliquely erases all metaphors of people who can be in the way of a relationship (the new bf, the ex, the best friend etc...). And the way it shows a man that slowly loses grip on reason and gets lost on spiraling killing madness. Like what humanity has been proven capable of sadly. It gets darker and darker. Like when Sunshine kills Rain's best friend, that is also his friend. Thankfully it's not unfixable and he finally has his redemption, willing to sacrifice himself to fix things. I find Q wonderful.
The base situation is quite wobbly. Killing others to have your boyfriend who cheated on you is clearly wtf. But Sunshine's emotionnal need for relationship get enventually unraveled (even if it's not even nearly an excuse).
It all goes with that horrible sentence the reaper says "the first kill is difficult, then it becomes a habit". How creepy. Made me think how the god of this universe was a twisted one. He begins with the "easy" kills (the new bf for sunshine, the doctor for Q), basically the ones you are madly angry about when the reaper offers you his help. The god is clearly a demon playing with human weaknesses. Once the irreparable has been done once, the state of your mind is irremediably corrupted and the spiraling begins. Blood curdling.