The Strain

[palmer_eldritch]

The Strain is a horror show about people fighting vampires. And it's really good.

Note that this is not a show about vampires hugging, kissing, suffering from teen angst or fighting for their civil rights. They're not even suave Eastern European counts. The vampires in this show are brutal, terrifying monsters.

The focus of the story is mainly on the people who are fighting them, or become their victims or get caught up in their evil plans in some way. So you have a range of storylines going on, and it works because the characters are interesting and the stories are good.

Actors in this include Sam from Lord of the Rings and the bald senator guy from House of Cards who has magically grown hair for the show.



The show was created by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan and is apparently based on a trilogy of novels they wrote together. To be honest I have never seen anything else by Guillermo del Toro but I a lot of people seem to regard him highly.

The production values and acting seem to me to be worthy of a good movie. There is an overall ongoing plot with some things to discover - mainly what the vampires' big masterplan is - but it's not one of those shows that deliberately poses questions at you. The story moves along.

[01101010]

I like del Toro's stuff... but it is a bit on the bizarre side of the mark - sometimes a little too bizarre for the sake of being bizarre. But it works well enough to drive through the Wonderland parts.

[Signe]

I like this show, too.  And I like some of del Toro's other stuff... even Hellboy.  And bizarre?  I live for bizarre!  And creepy.  Bizarre and creepy, that's me, that is.

[HaemishM]

I'm really digging this show. I have the first novel but haven't read it yet. Corey Stoll (bald Senator guy from House of Cards) is good in this, as is David Bradley (Walder Frey from Game of Thrones).

[Shannow]

I want to like this show but jeezus the writing is fuckawful.

[satael]

This show has alot of the elements I usually like but for some reason I don't like it (which leads to noticing and being bothered by all the inconsistencies and plot-holes in the series...real or just me not getting it). I guess I should just stop watching it instead of trying to force myself to like it 

[kaid]

I want to like it then they have things like the lady emoting after jewhelsing saves her life from two vampires that she would rather die to the disease than to kill one of the infected. Thankfully now that the vampire stuff is getting seen there will be less daddy custody issues which were painful to watch.

[Margalis]

This show has alot of the elements I usually like but for some reason I don't like it (which leads to noticing and being bothered by all the inconsistencies and plot-holes in the series...real or just me not getting it).

Ditto.

The writing really is the culprit I think. I've been re-watching Star Trek: TNG recently and one thing I'm struck by now is how most of the characters act in-character and understandably most of the time. If some strange event happens they ask questions and jump to conclusions their characters would jump to. If they have an emotional response to something it's in line with how they should behave. You can sense the writers asking "how would this character react here?"

The Strain can't seem to decide if it is supposed to be somewhat realistic or purely a fairy tale. People behave in ways and say things that just ring false if it's supposed to be even the tiniest bit realistic. I mean, like 5 minutes into the first episode an air-traffic guy says of a plane "it's like a flying building" with a sense of wonder. The fuck? Airplanes are commonplace and YOU WORK AT AN AIRPORT.

In way too many scenes someone says or does something that just doesn't make much sense or isn't consistent with how a character in their position (or their own established character) would act. And it suffers from extreme laziness in parts, like convenient hacker chick disabling the internet and phones because the writers couldn't figure out how to make the story work in a modern setting.

Structurally following all these different characters doesn't work for me because many of them just aren't interesting. Following a dozen different characters and having them tie together could work, but I just don't care about ganbanger guy or exterminator guy or goth rocker dude. They aren't well-developed characters or even compelling if shallow archetypes. I care about Nazi Vampire Guy, The Master, Jewish swordy guy and dashing doctor. That's pretty much it.

Still watching but it's losing me.

I want to like it then they have things like the lady emoting after jewhelsing saves her life from two vampires that she would rather die to the disease than to kill one of the infected.

On a high level that could work but it just didn't the way that scene played out. That's exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about. The scene as written and acted just rang false.

[kaid]

Yup I can see a doctor in normal life talking about a normal disease I can understand that but after what she saw in that autopsy point blank range whatever that thing once was it is now so drastically changed there is clearly not going to be any going back to normal and given the danger and lethality of the creatures destruction is pretty much the only chance.  Things are getting a bit better now that things are firing up but the inter character interaction still seems kinda bad.

For the rat guys dad okay you don't like your sons life choice thats fine. This guy has refused to see you for years suddenly shows up to give you a warning that alone should be a pretty big weight in favor of heeding his warning as it is highly unlikely that something that was not very serious would have brought him back to you.

[TheWalrus]

I thought the books were great, until the writers brought in God to save the human race. It was so ham fisted and terribly written, it ruined the series for me. I haven't watched the show yet. I don't know if I will. Real shame. It was shaping up to be a great trilogy.

[Bunk]

There doesn't seem to be anything metaphysical about the story yet - which is why I'm enjoying it. Hopefully stays that way.

[grebo]

Another good episode, but I dunno if I like what they did at the end.

[Yegolev]

My wife tells me all about how the show is different from the books.

[angry.bob]

I'm still enjoying this show, although the doctor is starting to build up critical levels of annoying. The two Slavic and one German characters are good and the Walder Fray guy is doing the best job in my opinion. THis weeks episode ended on a big reveal:

[Signe]

I still like this, too, but I have concerns.  I'll spoiler my concerns, though.

[HaemishM]

Got to agree with Bob re: the look of the big bad. He looked really really silly. Also can't quite understand the whole "we just killed my ex-wife's boyfriend in my house, let's immediately have sex on the floor!!!!" thing. Felt a little like padding out the episode.

[angry.bob]

I still like this, too, but I have concerns.  I'll spoiler my concerns, though.

[Signe]

I still like this, too, but I have concerns.  I'll spoiler my concerns, though.

Thanks Bob. 

[Threash]

I don't care how ridiculous it is this show is highly entertaining.

[HaemishM]

Yeah, the ridiculousness of it doesn't bother me, because it's really just a modern day "virus" take on the Dracula monster movies. It's meant to be "serious" but cheesy at heart.

[apocrypha]

My wife & I are currently watching this (vampires), Extant (aliens or something) and Hemlock Grove (werewoves and all sorts of other shit).

They're all kinda similar - cheesy, not terribly well written, but kind of entertaining anyway and something to watch while we wait for Hannibal, True Detective, Fargo and American Horror Story to start again.

And yes, I know I sound like a broken record, but the female characters in this are, surprise surprise, fucking terrible.

[Bunk]

And yes, I know I sound like a broken record, but the female characters in this are, surprise surprise, fucking terrible.

All the characters in this show so far have cheesy dialog and do silly things. I think you are blinded by just how much of an emotional roller coaster they wrote the main woman as. She's all over the place.

I like that the hacker girl's response has been to freak out and drink a lot, it fits. The nanny from a couple episodes was actually written as a strong character, who showed bravery in the face of danger to save the kids. I also get the feeling the ex-wife is going to be shown to have some guts and resourcefulness.

Lets be honest though, in many other shows the women would just be written as one of two archetypes: Slut or Whedonesk Ninja Girl


This silly show is actually really growing on me. And I think it got better with  gone.

[Evildrider]

They should have just built the show around Vasiliy imo. 

[HaemishM]

Vasiliy is the shit. 

[apocrypha]

I'm not gonna drag this down into an extended sexism-in-TV debate, there's enough threads get fucked up that way as it is. Suffice to say that yes, there's worse shows, but there's also plenty much, much better in that respect.

I'm a couple of episodes behind you guys so I'm avoiding spoilers too :)

[Segoris]

They should have just built the show around Vasiliy imo. 

Yeah, him with Gus as his sidekick imo. Vasiliy and Gus Save the World.....with their mighty bread truck.

Besides those two and Abraham, I actually wanted to see more from the camps. Normally I'm not a big fan of flashback type scenes but those were pretty interesting.

Oh, and with the wife/mom

[Miguel]

Arise!

Anyone watch the first episode of Season 2? 

The dialog is quite cheesy/predictable, but I'm really digging the Del Toro-visualization style, and the detailed makeup/set work.  There are some very stunning visuals.  Even the Lost-esque flashbacks were very entertaining.

[Margalis]

They replaced the kid with an even worse kid. Season 2 starts with a flashback inside a flashback. As soon as I say that I thought "yep, same old Strain."

I keep watching it but it's super boring. One of the worst things about the show is how incredibly inconsistent it is about what's happening in New York. Sometimes it seems like there are thousands of vampires running around and all humans must be dead, other times people are just wandering around outside like everything is perfectly normal. When Eldritch was doing his press conference they cut to a shot of a large group of people in Time Square (I guess?) just standing there watching the screen - wouldn't they be hiding in their homes or something? It's bad enough for a couple later to be hiding in a storage locker after all.

In the background you hear chatter about the national guard, but there's no martial law, curfew or even just a "hey you might want to stay indoors" advisory?

The scope of what is happening is so completely unclear. Just one example of how half-baked the show is. It feels like a decent premise in search of a good show.

[Threash]

I'm glad they are ditching the goofy ass main vampire from season 1 at least, that thing looked ridiculous even for this show.

[Margalis]

Yeah, whoever thought that head/face was a good idea was insane. It looks it should be in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

[Threash]

I hope the reason for changing the cute likeable kid for this annoying douchey one is that they plan on killing him off.

[Yegolev]

My wife has read the books and the summary is "it does not end well".

[jgsugden]

They replaced the kid with an even worse kid. Season 2 starts with a flashback inside a flashback. As soon as I say that I thought "yep, same old Strain."

I keep watching it but it's super boring. One of the worst things about the show is how incredibly inconsistent it is about what's happening in New York. Sometimes it seems like there are thousands of vampires running around and all humans must be dead, other times people are just wandering around outside like everything is perfectly normal. When Eldritch was doing his press conference they cut to a shot of a large group of people in Time Square (I guess?) just standing there watching the screen - wouldn't they be hiding in their homes or something? It's bad enough for a couple later to be hiding in a storage locker after all.

In the background you hear chatter about the national guard, but there's no martial law, curfew or even just a "hey you might want to stay indoors" advisory?

The scope of what is happening is so completely unclear. Just one example of how half-baked the show is. It feels like a decent premise in search of a good show.

They addressed some of this in this week's episode in the city hall meeting...  It seems like there may be some lack of communication combined with some attempts at misinformation to preserve the conditions.  On a show like this, you don't know if that explanation was the result of poorly executed careful planning or just a recognition that it didn't make sense and an attempt to cover it up.

[Margalis]

That scene felt partially like show damage control to me.

I can buy that the national guard isn't out in large numbers because of political reasons, but I can't get over people just randomly walking around outside. The Mayor gave a press conference about how the city was in crisis, even if people don't understand the exact details of what's happening they would know enough to stay indoors.

It wouldn't take any extra buidget - just shoot shots of abandoned streets.  When the Mayor was giving his speech instead of cutting to a shot of the street full of people watching the conference on a giant outdoor screen cut to a shot of that street totally empty with trash blowing around, abandoned cars, etc. It just feels really sloppy, like the writers just don't care.

As far as the kid, the family drama is the worst part of the show, so the sooner he bites it the better. The family drama has never been consequential enough for me to care, but also not inconsequential enough to ignore.

[Threash]

Thousands of vampires running around killing people = night.  Humans walking around like everything is ok= day.  They've been pretty consistent about that.