The Strain (Guillermo del Toro's New FX Summer Show)

Watched the second episode. Not bad, albeit fast-forwarding though the doc’s domestic issues, which kill the pacing stone fucking dead.

 

Reminds me of the first season of Heroes where they obviously left it to the last minute to make the decision as to if they would properly defeat the villain or not.

 

Watched episode 3 - again, benefits from fast forwarding Eph's divorce/custody issues. Good twist with the band guy, which actually makes sense for vamps. I have to say I'm loving the Corporate Nazi Vampires- this is what Wolfram And Hart should have been. I mean, both the bit in episode 2 where the guy tries to wind up David Bradley, and him putting on his face at the start of this one, are great moments. A nitpick though- didn't the health cop/ratcatcher guy have a Centauri/East European accent in episode 2? Cos it disappeared in this one!

 

Episode 4 was better- I only had to fast forward through the adverts this time.

That said, some hideously cliched dialogue - do people really still say "you're dead to me" in a non-comedy manner? - and they didn't really do a good job of establishing to each other that the vamps aren't human any more. I really wanted the Doctor to wander in and point that out to them, cos Dr Who has a much better history of pulling off those kind of lines.

I do like the nature of the vamps, and loved when the woman fed the nosy neighbour to one. That almost reminded me of Alison in Orphan Black... (though this is nowhere near as well-characterised a show as that.)

It needs the Doctor in, though...

 

That season finale was definitely underwhelming. We did get some interesting developments, but I was expecting something bigger and more dramatic. This didn't really feel that different than the rest of the season.

 

Best. Phrase. Ever.

 

Sounds kind of redundant actually.

 

If it turns out that the worms are alien, we can add "... From Outer Space!"

 

It felt more like the penultimate episode of a season rather than a finale. I liked it but it was underwhelming. I really expected the season to go out with a bang.

 

Yes some of the dialogue is terrible. It's an interesting watch though. I'm enjoying it far more than I expected to given I've read all the books.

If they follow the books (which they seem to be doing) then the answer is

Spoiler: worms

NO

 

Episode 5 of The Strain was pretty good again (despite the weird posture of the hanging victim giving away the safe harness worn by the actor) - can it be a coincidence that Eph's family were absent again?

 

The Strain episode 6 - Oh, Kevin Durand's ratcatcher has an East-European accent again. And the actor wearing only a collar and briefs, being dragged on a chain to the block to be fed upon, seems quite, er, excited by being dragged around in chains...

 

The Strain episode 8 was really good - if a bit high in coincidence levels re: them meeting up with the hacker girl. That bread van was bigger on the inside, though...

 

Was it? I honestly never noticed that before.

 

Well given Setrakian's flirtations with Doctor Who are you surprised?

I quite enjoyed that one, in fact I continue to enjoy the show more than I did the books...

 

Max Charles toreplace Ben Hyland as Zach Goodweather

 

I forgot to post my thoughts on the last few episodes - it was all pretty decent, but the pace did slow, and I can't help thinking it would have made an absolute badass 8 or 9 episode series, but 13 was just dragged out too much.

Still I'm looking forward to season 2.