The Strain TV Series: FX

[To Be Quite Honest]

The Strain

The Strain is an American vampire horror–drama television series that premiered on FX on July 13, 2014.[1] It was created by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, based on their novel trilogy of the same name. Del Toro and Hogan wrote the pilot episode, "Night Zero", which del Toro directed. A thirteen-episode first season was ordered on November 19, 2013.

A plane lands at John F. Kennedy International Airport with the lights off and doors sealed. Epidemiologist Dr. Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll) and his team are sent to investigate. On board they find two hundred corpses and four survivors. The situation deteriorates when the bodies begin disappearing from morgues. Goodweather and a small group of helpers find themselves battling to protect not only their own loved ones, but the entire city, from an ancient threat to humanity.

[Iceman57]

Honestly I just thought it was an ok pilot episode, even a little cliché at times but I suppose it set up the world within pretty well. I wasn't a big fan of all the acting plus I know the actor playing the main CDC character is bald so seeing him with hair really threw me off. I'm giving it a pass since the one death scene was quite spectacular so for that i will continue to watch but I have a feeling it might be one of those series that I pvr the whole season and binge watch it later.

[J Diddy]

Fell asleep. Will try again tomorrow.

[AC]

Watching now.

So far the writing and acting seem really bad to me.

The opening scene with the "we've got a DEAD PLANE" line was very CSI Miami-esque.

[Ped]

It was ok. The name actors were decent (Mikhail from Lost! Curtis from 24! Sam!) but the rest were painful.

The exterior airport and the interior terminal were all shot at Pearson.

[To Be Quite Honest]

Finally saw the premiere and I enjoyed it. So many people complained about the rediculousness of True Blood and now we have a Vampire Horror by Guillermo del Torro, the man behind Hellboy 1&2, Pan's Labyrinth, Blade 2, Pacific Rim, etc and these are the comments? I thought it was a well executed open, especially for a main stream horror. The Vampires are not the usual blood sucking sex beasts (yet) and there are some interesting developments with the characters.

Loved David Bradley's character. He's the old man from Game of Thrones, Walder Frey. Corey Stoll is a busy actor!

Spoiler!

How many episodes till Samwise gets his inevitable karma death?

[Daradon]

Yeah, writing and acting seemed underwhelming to me too. Maybe a few to many obvious tropes (overworked marriage partner losing their spouse) and missed details that hacked at the believablity of the world (why was the coffin not quarantined too? Why was the medical examiner not in a hazmat suit? How did that one part of the warehouse get so empty and the CDC guy find the vamp monster all alone?) It all left me feeling like there was a better show there than what they gave us.

Dunno what it is about these FX shows but they have unique ideas and interesting premises and then just miss in the delivery. The Americans was like that for me, and also The Bridge (though that kept my interest for a bit longer). Just cant quite put my finger on it.

Good to see vamps being done as horror again. For the record I don't mind seeing them as sexy tortured beings, but it can be a tough line to hold and there's been far too much of it lately. True Blood going from having character in its vamps and show, to just being a trash soap opera, and of course Twilight just being a teenaged girls princess fantasy and completely screwing up the genre.

For me the idea/symbolism of the vampire is someone wrestling with their animal side and their lusts. You need to show human and monster in constant battle. Like so many other classic literary figures (Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, etc.) Sorta what Rice was able to accomplish with her first books.

That said, it will be nice visiting the pure monster aspect. And Mr. Toro can certainly make great monsters. I just hope everything else about the show doesn't become too much to bear. The horror aspects of the show were the best parts. The vamp monster, the worms, the final medical examiner scene were all great. Even the bit with the daughter returning was good even though it was obvious and a little cliched.

And yeah, recognized Sam and Walder Frey immediately.

[Daradon]

Double post

[To Be Quite Honest]

A post so nice I read it twice.

Oh, I saw the same rushed character development, but that is just what it is. I would have been better to take the time to develop, but the opening show was already at 68 mins and they needed to get from point a to b by that time. The show had a lot of prep work to do before the meat could be shown.

[Harry Lime]

Disappointed hearing some of these reviews after reading the books a while back. From what I remember, there was a long period in the first book where the adversary was simply an outbreak of unknown origin, with more in common with the Stand or an episode of X-files than with anything vampire related. The whole thing was claustrophobic and creepy before it became a horror.

I guess there's not going to be any big 'reveal' in this show. It sounds a little like if From Dusk til Dawn started at the bar simply because the execs didn't 'get' the first part of the film.

Unless I'm missing a point, such as this being a three part mini-series or something?

[Daradon]

Haha, whoops! That's what I get for entering it from my phone at bed.

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by To Be Quite Honest

A post so nice I read it twice.

Oh, I saw the same rushed character development, but that is just what it is. I would have been better to take the time to develop, but the opening show was already at 68 mins and they needed to get from point a to b by that time. The show had a lot of prep work to do before the meat could be shown.

Yeah, I'm gonna hope it all boils down to that, but I am a little wary. We'll see how the writing goes forward from here. I think I have really been spoiled by Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones which were/are both so unlike what was on TV at the time AND had phenomenal acting to go with it.

That said, I did enjoy it. Would recommend to a horror/vamp/zombie enthusiast to check out at least.

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by Harry Lime

Disappointed hearing some of these reviews after reading the books a while back. From what I remember, there was a long period in the first book where the adversary was simply an outbreak of unknown origin, with more in common with the Stand or an episode of X-files than with anything vampire related. The whole thing was claustrophobic and creepy before it became a horror.

I guess there's not going to be any big 'reveal' in this show. It sounds a little like if From Dusk til Dawn started at the bar simply because the execs didn't 'get' the first part of the film.

Unless I'm missing a point, such as this being a three part mini-series or something?

Yeah, I woulda liked that myself, but it seems like they wanted to advertise the 'non-sexy vampires' to appear relevant but also different. There was an ad on TV saying 'these aren't your pretty vampires' or something to that affect, so I knew that's where it was going before even watching the pilot.

As for the length of the series, I have no clue. Three books, three seasons? I don't believe it's supposed to be a mini series, but it looks like they probably have a fuzzy wrap point in mind.

[Iceman57]

I knew the show was being adapted from a series of books but had no clue it had anything to do with vampires so while im not disappointed in that, I too would have preferred a slow reveal with it first developing the unknown virus aspect first. I also understand they have to set up the world plus introduce the characters in a short amount of time but I just couldn't help roll my eyes when hearing the possible "hero" is named Goodweather while the evil cooperation is called Stoneheart, lol. Also when he got to the airport and demanded his milk, I thought was hilarious while his diatribe to the cop about being the first to enter the plane was just painful to watch, that just felt like an early 90's Stephen King miniseries. It's been posted above that maybe we've just been spoiled with some great shows lately (I love The Americans) which I will agree with and offer that maybe it shouldn't be taken so seriously but rather enjoyed for what it is, simple scary TV or at least that's how I'll approach it until/unless it becomes a lot smarter.

[Erick Estrada]

Compared to Penny Dreadful it's a major step down in quality but it's a vampire show and there's still some potential there. Hopefully things are heading in a better direction.

[Daradon]

I keep hearing a lot about Penny Dreadful. A big recommend from people here? Also which network? I know the basic premise of the show, but I don't think I've seen a commercial.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Daradon

I keep hearing a lot about Penny Dreadful. A big recommend from people here? Also which network? I know the basic premise of the show, but I don't think I've seen a commercial.

Showtime really doesn't do a great job promoting any of its shows but the show was critically acclaimed and did well for Showtime becoming their most watched network show ever on their demand service. It sports one of the best casts I've seen on a cable show and while you can see the budget limitations at times it's one of those rare monster shows that's overall quality rivals the typical successful drama and in a lot of cases surpasses a lot of them.

http://www.deadline.com/2014/06/penn...ason-showtime/

[Iceman57]

Originally Posted by Daradon

I keep hearing a lot about Penny Dreadful. A big recommend from people here? Also which network? I know the basic premise of the show, but I don't think I've seen a commercial.

Penny Dreadful was amazing or at least seven out of the eight episode were for me. The one about Vanessa's past I thought was only ok but still overall it had superior acting and writing throughout. It would be a great series to binge watch, not having to wait an entire week between episodes would be fantastic and if you like the horror genre, I think you'd really enjoy the show. I believe it was shown on movie central, channel 280

[Harry Lime]

The books were actually very good. So much so that I was actually looking forward to this, especially with Del Toro involved. In the books, the emergence of Stoneheart was so far removed from the introduction of Goodweather, that the connection wasn't as b-grade as if you were to get it all at once. I would have to check, but Stoneheart was somewhere in the second book, or close enough.

I'm not writing this series off, it just has too much potential. I'll check it out soon enough. I wish that I wasn't getting that 'Coppola mashing all of the Godfathers together' feeling from it.

[Thor]

Wow, ok episode 2 totally redeemed this show for me, now I'm going to be excited to see what happens.