The Strain

Manuel Royal · Jul 14, 2014

Has anybody watched the first episode of this show? FX has been relentlessly promoting it for months.

Created by Guillermo del Toro, so, not surprisingly, it's visually interesting, and the horror scenes are genuinely horrific and disturbing. I found the other scenes, though, to be a series of cliches and bad dialogue. But I'll give it a chance.

ladyillana · Jul 14, 2014

I have not seen TV episode, but I read the book and enjoyed it when it came out a few years ago. I found the premise intriguing.

Albedo · Jul 14, 2014

I read the first book a few years ago. Wasn't interested enough to read the sequels. Maybe the show will be different.

Carlene · Jul 14, 2014

Yup, watched it and will watch the next episode. Very bloody and graphic - good special effects.

Carlene

Manuel Royal · Jul 14, 2014

For some reason, I was intensely irritated by the way they designed the supposed CDC protective suits -- they have these stupid lights inside the mask, illuminating the actor's face but serving no rational purpose. I imagine they'd make it hard to see; bet the actors hated them.

ETA: Oh, here's my favorite bit of dialogue (as well as I can recall it):

(The M.E. has discovered that each of the bodies has a small straight incision in the neck.)

M.E.: The incision is completely clean, with no abrasion or bruising.

CDC Doctor: There's no instrument that could do that!

M.E.: I'm at a loss! (Note: the M.E. is holding a surgical scalpel.)

CheG · Jul 19, 2014

I don't care about any of the show's...dumbness. I LOVE it! I love everything Guillermo Del Toro does. So I love the show. And it has creepy awful vampires, which are way to rare these days. I'm going to stick with it on the basis of it's creepy and I love horror.

ShaunHorton · Jul 19, 2014

I found the pilot laid out some interesting threads, but there was a lot of cliche's in there too. I haven't read the books, but I'll be very interested to see how, or if, they explain how the old bits like silver and running water mean anything despite the base of the vampirism being parasitic worms.

If I didn't know how the pilot is just setting up the series (which looks like an odd band of people teaming up to hunt the disparate vampires down), I probably wouldn't be interested, as is, I'll give it a few more episodes to see where it goes.

CrastersBabies · Jul 19, 2014

I started it, then the minute the separated wife and the guy were in counseling and she was giving bitchface about him having to go deal with an international viral crisis, I thought, "Oh fuck no."

Thanks for giving us the same wife/mom that we see in every freakin' story that throws hissy fits because her significant other is doing important work. Nag nag nag.

cornflake · Jul 19, 2014

I hated the posters for this - the eyeball one was just wrong - but saw it was on and tried it. The posters were all I knew of it.

Completely hilarious gobs of terrible cheese. I really don't know whether they're serious, though from the thread it seems they are?

The effects are hi-larious and worth watching for, if you enjoy this sort of amusement. Whatever the Brady Bunch ghost in the hood was supposed to be, pounding squishily on the head forever and a day and then floofing out of the scene made me literally lol.

The "science" is just as bad - add me to the 'uh...' when they were on about no known tool could make a sharp, clean cut in flesh. I also didn't even quite understand what they thought they were saying - it cut to the artery wall but didn't penetrate it. Uhm, ok, so? Like what would the purpose of that be, even theoretically.

The rubber heart also made me laugh, until the worm in the hand. That was gross, but the really clean and very well-organized zombies walking in perfect, Thriller-style V formation made it all better. Completely hilarious, whatever this is. I never quite figured out what the plot was meant to be.

ShaunHorton · Jul 19, 2014

I just kept giggling throughout because I only know the one actor as Samwise from LotR.

I also had to roll my eyes when the coroner found those incisions on all the bodies, because they were good sized cuts, and yet the CDC didn't see any of them when they were checking the plane, even though they were poking at people.

As I said, I haven't read the books, but I'm going to throw the numbers into an equation and say the big ghosty-thing was the Big D himself. Especially with the old man with the silver cane hobbling about looking for him. I honestly expected his name to be Van Helsing.

Hendo · Jul 19, 2014

I was so pumped for this... right up until I saw that Rudy is one of the main characters. That let me down so much... Go home Rudy! You were too small to play for Notre Dame and you're too small to be a vampire hunter!

ShaunHorton · Jul 19, 2014

Hendo said:
I was so pumped for this... right up until I saw that Rudy is one of the main characters. That let me down so much... Go home Rudy! You were too small to play for Notre Dame and you're too small to be a vampire hunter!

But he proved everyone wrong! And don't forget Frodo! Frodo would've never made it without his Sam!

CheG · Jul 20, 2014

Awwww. I like Sean Astin! I'm happy to see him in a something again (other than a Lifetime movie...) and I hope his character lives! But I have my doubts as he betrayed the main good guys in ep. 1.

Manuel Royal · Jul 20, 2014

ShaunHorton said:
I also had to roll my eyes when the coroner found those incisions on all the bodies, because they were good sized cuts, and yet the CDC didn't see any of them when they were checking the plane, even though they were poking at people.

Well, the CDC also, when they were stripping the four survivors and putting them in isolation for monitoring, didn't notice one of them was wearing a huge wig.

CrastersBabies said:
I started it, then the minute the separated wife and the guy were in counseling and she was giving bitchface about him having to go deal with an international viral crisis, I thought, "Oh fuck no."

It does feel like I've seen that exact scene in a lot of shows or movies. My thought is always that the person really shouldn't have had kids; he's obviously married to his job. He should agree to the divorce and let his wife have custody. Or get a job that doesn't involve an endless series of crises that have to be given priority over everything else in his life. You can't have it all.

But I like the old man (looking forward to being a tough, ill-tempered old man myself). I'll give it some more time.

CrastersBabies · Jul 22, 2014

Finished the pilot because there was nothing else on except for Late Night shows, and it was okay. Episode two, however, felt better. My only issue:

Is the government in this setting utter morons? Two CDC folks find blood-sucking worm-like things and there's not mass shut-down of the entire city?

I do like the whole "vampire" flavor in this. It's not pretty and sparklie and romantic. It's pretty dang gross.

K. Q. Watson · Jul 22, 2014

I've read the trilogy and I loved it. The dialog in the show is bad and I feel they're revealing too much too soon about Setrakian. But I love the visuals and things were better in the second episode.

And Fet (exterminator dude) is awesome.

Hendo · Jul 22, 2014

ShaunHorton said:
But he proved everyone wrong! And don't forget Frodo! Frodo would've never made it without his Sam!

haha much like how I refer to him as Rudy in whatever he's in, I do the same with Elija Wood and always call him Frodo. The only other actor I do that with is Johnny Drama.

CheG said:
Awwww. I like Sean Astin! I'm happy to see him in a something again (other than a Lifetime movie...) and I hope his character lives! But I have my doubts as he betrayed the main good guys in ep. 1.

Yea, I have a feeling he won't be making it to the end of the series alive. Hopefully it's similar to his brief stint on 24.

On the other hand, I'm a big fan of Kevin Durand(the health inspector/exterminator guy) so I'm looking forward to seeing what he does. I assume it will have something to do with the viral videos that were playing all over tv for a while (the "security cam" and "cellphone" footage of rats fleeing the city)

CheG · Jul 31, 2014

I really liked episode 3! Things are progressing nicely! And OMG! Death Metal dude's junk fell off!!!

The exterminator guy is great too! I can't wait to see all the different threads come together.

CrastersBabies · Aug 3, 2014

CheG said:
I really liked episode 3! Things are progressing nicely! And OMG! Death Metal dude's junk fell off!!!

The exterminator guy is great too! I can't wait to see all the different threads come together.

Yeah, because of the above bolded, I'm pretty much all in now.

MrNumbahOne · Aug 4, 2014

Jesus Christ, how crazy/stupid is Ansel's wife (forgot her name)? Let's see: sees her husband's skin go greenish sees and drink animal blood. She does absolutely nothing. Sees that her dog's been disembowled. Goes walking around in a dark shed look for her husband who she knows did it. And after she's told to go away by her husband, she doesn't call the police. Oh, and has a man horribly mutilated to death because he hit her dog.

Those who read the book, is this a case of stupid behavior for plot's sake or she actually supposed to be insane.

But that's my only complaint. I love it so far.

JohnnyGottaKeyboard · Aug 4, 2014

MrNumbahOne said:
But that's my only complaint. I love it so far.

Argh, I wish I had so few complaints. Up til this week I was actually enjoying this show, but...Generally speaking, I'm more than a little annoyed by ALL the character responses in this show. No body seems to react to any given situation in a way that makes either: 1) sense, or B) for a rational extrapolation from how they have reacted to a previous situation.

First off, I think anyone who was exposed to some unknown agent on a plane (or anywhere else) and subsequently began showing symptoms of illness, would hurry their ass to an ER to find out what was happening.

Second, if you had a friend and colleague who f--ked up but he was the ONLY PERSON WHO HAD ANY SORT OF TIE TO THE ORGANIZATION BEHIND THE INFECTION--would you deem him "dead to you" and abandon him? No, you'd tell him it's time he makes up for his mistake by helping you sort this damn shit out!

And if a zombie girl (a girl whom you declared dead!) attacked you with a six foot python tongue and some old guy with a sword lopped her head off (the same old guy, btw, that you sought out for help a few hours ago), would you throw up your hands and go running tearfully back to your apartment? Especially after fifteen minutes earlier explaining how necessary it had been to kill another zombie in a similar situation?

I'm not sure this show is actually written. It appears to be a series of scenes the creators thought might be "cool" and then strung together in a semi-linear fashion.

Hendo · Aug 5, 2014

JohnnyGottaKeyboard said:
Argh, I wish I had so few complaints. Up til this week I was actually enjoying this show, but...Generally speaking, I'm more than a little annoyed by ALL the character responses in this show. No body seems to react to any given situation in a way that makes either: 1) sense, or B) for a rational extrapolation from how they have reacted to a previous situation.

First off, I think anyone who was exposed to some unknown agent on a plane (or anywhere else) and subsequently began showing symptoms of illness, would hurry their ass to an ER to find out what was happening.

Second, if you had a friend and colleague who f--ked up but he was the ONLY PERSON WHO HAD ANY SORT OF TIE TO THE ORGANIZATION BEHIND THE INFECTION--would you deem him "dead to you" and abandon him? No, you'd tell him it's time he makes up for his mistake by helping you sort this damn shit out!

And if a zombie girl (a girl whom you declared dead!) attacked you with a six foot python tongue and some old guy with a sword lopped her head off (the same old guy, btw, that you sought out for help a few hours ago), would you throw up your hands and go running tearfully back to your apartment? Especially after fifteen minutes earlier explaining how necessary it had been to kill another zombie in a similar situation?

I'm not sure this show is actually written. It appears to be a series of scenes the creators thought might be "cool" and then strung together in a semi-linear fashion.

I couldn't agree with you more in regards to this episode. I wanted to ring Ansel's wife's neck for a case of stupidity beyond belief. The other Doctor too... she saw what they were becoming and had three of them try to kill her. Granted it was also idiotic to do the surgery in the basement. All they had to do was bring the body upstairs to show everyone and they'd be a touch more receptive to the fire extinguisher bludgeoning.

My first complain with the characters under reacting was when the lawyer who survived started seeing blood in her cup of water. The second I'm bleeding out of my mouth when the top CDC Doctor in the country wants me on lock-down, I'm getting my ass to the hospital. Then when the rockstar's di*k fell off he shows it to his own personal doctor who just lets him stay the course!?

The next episode needs to be better.

Manuel Royal · Aug 5, 2014

I'm enjoying it more, but there is still plenty of silliness, like CDC doctors performing an autopsy (on a patient with a hitherto unknown, horrifyingly bizarre condition) without wearing masks. (And their associate doesn't know what a cloaca is.)

Never mind the silliness of having a single superhacker disable all Internet communication in NYC, or the HHS Secretary canceling a CDC quarantine after one call from a lawyer.

I hope we'll get more answers along the way about what exactly we're dealing with. The bizarre vampirism seems to be caused by the parasitic worms -- so what's with the supernatural trappings (the big fancy coffin, and something about running water). The infected people, once they've gotten to the last stage, seem to be mindless predators -- except for the Stoneheart guy. (Note to self: don't name my evil corporation Stoneheart. It'd be hilarious if it were named Buttercup Valley.)

Nualláin · Aug 5, 2014

I have to say... I haven't seen this show, and I really don't know what it's about, but reading all your comments and reviews without any context to frame them in is hilarious.

"OMG! Death Metal dude's junk fell off!!!" may be the best line I've read all year.

I think I'll skip the show and just keep reading here. Way better than anything on the telly.

CheG · Aug 5, 2014

As wacky as this show is I can't stop loving it!!! The practical effects are made of win! I don't even care. I'm all in!

The autopsy in ep. 4 where they pull the full grown worm out of the pilot, and it's basically his entire digestive tract was AMAZING! And so was Samwise's freak out!

I actually want to read the book now...

As for the scene with the wife and Ansel in the shed- all I could think of was Shaun of the Dead. I think she seriously doesn't want to let go of hubby...

I'm kinda digging the combination of science and supernatural too.

OH! And did anyone else see that the scene where Death Meat dude's junk fell off made it onto The Soup??!??

The Strain

Manuel Royal

ladyillana

Albedo

Alex

Carlene

New kid, be gentle!

Manuel Royal

CheG

ShaunHorton

AW's resident Velociraptor

CrastersBabies

Burninator!

cornflake

practical experience, FTW

ShaunHorton

AW's resident Velociraptor

Hendo

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ShaunHorton

AW's resident Velociraptor

CheG

Manuel Royal

CrastersBabies

Burninator!

K. Q. Watson

Hendo

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CheG

CrastersBabies

Burninator!

MrNumbahOne

JohnnyGottaKeyboard

Who let this guy in...?

Hendo

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Manuel Royal

Nualláin

CheG