The Strain (FX)

[SO91]

Didn't see a thread, but I was totally looking forward to this show. I read the books a while ago and enjoyed them for the most part. I was pumped when I saw the first teaser a few months back, and then again after seeing the trailer a few days ago. It wasn't until after seeing the trailer that I realized who is playing one of the major characters. Walder F'ing Frey!!


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...uillermo-del-Toros-brutal-vampire-series.html

Trailer is included in the link posted.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

 

[Cheesebeef]

Pilot was AWESOME. Super pulpy...not trying to be anything but a ton of gore-y fun.

 

[Chaplin]

Pilot was AWESOME. Super pulpy...not trying to be anything but a ton of gore-y fun.

Acting was pretty horrid though. Corey Stoll's wig has GOT to go.

But all in all, it looked fun. As a non-book reader, it looked like one thing

Spoiler

vampires

But turned into something else

Spoiler

zombies

Or maybe a bit of both.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Acting was pretty horrid though. Corey Stoll's wig has GOT to go.

But all in all, it looked fun. As a non-book reader, it looked like one thing

Spoiler

vampires

But turned into something else

Spoiler

zombies

Or maybe a bit of both.

i think it's a bit of both. as for the acting, it was over the top, but I think it's part of the campy charm.

and the act out where the guy's head gets smashed in and then the whatever it hell was flew backwards screaming was one of the most unsettling/awesome moments I've seen in a pilot in a long time.

and yes...Stoll's hair has to catch on fire or he has to shave it because of the epidemic at some point because that wig is atrocious.

 

[Stout]

i think it's a bit of both. as for the acting, it was over the top, but I think it's part of the campy charm.

and the act out where the guy's head gets smashed in and then the whatever it hell was flew backwards screaming was one of the most unsettling/awesome moments I've seen in a pilot in a long time.

and yes...Stoll's hair has to catch on fire or he has to shave it because of the epidemic at some point because that wig is atrocious.

Indeed, I really liked the pilot as well, for the same reasons.

 

[Cheesebeef]

2nd episode was okay. sooner or later they're going to have to lose Stoll's kid, alcoholism and wig. all of them distract from what people want to see... the holocaust survivor, sex, violence and creepy monsters.

 

[Cheesebeef]

http://grantland.com/hollywood-pros...t-monstrous-creation-of-all-corey-stolls-wig/

thank god!

 

[Cheesebeef]

Something big needs to happen in this show soon. It's kinda suffering from a story telling perspective, IMO. The audience is so far ahead of the lead characters that there's very few surprises at this point. Starting to feel like it's running in place. It's still fun to watch, but I'm not dying to see the next one at this point.

 

[Stout]

Something big needs to happen in this show soon. It's kinda suffering from a story telling perspective, IMO. The audience is so far ahead of the lead characters that there's very few surprises at this point. Starting to feel like it's running in place. It's still fun to watch, but I'm not dying to see the next one at this point.

Okay, I came on here to say the exact same thing. You beat me to it. While watching this week's episode, I started wondering, "how long can we have the 'I'm sick, what's happening to me' in the mirror scene?"

 

[cardfaninfl]

I want to like this show, but every week they do something outrageously stupid. It almost like they started with Corey Stoll wearing a skinned cat on his head, and now they are trying to top that, each week, with something dumber.

Every time Samwise Gamgee comes on the screen, I cringe. Maybe a decent actor could have pulled off a complete 180 degree turn from selling his character's soul to help his terminally ill wife, to "See ya, cancer bitch. I'm hunting vampires", but this guy couldn't. His wife also went from sad to be dying and being such a burden to her devoted hubby, to "you have to make a choice", within two episodes. One line of dialogue could have changed that scene (so it would now actually make sense) and greatly improved my feeling toward Rudy as an actor.

The concentration camp flashback scene with Eichorst and Setrakian had a number of powerful lines, completely wasted by bad directing. Allowing a SS Death's Head Unit officer to speak with an inmate as an equal, ignoring Setrakian's contemptuous tone, allowing the two to drink from the same bottle, and turning Eichorst into a food delivery-boy was wrong on every level. Its hard to imagine not one of the actors, producers, or the Craft Service workers going to the director and asking, "Uh... are you familiar with the Holocaust... at all?"

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

This show lost me the second dude's wife fed the neighbor to him in the shed. The jump from promising to cheesy was quick. Couple that with horrible dialogue and I am totally out!

 

[Stout]

I'm still watching, but it's really grating on my nerves. My big beef is that there's absolutely no way the city isn't exploding by now, yet somehow, nobody knows what's going on on a massive scale. The city would be burning and it would be spreading across the country and world, yet because of a cheesy 'ooh, we got the internet' bit, it's not? Puh-lease.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I'm still watching, but it's really grating on my nerves. My big beef is that there's absolutely no way the city isn't exploding by now, yet somehow, nobody knows what's going on on a massive scale. The city would be burning and it would be spreading across the country and world, yet because of a cheesy 'ooh, we got the internet' bit, it's not? Puh-lease.

that has really started to bug me as well. there's still radio out there... and cell phones seem to work when the plot needs them to (calling the german to set up the trap).

i was pretty much out until the last scene. it's like they give you just barely enough GREAT cheese to want to keep eating.

 

[Stout]

that has really started to bug me as well. there's still radio out there... and cell phones seem to work when the plot needs them to (calling the german to set up the trap).

i was pretty much out until the last scene. it's like they give you just barely enough GREAT cheese to want to keep eating.

Exactly.

 

[SO91]

If I remember correctly, the victims don't immediately turn and start feeding on people. Show creators said the show will be different from the books, but I think the first book takes place over the period of a week or so (it's been a while). I think it's been 2 or 3 nights since the plane landed, and the attacks have been in isolated places so far (up until this last episode). The infection rate will increase exponentially, but there are a few things that are in the books that may not have been made very clear in the show with regards to vampire movement.

Spoiler

Vampires can't cross running water without the help of a human

I do agree that some of the acting and dialogue has been kinda crappy though.

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

Horrible, horrible, horrible end to the season of a horrible show.

 

[Chaplin]

Like most of the episodes, pretty much nothing happened, and they are all in the same situation as they were at the beginning of the episode.

Disappointing since it's so connected to Guillermo Del Toro. But I was watching it usually on a double bill with Z Nation. This show is like Citizen Kane compared to that.

 

[Cheesebeef]

this show got progressively worse to land at awful by the end of the season. barely watched episodes even when I was watching it. I'm done with it.

 

[jbeecham]

I'm surprised nobody's talked about "The Master". At 1st he was a pretty decent master villain... extremely fast moving, shrouded by a black cape, able to climb walls & walk on the ceiling.

Then they showed his face... which looked like a pathetic rubber mask that was created for Big Trouble In Little China (great movie btw).

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I'm in agreement with the rest of you on the stupidity of the actors, the inconsistency of the script... are they zombies or are they vampires or are they zombies that turn into vampires after a few days? Sometimes they're fast moving, sometimes they're slow moving... it just depends on how much dialogue the writers want to add in before they have to escape.

I'm losing interest in this & Z Nation. Z-Nation is another show where the cast continues to do extremely stupid stuff over and over again. Like "Stay here, I'm going to go into this zombie-infested house with a fast moving zombie baby on my own" or getting out of a truck to confront zombies in the road when there is plenty of space on the shoulder to just drive around them.

 

[Stout]

Like most of the episodes, pretty much nothing happened, and they are all in the same situation as they were at the beginning of the episode.

Disappointing since it's so connected to Guillermo Del Toro. But I was watching it usually on a double bill with Z Nation. This show is like Citizen Kane compared to that.

Wait...

this show got progressively worse to land at awful by the end of the season. barely watched episodes even when I was watching it. I'm done with it.

...we all three agree? Madness!

 

[Chaplin]

Wait...



...we all three agree? Madness!

I wouldn't go that far... I'll probably submit myself to torture and watch Season 2.

 

[JS22]

This show is pretty terrible but I'm willing to turn my brain off and watch it. Seriously dumb, but yet entertaining enough to keep it in the rotation.

 

[Covert Rain]

I might try and watch this. I just have so many shows on DVR I can't keep up. Binge watching EVERYTHING now. I might try and watch. This available on Hulu or netflix for the first season yet?

 

[Chaplin]

I might try and watch this. I just have so many shows on DVR I can't keep up. Binge watching EVERYTHING now. I might try and watch. This available on Hulu or netflix for the first season yet?

Plot holes, horrible dialogue and Corey Stoll's wig are just 3 of the more ridiculous aspects of this show.

That said, there is a certain amount of fun--and probably opportunity for many different drinking games. I saw the whole series run and it wasn't good, but I also saw it concurrently with SyFy's Z Nation, so The Strain probably seemed MUCH better than it really is.