The Strain |OT| Guillermo del Toro's new show for FX - Sundays 10/9c

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Present day.

Setrakian (the old guy) is the one in the flashbacks, so I am confused by the GQ model comment.

Yeah. He looks about 25 in 1944, which would make him mid-90s in age. That's fucking dumb. The actor himself was born in 42. I could see him being like 6 years old in 1944, that would make sense.

I'm losing faith with this show rapidly.

So the rock manager sees the rocker with a resident evil snake tongue and it doesn't phase her?

Then he solution is to hire a "cleaner" like the dude iced a Eastern European street hooker or something. She's a fucking doctor you placed a call to. Yeah it was "off the books," but this shit was a favour, someone's gonna know. She was a fucking doctor!

And when Eph and Setrakian went to the shed, what happened to the gallon of blood that they made a big show of pouring out from under the door last episode? Why did his chain get shortened where he was at the door last ep, and now his chain stops him 5 feet shorter?

The show is just really sloppy. I know it's picking nits, but all these little bullshit things happen again and again and it adds up.

Like that other poster said, Sam from LotR carries a paperclip on him wtf?

I'll hang on a couple of more eps, but I doubt I'll hold on for the rest of the season. This is getting Dusk Til Dawn bad.
 
The babysitter being only person on the show to actually have a natural reaction to what she sees right off the bat makes me giggle a little, too. Everyone else see slugs popping out of peoples mouths and they talk as if the first thought in their heads was "That's peculiar". The babysitter sees the lawyer chicks eyes and her sniffing the kids and she be like "NOPE!". hahahah.

Made the episode for me. Smart characters = fun shows. I'll just assume that the previous episode was a slip.
 
I paused 5 minutes into the new episode.

Can someone tell me why I'm wasting my time on this terrible heap of shit?

"Gabe hurt someone real bad, like permanently" - BITCH WERE YOU NOT AWARE OF THE GIANT FUCKING BLOOD SUCKING APPENDAGE SUCKING THE LIFE OF THAT UROLOGIST? Fucking call the CDC or some shit. The police at least?

This isn't just bad writing anymore. It's ridiculous how bad and full of plotholes this show is and I don't know why I even bother watching this shit.
Yeah... that was super bad.

When does this show take place? Why isn't the holocaust survivor dude a little kid in 1944? He's like a fucking GQ model wtf?

Its just that its been 70 years from 1944 to now and 1944 Setrakian looks at least 20 or so, which means he's supposed to be around 90 in present day?

Just seems a little bit of a stretch that you'd have a 90+ year old vampire hunter going around like he is. Given all the other crazy things happening on the show its not that unbelievable, but I think this was the point being made with saying how 1944 Setrakian should be a little younger.

Yeah. He looks about 25 in 1944, which would make him mid-90s in age. That's fucking dumb. The actor himself was born in 42. I could see him being like 6 years old in 1944, that would make sense.

Writers really need to adapt. They can't keep using Nazis and concentration camps as comparisons and origin stories, respectively. It's both overdone and increasingly impossible to make the math work. Trust me, however, go looking and you'll find other examples of humanity reaching horrific lows in the ensuing decades.
 
I'm throwing in the towel on The Strain. The writing is just awful and the guest actors (especially children) are atrocious. The Nazi angle is just plain lazy. I should have quit watching a few episodes back, but I wanted to give it a chance since GDT is attached. I can't see The Strain making it to season 5 like they intend.
 
Damn some of y'all be crazy. Seems like people are coming in with the expectation of a prestige horror show or something. The writing SUCKS but I'm having a blast.

I'll give y'all the kinda dumb decision to have the flashbacks in English (when Spanish seems to ok for subtitles for whatever reason) and the wacked out timeline for Abe's age. That being said, I totally forgot about all that the moment the Master showed up. Fuck, he's just so creepy-cool.

God damn this show moves fucking slow. When is it finally going to pick up? I thought the last two episodes were when it was going to pick up.
Wtf, "when is it gonna pick up?". Bruh what do you define as "picking up", We had like 8 seperate vampire scenes in this episode alone. The vampire apocolypse is literally upon NYC as of now.
 
Some of you're really nitpicking man, its a TV show about vampires relax lol. If you don't like it don't watch it, but to trudge through manifestos on why someone has paper clips in his pockets... Hell I do, always need a 'pokey thing' when smoking the ganja. Or when in the office, you know, when I random have to stick papers together after a meeting. So yeah, I always have a paper clip/rubber band and at least one binder clip in my pocket while at work

When bored I like taking them apart to try to make them as straight as possible.
 
The show reminds me quite a bit of the Walking Dead. You either accept the conceit that at times its poorly written cheese or you don't. I don't necessarily mind that as long as its entertaining cheese. :D

I have the Hannibals and Mad Mens of the world to feed my more "intellectual" TV needs if you want to call it that. As long as the show doesn't slide into abhorrent levels of shit like last weeks episode regularly, I'm fine with it. Just on the basis of the vampire concept being appealing and I want to see where the whole conspiracy/vampire apocalypse angle goes.
 
This was a lot better than last week's episode.

Except for:

I paused 5 minutes into the new episode.

Can someone tell me why I'm wasting my time on this terrible heap of shit?

"Gabe hurt someone real bad, like permanently" - BITCH WERE YOU NOT AWARE OF THE GIANT FUCKING BLOOD SUCKING APPENDAGE SUCKING THE LIFE OF THAT UROLOGIST? Fucking call the CDC or some shit. The police at least?

This isn't just bad writing anymore. It's ridiculous how bad and full of plotholes this show is and I don't know why I even bother watching this shit.

which was plain fucking retarded.


"Please watch this video..I know you doubt me, but now watch me kill this dude"


And this was kinda interesting as well.

When does this show take place? Why isn't the holocaust survivor dude a little kid in 1944? He's like a fucking GQ model wtf?


Oh yeah and that.

Hmm, maybe it wasn't such a good episode at all.
 
Based on the preview after last night's episode, I'd say this series is about to take a great turn.

The Eclipse was moved from occuring during the initial infection to a period after the Master has had a chance to sow his vile parasites around the city a bit. This is going to really allow for some epic vampire madness in the near future episodes, followed by a big daytime 'we have to hit them now, while they're vulnerable!' episode where something goes horribly wrong.

Fellow book-readers, it's been a while for me since I've read them, but
didn't Setrakian at one point supplement his blood with a draw of some sort from the parasites to sustain his life?
 
So Abraham is like 90 at least, so what ? This guy is 105 and kicking ass :

480px-Wang_Jinrei_-_CG_Art_Image_-_Tekken_6_Bloodline_Rebellion.jpg
 
So was Eichhorst not a vampire initially back in the Nazi camp? Dude was basking in the son during his Welcome to Summer Camp speech. Did he have some deal like the Stoneheart guy that he'd be turned eventually after the Master got his groove on?
 
So people see their friends/love ones/client shoot a snake out of their mouth and kill people and NO ONE calls the cops?

The Strain has taken the title of dumbest show on television away from Under the Dome.
 
So people see their friends/love ones/client shoot a snake out of their mouth and kill people and NO ONE calls the cops?

The Strain has taken the title of dumbest show on television away from Under the Dome.

Now that a leechpire has attacked a retirement home it would be mindboggling for it not to become widespread news. There's no way you shut down something like this, even if you "close the internets" and "control all TV-stations".

You just can't.
 
So people see their friends/love ones/client shoot a snake out of their mouth and kill people and NO ONE calls the cops?

The Strain has taken the title of dumbest show on television away from Under the Dome.

Well to be fair the internet isn't working and Nora (is that her name?) mentioned phones haven't been working in this episode, but ya you're right it's odd no one has tried to call at all.

For everyone saying the show is too slow, while it is slow I think a lot happened last night and looks like a heck of a lot more is about to start really soon.
 
Paperclips? This is what's bothering people? He took it off a stack of papers he had in his portfolio, he didn't yank it out of his ass.

I'm loving the pacing of this. The attack at the nursing home surprised me. Things are starting to ramp up!

The sewer scene was cool too.
 
Episode impressions:

+ Setrakian cooking Eph breakfast while discussing ancient evil in the kitchen of the family they just beheaded. Lots of great dissonance there.
+ Setrakian flashback. More Eichorst is always good, more Master is even better. The way he moves is totally inhuman and mesmerizing. One caveat, which I'll get to later...
+ They nailed the creepiness factor of Bolivar perfectly, especially when he's just standing there calmly appraising the cleaner - totally inhuman. The transformation is complete.
+ Ann Marie's suicide, which was never mentioned in the book, was a good way of ending that mini character arc.
+ Fet's big "NOPE!" moment in the sewers and the attack at the nursing home are finally starting to hammer home the significance of the outbreak.

- Regarding the flashbacks, I thought they were weirdly spliced into the episode. They should have been bookends to the episode, with Setrakian starting the story early, getting interrupted, and recounting the rest at the end of the episode. As it is they didn't flow with the rest of the episode as well as I would have liked.
- "The internet's all messed up"



All in all, the best episode so far. Loved it.

So people see their friends/love ones/client shoot a snake out of their mouth and kill people and NO ONE calls the cops?

The Strain has taken the title of dumbest show on television away from Under the Dome.

The first time this happened (with Ann Marie and Ansel), Ann Marie was too dependent on her husband to allow herself to believe something was wrong. The second time (Bolivar and his manager), the manager didn't want to be associated with the incident and wanted to make it all go away to save her own neck. The former incident was kind of up for interpretation, but the latter was communicated fairly well.

Well I think I've seen enough to know that this show sucks

See you next week!
 
Fellow book-readers, it's been a while for me since I've read them, but
didn't Setrakian at one point supplement his blood with a draw of some sort from the parasites to sustain his life?

Nope.

As for the Eichorst question, he's only in the second book, so it seems they are making him a more major character here. I mean, 70% of his scenes are all new. So they will most likely be giving him new/more backstory.
 
The first time this happened (with Ann Marie and Ansel), Ann Marie was too dependent on her husband to allow herself to believe something was wrong. The second time (Bolivar and his manager), the manager didn't want to be associated with the incident and wanted to make it all go away to save her own neck. The former incident was kind of up for interpretation, but the latter was communicated fairly well.

How does personally calling another person to come to Bolivar's place result in her being implicated any less? That seems like doubling down on the problem. I mean, I guess if she expected everything to magically go smoothly, with the cleaner going in and out without incident and completely disappearing the body. But that's absurd on several levels, and ignores the reality of her client having turned into a fucking monster that is attacking and draining people of their blood.
 
I have given it three episodes and it is so bad.

I will not be one of those to come into the thread after each episode and shit on it because I have already given up. Just a terrible show at every level. And I was so excited by the concept and all the teasers leading up to the premiere.

Just a waste of an interesting concept.
 
How does personally calling another person to come to Bolivar's place result in her being implicated any less? That seems like doubling down on the problem. I mean, I guess if she expected everything to magically go smoothly, with the cleaner going in and out without incident and completely disappearing the body. But that's absurd on several levels, and ignores the reality of her client having turned into a fucking monster that is attacking and draining people of their blood.
She can be the manager of the guy who killed his urologist with his stinger tentacle or she can be the manager of the guy who disappeared mysteriously and probably died a tragic death. I thought her course of action made sense in context, but that's just me.
 
She can be the manager of the guy who killed his urologist with his stinger tentacle or she can be the manager of the guy who disappeared mysteriously and probably died a tragic death. I thought her course of action made sense in context, but that's just me.

Umm, but the cleaner wasn't there to kill Bolivar. He was there to make the urologist disappear, not make Bolivar disappear as well. The cleaner certainly made it clear his only job was to remove the body, not do anything about Bolivar. That only changed when he got weird and aggressive and the cleaner defended himself.

So your point would only make sense if she believed the cleaner could successfully disappear the urologist's body without incident and count on Bolivar walking away and never being identified again on his own volition.
 
Just started last episode so I can't really comment in it, but I just wanted to say as it rolls through the title credits that I think this show is my Walking Dead. Yeah, the people are fucking morons, but I don't think I could care less. I expect more stupidity over the next 45 minutes, and will relish in it.
 
So people see their friends/love ones/client shoot a snake out of their mouth and kill people and NO ONE calls the cops?

The Strain has taken the title of dumbest show on television away from Under the Dome.

I think it is slightly a level above Under the Dome, but they are equally disappointing when it comes to expectations. Both are unwatchable from my perspective.
 
I've been trying to remember what happened in this ep...some things keep sticking in my mind...

That scene with the CDC boss guy. Was he really calling the cops on Dr.Eph? Because there was footage of him moving a dead body?

What about the vampire video??? CDC guy has the wrong priorities.

Also with the internet being down...the vampires did that? lol man

Anyways this show just needs to embrace the crazy, and this ep is a promising start.

More vampire violence please.
 
Setrakian washing the dishes after killing all the frenchies was funny. And damn, a shame that this show has talent of the likes of Regina King and Jamie Hector and is giving them the worst roles.
 
That scene with the CDC boss guy. Was he really calling the cops on Dr.Eph? Because there was footage of him moving a dead body?

What about the vampire video??? CDC guy has the wrong priorities.
You mean the same guy that works for and has been close to the Secretary of Homeland Security. The same lady who has a personal meeting with Eldritch Palmer at the Stoneheart Group and basically says she owes her career to him and would do anything he asks?

Yeah, I'm sure he's on the level and has his priorities straight.:)
 
I don't think the manager called the cleaner directly she just called someone who has fixed problems caused by Boliver before (and if she called the cleaner directly I think she only mention a dead body so the cleaner would not have know about Boliver). Whoever the manager did call she probably couldn't find a way to properly explain what happen and didn't want to sound crazy so she only told the person that Boliver had killed someone but not how. So the cleaner only knew about the dead body and not about Boliver being a monster. Although the show did not give enough information about what the manager did after making the call. Did she leave the city/country or does she think the person will do enough job that she doesn't have to worry about Boliver?
 
Holy shit at this mr all black middle of the day half on black beanie bad movie criminal uniform half a cig dangling asshole sneaking into the rockers place how dead is this jackass
 
You mean the same guy that works for and has been close to the Secretary of Homeland Security. The same lady who has a personal meeting with Eldritch Palmer at the Stoneheart Group and basically says she owes her career to him and would do anything he asks?

Yeah, I'm sure he's on the level and has his priorities straight.:)

Yeah, let's not act like we're not intelligent individuals in order to hatebash.
 
Let's take a moment to eat breakfast in a dead woman's house while there are hundreds of these things out there. Lol. This show is terrible. Are the books this bad too? I'm giving it to next week for GDT's sake and then I'm out.

The cgi on The Master reminds me of the 90s Spawn movie. :/
Reminds me of the bad guy in The Frighteners.
 
As bad as some of the writing and acting on this show is, I am enjoying it. Its basically a guilty pleasure for me since I think the vampire designs are your typically great looking Guillermo Del Toro monster designs.

Still makes it sort of disappointing in execution, since having a more grounded vampire apocalypse show where vampirism is seen more as a disease spreading, without the brainless CDC of the show, would be interesting.

Its just silly in the show how they make a big deal how reluctant they are to quarantine people yet in real life with the Ebola scare, people suspected of having that get quarantined like nothing.
 
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