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

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The pilot seemed more like a movie than a tv show. I like this better than the leftovers. Not sure how they're going to keep it going.
 
It's borderline terrible. Akin to the recent SyFy original stuff. Still watchable, but I'm pretty disappointed at well, everything.
 
Deku Tree said:
The pilot seemed more like a movie than a tv show. I like this better than the leftovers. Not sure how they're going to keep it going.
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They pretty much want to go the Game of Thrones route and do the entire book trilogy. Plus two seasons of original material, plus the original material that's already popped up in episode one. So they've already got at least three seasons worth of story.
 
watched the first episode, it was... OK-ish at best? I was pretty disapointed, still want to see where they go with it (I know nothing about the books), creature looked cool, but thats about it.

The "its breaking through" or whatever she said moment where they just stand there looking like idiots for 10 seconds was terrible, and could have easily been fixed with better editing, and overall the show is a lot cheesier than I expected
 
The parasites definitely reminded me of that zombie mantis thread.

Overall the episode was pretty good. Sort of like Fringe a little bit with the freak accident in the air plane. I will give it a couple more episodes before I pass judgement on the series. It does have my interest.
 
Hadn't looked at the OP until now...

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Bravo, Odd One
 
To anyone still on the fence, I'd say give it to at least until episode three. Anything else would be spoilers, but judging by the SDCC panel/screening description, that's when the first real big plot point occurs.
For those of you who have read the books, it's Redfern.
 
Show is pretty good as its a GDT joint and all. Nice to see the pacing is not dragging ass. Not to say the book does but seeing how they are squeezing as much juice into the first episode so the story won't stall out, so far so good. Happy to hear that the story will derive from book two. Any new story has to be better than book three.
 
I liked it. Newer approach to vampires on tv/film, because I kinda hate the typical shit out of vampires v. lycans. I was disappointed in a couple very very minor characters simply being mindless props because the plot demanded it. Still, will continue watching.
 
I really enjoyed the first episode so I'm definitely in. Sure it has some cheesy stuff like Ephraim not believing the old guys warnings, that's been done a million times. I like the bad guys, the vampire and the atmosphere. Really interested in seeing where this goes.
 
HP_Wuvcraft said:
They pretty much want to go the Game of Thrones route and do the entire book trilogy. Plus two seasons of original material, plus the original material that's already popped up in episode one. So they've already got at least three seasons worth of story.
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How much of the first episode wasn't in the book?
 
athevolunteer said:
How much of the first episode wasn't in the book?
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Gus being a part of the conspiracy, Jim Kent being an unwilling part of the conspiracy (we don't even know he's a part of it until halfway through, and even then he's just someone that is paid off instead of apparently being blackmailed).

Eichorst isn't even in the first book. Setrakian is implied to be a badass, but outside of Strain Hunting, it's only implied.
 
athevolunteer said:
How much of the first episode wasn't in the book?
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In addition to what HP mentioned:
  • The whole scene with the airline stewards examining the cargo hatch before it bursts.
  • Bishop being killed by the Master - in the book it's a random baggage handler.
  • In the books Gus hates his brother Crispin, and would probably fight against his charges being dropped. Also Crispin never robs Setrakian in the beginning. The dossier of info on Gus and his family is used more as a silent threat in the book, as opposed to illustrating their problems.
  • There's no scene with Gus almost getting caught in the books.
  • In the books Setrakian confronts Goodweather and co. outside the morgue, not inside the airport.

There's probably more but that's all i can think of off the top of my head.
 
Liked the pilot, albeit there were like four scenes that could have been the final scene. But then... fade to black and another scene begins.

Unfortunately since I know what happens in the novels, I feel already tired watching this thing. The start is cool and the ending is cool, but what comes in the middle is standard chore Walking Dead. Which I do not care for at all.
 
I'm not even going to bother writing how much and why I hated the first episode. I'm giving this another chance and that's it.

Helix S1 silliness cranked up to 11 and with a bigger budget.
 
I enjoyed it. Dumb and cliched as fuck in parts but the Master's creepy ass design and the premise still keeps me interested.

Actually I kind of hate every human related thing outside of the Van Helsing character as he seems to be the only one not weighed down by a terrible setup. Still the actual vampire stuff keeps the show afloat.

I just hope the show finds a strain (teehee) of logic and keeps with it. I don't want to see any contrived BS of the main dude constantly bumping into the master and somehow always escaping unscathed/barely missing him until the season finale(s), especially given how OP he seems to be.

Speaking of which, they explain what happens on the airplane in the books though? Seems kinda weird that everyone would be buckled in their seats like they where sleeping if this giant vampire thing was running around feeding.
 
Do these idiot characters live in a world where there is no vampire fiction?

Coffin full of soil, lock on the inside....ring any freaking bells?

Also the acting was kind of mostly abysmal.
Not impressed.
 
dan2026 said:
Do these idiot characters live in a world where there is no vampire fiction?

Coffin full of soil, lock on the inside....ring any freaking bells?
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To be fair, if a (scientist) person discovered a not-really-a-coffin-box filled with soil with a lock on the inside in the "real world", they probably wouldn't exclaim "Vampires!" immediately, especially when they were predisposed to finding the solution to their problem in the form of a deadly infectious disease.
 
Mario said:
deadly

To be fair, if a (scientist) person discovered a not-really-a-coffin-box filled with soil with a lock on the inside in the "real world", they probably wouldn't exclaim "Vampires!" immediately, especially when they were predisposed to finding the solution to their problem in the form of a deadly infectious disease.
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Exactly. Scientists would be far from thinking vampires. Come on now. That's the point :)
 
Mario said:
To be fair, if a (scientist) person discovered a not-really-a-coffin-box filled with soil with a lock on the inside in the "real world", they probably wouldn't exclaim "Vampires!" immediately, especially when they were predisposed to finding the solution to their problem in the form of a deadly infectious disease.
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Bullcrap. Even a scientist's first thought is going to be 'this looks a lot like a stereotypical vampire setup'. Even if it is an elaborate fake.

You don't wander round going 'weeeell it sure looks like a coffin...'
'Buuuuut why does it have a lock?'
This whole thing seems suuuuuper creepy, but I dunno'.

It all comes off as silly and ham-handed. Maybe it was mostly the fault of the acting failing to sell it.
 
Mario said:
It didn't really seem like a moment to be making such a joke out loud.
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Well either way I'll give the show another episode.

Maybe things will improve when the city turns into a nightmare hellhole.

It wasn't all bad I suppose. The German Van Hellsing esq guy was interesting.
He should of been the main character.
 
I loved the first episode very pulpy and the take on the vampire is so far pretty interesting. Felt quite bad for the
airline guy
that was a pretty brutal way to go.
The complaint about the CDC not instantly going "holy shit vampire!" after examining the 9ft tall box is great. Attributing such a huge catastrophe to at this point in the show a fictional being would be pretty funny, that shouldn't even be a consideration.
 
dan2026 said:
Well either way I'll give the show another episode.

Maybe things will improve when the city turns into a nightmare hellhole.

It wasn't all bad I suppose. The German Van Hellsing esq guy was interesting.
He should of been the main character.
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The second episode should deliver an interesting meeting, between
The Master and Setrakian
, if I understand correct.

I think that once the city falls into disarray, the series will go downhill. It'll be just a generic zombie-filled landscape with protagonists crying themselves to sleep and eating tinned beans. And I feel like I have had enough of that for the next ten years.

Things might pick up once
half-breeds start popping up
and
fully formed vampires scour the streets
. The love aspect was silly in the books and I don't expect it to fare better in the TV series.

To be honest... I feel like this will get canceled pretty quick. I have little hopes of
getting to see the final bang on screen.
 
glaurung said:
I think that once the city falls into disarray, the series will go downhill.
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I dont have high hopes either really. But I should probably follow the three episode rule.

I think maybe the transition between such a good horror series in Hannibal and now this kind of shocked me somewhat.

Hey I did like the main vampire guy too. He was cool. Shame we only got a few minutes of him.
 
I was very disappointed with this first episode. I'll go along for the ride for a while to see if it gets any better, but this wasn't very good. It felt like a comedy. So many cliche-filled moments, bad writing, and terrible acting. Even Del Toro's touch could not save this for me.

Worst moments:
- Old Van Helsing guy trying to explain to the wig-guy what is happening and he brushes it off as if he was a crazy guy. Of course the wig dude will eventually realise the old guy was right all along.
- Girl in the beginning examining the cockpit despite so many people telling her not to do that.
- The Mexican or Latino guys with the horrible over-acting.
- The guy in the morgue...of course the dead will rise behind his back and slowly creep up on him.
- Samwise
- The kid reuniting at the end with the dad. I was rolling my eyes. Beside being cliche as fuck, how did she move so fast from the morgue to the house?
 
backflip10019 said:
The first scene reminded me so much of Fringe. Wasn't in the mood for it last night so I turned it off. Might try again some other time.
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Fringe did the plane bit better.

I have to agree with people saying that the characters in this are acting stupid most of the time.

And that latino guy... I know it's racist, but he sucked big time. The saddest bit? If the show follows the novel, he will become a mainstay character. Egads.
 
The atmosphere was great and I liked the look of the vampire. Some parts we're a bit cliché, but overall I liked the pilot. Definitely going to carry on watching it.
 
dan2026 said:
Bullcrap. Even a scientist's first thought is going to be 'this looks a lot like a stereotypical vampire setup'. Even if it is an elaborate fake.

You don't wander round going 'weeeell it sure looks like a coffin...'
'Buuuuut why does it have a lock?'
This whole thing seems suuuuuper creepy, but I dunno'.

It all comes off as silly and ham-handed. Maybe it was mostly the fault of the acting failing to sell it.
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I'm sorry, but if you're basing your dislike of the show off of how they don't instantly all go for crossbows and garlic... yeah. You're probably going to hate how they explain the vampires, then, if you apparently just want Buffy the CDC Slayer.
 
Hagi said:
I loved the first episode very pulpy and the take on the vampire is so far pretty interesting. Felt quite bad for the
airline guy
that was a pretty brutal way to go.
The complaint about the CDC not instantly going "holy shit vampire!" after examining the 9ft tall box is great. Attributing such a huge catastrophe to at this point in the show a fictional being would be pretty funny, that shouldn't even be a consideration.
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Yeah, it's a fair complaint in a world where vampires are already known to exist, but the world of The Strain is ostensibly like our's. You see a giant box full of soil and you're going to think it's a weird heirloom - the notion of vampires preferring to bed in their native soil isn't really common knowledge nowadays, is it? Same as their inability to cross water. If that scene can be criticized for anything it's that they opened the box without their hazmat suits on. As an epidemiologist I'd probably assume the soil was the vector of whatever effected the passengers, but that's just me.

Still, the scene was beautiful. I can suspend my disbelief for the sake of preserving atmosphere - it's an essential skill for enjoying a show like this.
 
Deified Data said:
Yeah, it's a fair complaint in a world where vampires are already known to exist, but the world of The Strain is ostensibly like our's. You see a giant box full of soil and you're going to think it's a weird heirloom - the notion of vampires preferring to bed in their native soil isn't really common knowledge nowadays, is it? Same as their inability to cross water. If that scene can be criticized for anything it's that they opened the box without their hazmat suits on. As an epidemiologist I'd probably assume the soil was the vector of whatever effected the passengers, but that's just me.

Still, the scene was beautiful. I can suspend my disbelief for the sake of preserving atmosphere - it's an essential skill for enjoying a show like this.
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And in all fairness, once the vampire stuff becomes more apparent, they do start talking about this stuff.
 
A slow but intriguing start. I like how it had the Del Toro aesthetic down pat, with the heavy use of colored lighting, but it better start moving faster in the next episodes. :P Seems like a lot is going on in the plot.
 
jett said:
A slow but intriguing start. I like how it had the Del Toro aesthetic down pat, with the heavy use of colored lighting, but it better start moving faster in the next episodes. :P Seems like a lot is going on in the plot.
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Totally. The pilot covered almost half of the first book in one episode. It's going to pick up in a big way from here on out.
 
- Deadline: FX’s ‘The Strain’ Debuts Strong With Nearly 3M Viewers
It was icky, dark and something bloodier is definitely going on with The Strain, but that seems OK with viewers. FX’s new series based on the novels by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan pulled in an audience of 2.99 million Sunday night for its 1-hour and 42-minute debut at 10PM. That’s 42% better that the cabler’s most recent other drama debut Tyrant did on its June 24th premiere. Showing good DVR life in Live+3 numbers, the Middle East-based series drew 2.1 million viewers for its initial 1-hour and 22-minute opener that Tuesday night. With the first heavily promoted episode directed by del Toro and EP’d by the Pacific Rim director, Hogan and Carlton Cuse, the vampire drama was also 12% higher in terms of its audience than the 2.65 million viewers that the 97-minute debut of limited series Fargo got on April 15.
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I actually quite enjoyed the pilot. It certainly has its fair share of cheesiness and cliches that Del Toro seems so fond of for his American film work, but it managed to entertain and give it a sort of 90's vibe rather than outright detract from it.

What it did have going for it is a seemingly unique and really intriguing/horrifying spin on the vampire mythos, a strong visual style (the creature designs and color scheme have Del Toro written all over them--I can only hope the other directors of the season will be able to keep up with the strong visual flair Del Toro lends to the Pilot), and some really excellently tense and creative scenes.
The pathologist freaking out over the parasites only to be eaten by a pack of (zombie) vampires was really great.

The pilot definitely piqued my interest to see where they're going with it, and it was a thoroughly entertaining ride (provided you can handle some cheese). I will definitely be watching the rest of the season.
 
I'll give it a few episodes, but I didn't really care for the pilot. Some of the cheesiest dialogue I've heard in ages. I also can't help focusing on "Eph's" (groan) terrible wig. The show looks fantastic though so it at least has that going for it.
 
I love how naive I am.

As I watched this I was all, "I wonder if these things are vampires?"

And

"That bald dude in the teaser looks like Nasferatu, kinda. I wonder if they're actually vampires."

I had to come to Gaf to have all this confirmed. LOL.

Looks like I'll enjoy this show just fine.
 
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