FX's The Strain

True. I had lost count. I just want it to move beyond the glacial pace so far.

 

My favorite lame exchange of the series so far (I'm paraphrasing):

Gary Arnot: "Thank you for releasing my daughter."
Eph Goodweather: "Her body was released?"
Gary Arnot: "No... she turned up on my doorstep this morning."

What I find ridiculous is the father matter-of-factly being OK with is 8-year-old daughter "turning up on the doorstep". By herself. With no warning. Early in the morning.

That one just sticks out as incredibly awful because they keep using the exchange during the "Previously on..." intros on each episode, so I've seen it several times now.

 

Well, the voice over when she returned home talked about "love makes us believe the unbelievable" or something like that.

But when the daughter was half submerged in the bathtub and obviously not breathing and with dark eyes and the father barely noticed...that was kind of...interesting...

 

OMG ... it is soooo embarrassingly
bad ! ...... yet i keep watching

 

I'm wondering if the choppiness of the most recent episode is due to trying to fit this within an hour of airtime, which is what, approximately 30-40 mins of actual show time? The first show was excellent at 2 hours air time - wish they were all this way. This newest episode had no scenes with the exterminator or goth boy, and as a previous post stated none with the other female survivor - will she even be revisited? There are plot holes as well, as noted above in the spoilers, mainly dealing with the capillary worms' location "post-extraction." I can't help but think the cropped length affects the cohesiveness of the plot.

Love the old man though. Have no idea where he came from in that last scene (shades of the last fight b/w McClain and the baddies in DH2 on the airplane wing), but he's making the show for me. TCB by BTO should be his theme song.

 

He's got a lot of vampire killin' and life savin' to do before I forgive him for the Red Wedding...

 

What's the Red Wedding ?

 

A reference to another show that shared the actor, a reference that can only be explained by massive spoilers...

Shalom, y'all!

L. Bangs

 

ahh , ok thanks

 

Game of Thrones.

 

and yet, as bad as it is, 'under the dome' makes it look like shakespeare.

 

It's so good/bad, though! Very entertaining, turn-the-brain-off monster schlock. Love it.

 

I could be wrong, but I don't think The Strain is hate-watchable, in large-part anyway, unless cynicism evelopes one's life. I haven't been sucked into many shows recently like this one. Aside from Walking Dead, have there been any good horror/monster shows on television recently? ("good" DQ's those shows on Sci-Fi, btw)

 

I can put up with a fair degree of silliness in a piece of horror fiction like this; based on the evidence so far, I'm more worried that they're gonna stall out the momentum every so often by getting into the "human interest" crap. Like, does anyone who watches programs like this want to explore the protagoniost's strained relationship with his ex? I didn't think so.

 

I have some predictions of how that story line is going to play out. Will be interesting to see what happens.

 

The way you guys are complaining about this, I'm not bothered I only wathced the first episode. Too many good shows to keep up with, so I doubt I'll come back to this one.

 

I'm out. I made it through the first 3 episodes which got progressively dumber as they went on. What a waste of a great opportunity.

 

Per this link, overall viewer numbers are down (2.99M for premier, 2.27M for the most recent episode), but a slight increase in the 18-49 demo shows promise (and maybe more promise for other horror shows to be picked up by networks in the future?):

http://headlineplanet.com/home/2014/08/05/ratings-fxs-strain-surges-20-ties-series-high/

 

Although it suffers significant plot holes and the some questionable character motivation, I am still finding this show quite entertaining. It's not Othello, but I think it's a winner on its own terms.

So far, at least.

 

I still like the show and while the pacing is a bit of an issue for me, I think they've done a stood job so far of tying together the various subplots. Bit of trivia--the old man was originally played by John Hurt but he had to bow out due to other commitments. They reshot the scenes with the Harry Potter and Game of Thrones actor for the pilot. Also Del Toro also meant for the pest guy to be played originally by Ron Perlman but, again, he was u able to do it due t other commitments (also not sure if e wanted to commit to a long series again)

 

He's quite good.... I can't watch, however, without thinking of his hilarious, but small roles in "Hot Fuzz" & "The Worlds' End"!

 

Yeah I loved his characters in both but Hot Fuzz with his collection of guns, the mine and incomprehensible speaking was hilarious.

 

I had blotted him out of my mind as Walder Frey! lol

 

Interesting (and positive) ratings info from Variety. This bodes well for the series to continue and hopefully for other potential horror television projects in the future. If the ratings continue this way, I wonder if they would consider doing a feature film release, a la X Files? I can't help but think that a full length film would lend itself to better editing and story flow.

http://variety.com/2014/data/news/f...ngs-for-hot-new-drama-the-strain-1201264817/#

From the article:

"In a first for a TV industry grappling to get an accurate handle on audience measurement in the DVR era, the network waited until Nielsen issued its “Live + 3″ numbers on Friday to release any ratings data to the press. The “Live + Same-Day” numbers were issued by Nielsen on Tuesday, and reported in some outlets, but they are increasingly becoming irrelevant for a business whose chief advertising currency is sold off numbers that include three days’ worth of DVR playback.

It’s not unusual these days, especially for 10 p.m. dramas like “The Strain,” to jump in rating by more than 50% with just three days’ worth of DVR playback. (The young-adult audience for “Strain” actually swelled by 64%, and could come close to doubling its audience when a full week’s worth of data is included.)

“With the exception of sports, news and live events, Live+Same Day ratings no longer accurately reflect the audience delivery for a scripted entertainment program,” said FX’s John Solberg in a note accompanying Friday’s ratings release. “We believe they grossly mischaracterize the actual audience due to the multiple data streams and platforms. Therefore, our first acknowledgement of any ratings will be on a Live+3 basis and beyond.”