FX's The Strain

Wait, how is the love triangle becoming a square? Who's #4 (can't recall that...)?

The episode was decent enough. What I didn't like is that they supposed had the burrow locked down. And then that fisherman just takes his boat right up to the dock and lets 20 vampires off without any problem at all.

Not to mention the thousands more behind that boat--where'd they come from?

I agree that it still feels that Dutch's girlfriend is somehow on the take.

 

Love Square: Dutch, Dutch's girl, Fet, and...Nora. If you can somehow rewatch the episode, pay close attention to the end during the congrats scene. Also, saw that this was noticed by Eph when Nora and Fet left to check on Dutch.

Totally agree with your questions regarding how they were able to infiltrate Red Hook so quick and with so many. You'd have thought that they'd have the UV lights hooked up to the docks at night for any boats that cruise up at night - to automatically roast any strigoi that happen to be hitching along. That said, I'm glad Setrakian was able to get the ear of Feraldo, if for nothing else than moving the plot along. I like when the varying strands come together, which is why I'm eager for Gus' story to move along.

Looks like there's 4 more episodes for this season. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Strain_episodes

Interesting link above. I hadn't been paying attention to the different teleplay writers or directors for each episode. Notable is that del Toro directed the "Luchador" film which depicted "The Silver Angel," and the Sardu vignette from the second season's first episode. The last two episodes of season 2 will be directed by Vincenzo Natali, who hasn't directed one in this series yet - looking forward to those.

 

Think I'm about done.

 

Really? Oh well. I think this season is getting better as it goes along.

 

Yet my post was the first since the 8th. Seems not many are running here to talk about it. I'm sure I'll finish out the season, after that I don't know.

 

Yep, convo is slow.

 

Well, the show's getting 7.6/10 on IMBD, 83% at Rotten Tomatoes and 72% at Metacritic. These aren't bad are they? It's been renewed for the 3rd season, and I think they want to do 5 seasons total. Looks like Season 2 is averaging 1.37M viewers per episode, which is down from the first season. I'm thinking some of it has to do with Eph and his family drama being just a tad off the mark for a television show. It might work in the book, but neither he nor his son are very likable characters. Even though they're central to the show itself, if the directors can instead focus on Fet, Setrakian, Gus and Eichhorst characters, the episodes will be more engaging. Even though I'm not that big a fan of Dutch, this last episode was pretty good b/c of the focus on Eichhorst. I also find the storyline about the Occido Lumen pretty interesting - hoping they go into the background of that book - if not this season, then next.

 

For what it's worth I think the Eichhorst character is great. And can you imagine what one of those radios would be worth now?

He doesn't need that stupid thing coming out of his mouth to make him scary though

 

Agreed. Rotten Tomatoes has a pretty good, short interview with the actor.

I thought it kind of funny that the audiophile of the show is the #2 bad guy.

 

I'm enjoying this, I like vampires, I like cheesey horror and I love me some Guillermo Del Toro.
I just try not to eat while I'm watching....

 

Renewed for S03

 

i like it, never miss it actually, but.......

enough of the "almost got him/her" moments. that whole scenario is starting to get old. time to get something, anything, accomplished and move on to another storyline.

 

They need to take in some target practice.....

 

Notice the fire behind Feraldo when the mayor was talking with her? Interesting stuff this show throws at you.

 

This show is so over the top and deliberately cheesy it's great!

 

I DVR this show too and enjoy it for what it is.

 

OK, it's official: The son on this show is the dumbest kid ever to have a speaking part on a TV drama.

Surprised to see the major protagonist character die. Too bad it couldn't have been the son.

 

uh.... couldn't they just make a copy of the book?

 

I wouldn't say she was 'the' major protagonist. More like one of about half a dozen protagonists and in terms of what they bring to the table one of the minor ones (she was basically Ephs assistant).

 

Exactly...and tonight's episode didn't disappoint. This show is fun.

Hahahahaha! I was laughing my ass off while watching that scene...and loving every absurd minute of it. Love this show.

 

Rob Bricken
The boring, insufferable second season of The Strain has come to a close, and if you were wondering if perhaps Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s vampire apocalypse “drama” would be pulling out all the stops after what can only be politely be described as “slow” build-up, let me assure you it did not. It stayed just as boring, but it somehow got more insufferable.

Here is everything that happened in the finale, after 12 previous episodes of almost purely wasted time:

1) Setrakian finally got the Occido Lumen, as he’d been trying to and failing all season.


2) Vampire Kelly finally successfully kidnapped Zach, as she’d been trying to and failing all season.

3) Nora died.

That’s it, really. In fact, these three sentences could sum up the events of the entire season almost completely, although I guess you’d have to add “Eph and Nora made a virus that kills vampires, but they have no means of doing anything with it.” And maybe, if you were being really generous

to this waste of a show, you could say that certain characters finally teamed up—Setrakian, Fet, Quinlan, Gus and Angel—but they didn’t as much join up as end up on a boat together, and I don’t have any reason to suspect they’ll stay together, let alone work together to foil the Master.
But really, five things happened on the second season of The Strain, and none of them were that exciting. That breaks down to One Thing Happening every 2.6 episodes, except that four of these things only happened in last night’s finale. And again, let me remind you that the most important storyline of this whole goddamned season is that an old man bought a book. The Strain didn’t even have the decency to follow up on the hints that the auction would turn into some kind of battle between Setrakian, Eichorst, Quinlan, and Alonso Creem’s forces; instead we watched as a person talked on the phone to the respective banks. (And this was still more interesting than the ludicrous amount of time we were forced to watch Eph, Nora and Zach wait for their goddamned train to leave Penn Station.)

Now, obviously other things happened during this episode, but they were actually just conclusions to utterly worthless storylines that the second season wasted our time with. Coco? The Master killed her, because Eldritch Palmer turned off his bank account because he was pouty about not being allowed to go to the auction (So dumb). Gus’ army?

They showed up to kill the vampires who attacked Setrakian and Fet after we had to sit through the auction, and then basically disappeared, having fulfilled their single, random narrative purpose. (I’d say the fact that a vampire gave a bunch of hardened, armed criminals he’d just met a Braveheart-esque inspirational pre-battle speech would be the episode’s dumbest moment, but the dumbest moment is that the speech actually worked.)
Even the death of Nora, ostensibly a main character, is only noteworthy in the sense that for it to occur, Zach—who is, without any doubt, Emperor-King of Awful, Stupid Kids in Dramatic Genre Entertainment—required the kid to make a series of decisions so ludicrously stupid that they seemed impossible for any 8-year-old kid with the power to dress himself could make. Yes, Zach prevents Nora from killing his clearly evil plague-ridden mom, distracts Nora so that Kelly can use her giant mouth-tentacle to murder her, and then goes with Kelly anyways. It’s insipid and insulting to everyone involved, including the audience.

Trying to summarize this finale, let alone this season, requires effort The Strain does not deserve in the least. It is horrible, and although it’s been renewed for its third season, I pray that I will not be recapping this garbage next summer.

 

The Palmer/Coco snuggle-fest was a source of great perverse amusement for me this season right up to the last bit when she got Master-munched and Palmer breaks down with the Close Caption simply saying [Blubber] ....haha.

 

Wouldn't the best way to avoid a recap be to not watch it? Come on, you're as addicted as the rest of us!

 

Poor Coco. ....I was laughing too during that scene because you knew she was dead...it was just a matter of who would do it.

 

But, but it had the MOST IMPORTANT ingredient in Hollywood - EVIL, EVIL NAZI VILLAIN !!