View Full Version : The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro (TV-Series)
Derek Vinyard
07-15-14, 01:23 AM
the first episode was pretty good and unique in my opinion ! what's your though about this new tv-show ?
Nausicaä
07-15-14, 08:12 AM
I enjoyed the three books but it's not a television series I'm excited about but will see whenever it's on television here. It was suppose to be a television series originally but they wrote the books instead.
If you aren't watching this you are seriously missing out on one of THE best cable network series of all time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uALG7kjctzM
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Derek Vinyard
07-28-14, 03:14 AM
@jrs
The first episode was very good i'm gonna watch the rest very soon !
The first episode was very good i'm gonna watch the rest very soon !
:cool: Awesome!
/facepalm
Unique? There is absolutely NOTHING unique in this show! I was coming in here to lament the tired, cliched approach...
Far from one of the best shows of all time (!!??!?!?!?!?), this even't one of the best shows this year, or this month for that matter. How can anyone claim that yet ANOTHER vampire show is original in any way? I was beside myself when the alleged "mystery" was revealed. Did another network really dump a bunch of cash into another friggin vampire IP??? Are they blind, deaf or just dead themselves? The lead actor is absolutely terrible. This sad sack can't act to save is life. I laughed out loud multiple times at how poorly this was put together... Del Toro is beating an undead horse, and the results will be as bad as everyone expects, I am sure. No way this makes it to another season...
Austruck
07-28-14, 12:47 PM
THANK YOU, SEDS. I too came here to lament how disappointed I am in this, after all the hype. Sure, the special effects for TV are quite good, but there's no way that's going to carry this show beyond a few episodes.
In fact, I figured I'd go ahead and watch episode 3 this morning on On Demand, having seen the first two and been underwhelmed. I turned it off 20 minutes in. I had absolutely no interest in what was happening, and I was SO SICK AND TIRED of all the vampire clichés... and the bad-government-interfering clichés... and the nobody-believes-us clichés... and (sigh)
Well, I have better things to do with my time than watch this hackneyed, overdone excuse for a fresh new horror series.
Line them up:
Creepy Nazi Guy: Check
Evil Corporation: Check
Vampires: Check
Creepy Kid: Check
Broken Family: Check
Dad's Fault: Check
Someone drinks a lot: Check
When the CDC let all 4 survivors walk out of the quarantine area just because one of the survivors got all righteous about it, the show went right out the window. Of course, they had to make their points about another cliche, the arrogant politician that can ruin your life with one phone call. Later, this lady goes out to dinner, and her dinner companion doesn't seem to notice her friends vampy eyes, which would have had any sane person running for the exits immediately on sight. No...it was time to continue their chat instead. Friend bleeds in her own glass? Nah, I didn't notice - it's brioche night!
In the pilot, The way they characterized the lead drove me nuts. So, they sit the guy down at a counseling meeting and then proceed to spell out the whole "work vs family" trope in a painfully obvious scene. Look, just show the couple walking out of the counselors office arguing about the meeting getting cut short because the guy got called into work - that frames their relationship in about 4 seconds, leaving more time for narrative advancement and I dunno, mystery or something interesting for the audience to watch, instead of telling us with lame expository dialogue. Show me, don't tell me! At least the guy wasn't at an AA meeting, which is the worst of all broken family cliches...oh wait, he DID go to an AA meeting in episode 2...
Seriously, if we are that far into cliched melodrama in the first 2 episodes, this show is in BIG trouble.
Not to mention anointing it based on, like, three episodes. Tons of shows start strong (if the pilots aren't good, they usually don't get made into shows in the first place), but very few stay that way, year after year.
It's a lot easier to make promises and set up possibilities than it is to deliver on them. Walking the tightrope between maintaining narrative momentum and hamstringing future storylines by burning off gamechanging events is probably the fundamental challenge of television writing. So it's pretty unremarkable to me if a show makes an initial splash by running up narrative debt. We find out how good shows like that are when those debts come due.
Intriguing and enjoyable: Check
Austruck
07-29-14, 01:24 PM
Sorry, jrs, but I found nothing intriguing about this story, except the first half of the first episode before they went ahead and pretty much told us everything that's really going on here.
Enjoyable? No thanks. There are too many other entertainment options for me to waste time on another episode ... much though I had been REALLY looking forward to this series all summer.
After last night's episode, any doubt that this show is in the toilet should be assuaged. SO bad. I was chuffed off at the fact that I had spent time watching it...
My opinion of the show still doesn't change, no matter how much people apologize.
Well I was gonna watch the first episode this week. Safe to say my expectations wont be as high.
Well I was gonna watch the first episode this week. Safe to say my expectations wont be as high.
Because of footage or other people's opinions who said they didn't like it? Give it a try you might enjoy it. You can't judge a show until you see it. Besides, it really isn't like any other vampire/ virus type scenario. It grabs you, entices you and pulls you in.
Yeah, you can't judge a show until you've seen two episodes. Only then can you decide it's one of the greatest shows of all time.
WoOdWoRk
07-29-14, 04:32 PM
I understand some your gripes about some of the shortcommings of the show, some of the plot devices are peculiar and rehashed.
But jeeese you guys make it sound like you miss the 'beautiful misunderstood teen monsters' that mainstream (for some reason) is obsessing over. (ie twilight or some other teen rendition)
This show is kicking off to a good start IMO, it looks like it is going to be brutal and somberly beautiful. GDT defiantly is putting the undead back into vampires with this show.
I really liked Pan's Labrynth and Cronos, but so much of Guillermo del Toro's work is complete garbage. Pacific Rim made me want to gouge out my eyes. I'm not going to watch this show. The trailer did not peak my interest in the slightest.
Actually the trailer very much peaked my interest. You dont usually see special effects like this on tv, at least non-HBO stuff. If it doesnt grab me in an episode though Im gonna watch that Black Orphan show everyones talking about. Theres too much out there to dally too long on anything.
The guy is pretty hit or miss for me, as well.
And yes, the show had a good START - as in the first 40 minutes of the mystery were pretty compelling, but then the show went into the toilet, and continues to do so as the episodes continue.
@JRS: No one is trying to change your opinion on anything. Discussion has very little to do with changing someone's views on anything, and everything to do with expressing our own views. Just wanted to make that clear.
@Woodwork - other works have exactly nothing to do with my opinion on this particular show, but anyone watching The Strain just HAS to see all the cliches and melodrama it is spooling out. If not, i presume the viewer is perhaps quite young (not a bad thing), and perhaps hasn't been exposed to all the other material this so clearly rips off.
Also: The special effects are pretty well done, but well-done effects does not a good show make...
WoOdWoRk
07-29-14, 05:16 PM
But your pointing out cliches are effectivley comparing it to other works in your complaints.
I was just saying that Vampires, recently became WAY over romanticized in film and im glad that GDT is bringing it back to horror.
I am not saying that it is the best show on TV or even close for that matter, but so far i think its a good horror show thats dealing with vampires and a potential plauge.
@JRS: No one is trying to change your opinion on anything. Discussion has very little to do with changing someone's views on anything, and everything to do with expressing our own views. Just wanted to make that clear.
I understand people have different views, just people don't need to apologize when giving theirs. It's silly.:)
Austruck
07-29-14, 08:04 PM
I loved the trailers that FX was putting out there all spring and summer. I was genuinely excited for the mystery surrounding this show. And as both Sedai and I have now said, the first half of the first episode was QUITE mysterious.
But once the whole vampire/coffin of dirt thing happened, I clucked my tongue and rolled my eyes and became instantly disappointed. Oh, it's only a vampire show... Too bad.
I'd rather watch old episodes of Dark Shadows from the 1960s than this show. At least that one was entertaining and original, even if the bats were rubber and floated around on sticks with strings that you could see. :)
If I hear through the grapevine that this show somehow turns itself around and comes up with some interesting new plotlines or twists, I'd go back and give it a second shot. But after nearly three episodes -- each with more clichés than the last -- I'll go back to Hemlock Grove and True Blood. :D
I'll go back to Hemlock Grove
:cool::up:
I'm watching Halt and Catch Fire, it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better.
This is getting better and better and better every week, and if you aren't watching this you are sorely missing out.
Well season one ended last night and it ended fantastically. Opening many possibilities to what may come to season two. The Strain is a much different show, bringing a fresh take to an apocalyptic and horrific infested world. Those who classify and compare this series to other vampire/zombie movies and tv shows, and don't give this show a chance, are missing out in truly great programming.
WoOdWoRk
10-07-14, 07:37 PM
I'm really intrigued by this show, every episode has been captivating in some way. I'm such a huge fan of horror that when stuff like this comes out i get thrilled because, well, im use to what syfy has to offer and i'm not always in the mood for a good laugh when im watching horror.
Don't get me wrong, this show has some hurdles to go through, some questionable directing and acting, a few too many eye roll moments and some of the characters bizarre decisions make you go WTF!?
That being said, i'm excited for the new season to come, to see if these tweaks will happen, so this show can be among the greats.
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