The Strain follows Dr. Ephram Goodweather (Corey Stoll), a doctor for the CDC (Centres for Disease Control and prevention), and his merry band of misfits as they fight a growing strain of a vampire virus that it sweeping over New York. Eph's group includes colleagues Jim Kent (Sean Astin) and Dr. Nora Martinez (Mia Maestro) who have made the discovery of the virus with him and are attempting to find a cure for it. Others adopted into the fold include Vasiliy Fet (Kevin Durand), a rat catcher with an admiration for dynamite, and hacker Dutch Velders (Ruda Gedmintas) who inadvertently aided the vampires to take over New York and has now switched over to the good side. The group are aided in their quest by the ever watchable Professor Abraham Setrakian (David Bradley), a holocaust survivor who has an in depth knowledge of the virus and has a long standing grudge against patient zero and the loyal servant that aids him, Thomas Eichhorst (Richard Sammal).
The premise seemed interesting before watching it, when I breezed through season one I was thoroughly enjoying it. We've all grown up with vampires over the years in many forms of media, so we all have an idea on how they should be but it was refreshing to see the shows take on them. Firstly, they look a lot creepier than I'm used to. Generally vampires tend to look a lot like human beings but paler due to their vitamin D deficiencies, but in The Strain they break that cycle. The show acknowledges that the creatures are dead and we see them deteriorating over time which makes a lot of sense but also quite disgusting. They don't just whip out some fangs whenever they feed, they have a proboscis under their tongues which enable them to drink their victims blood which shook me when I first saw it. I love the look of the creatures, they are different and eerily beautiful.
The Strain's take on vampiric lore also differs from the conventions we've gotten used to, it seems that they have more scientific reasoning for being. The vampire's in the show are human beings that have been infected with parasitic worm like creatures which eventually kills and turns them. When they awake they have usually lost their personalities and most of their memories, they are just host bodies for these worms and need to be fed nutritious blood on occasion. The Strain doesn't throw all the conventions completely out of the window, they may not be affected by religious symbols, holy water, garlic or wooden stakes but they are still vulnerable to sunlight and can be killed by beheading. I like to think they adopted some Zombie lore as well because they can also be killed by bashing their brains in, I like to call the creatures in The Strain zombires. Again, this was a refreshing take on the beings. So far so good.
Another enjoyable aspect of the show is Setrakian who will be wonderful no matter what, he has lived a long life and there are many layers to the character and I do firmly believe that we have barely scraped the surface with him and look forward to seeing more. The flashbacks give him even more depth and insight into his twisted relationship with Eichhorst, and honestly I could watch a series just based on Setrakian's exploits through the times. It probably helps that David Bradley is superb and has the ability to make you genuinely hate a character (Game of Thrones) or feel empathy for one (Broadchurch). I have nothing bad to say about the character or portrayal of him. Its also interesting to see them attempt to use science to combat them as well as going on a beheading spree, and to see the ramifications. Usually in vampire fiction the general public are unaware of the looming vampire apocalypse but here the whole of New York are eventually made aware and are helping fight the growing plague, and there is a reasoning why the rest of the world is unaware and unable to intervene.
Now onto the bad. There's only really a couple of issues for me and they have cropped up in the second season of the series. Anyone who knows me or reads what I write can tell that I hate love triangles and I hate annoying kids in film/television. Season two had both. The love triangle comes in the form of Dutch, a recurring character in season one who was upgraded to regular status in season two. To be honest I didn't think she was that fantastic to begin with but I didn't take any issue with her and it would've stayed that way if there was actually a reason for her to be around in season two. With the upgrade came one more character to write for and the writers decided to give her a love triangle rather than for her to actual use the skill set she had which made her valuable to the cause to begin with. She could've been an interested character but she's been watered down and takes valuable screen time away from things that are actually interesting, and making interesting characters like Vasiliy Fet boring. He started out as bad ass but he's spent a large part of season two moping around after a character that can't decide between her two partners. This show isn't supposed to be about relationship drama, this is not what I signed up for.
The kid. I didn't mention him earlier because I'd quite like to forget he even existed. Zack Goodweather (Ben Hyland; Max Charles) is a product of the union between Eph and his ex-wife Kelly (Natalie Brown) and now I probably hate him more than I hated Carl in the early seasons of The Walking Dead. There's a chance I may hate him more. In season one he didn't bother me because he wasn't really a major part, he didn't get in the way too much and
There are also smaller issues I have with the series but they'd probably be too spoilerific for me to mention, but none of them compare to the hatred I have for the melodrama of the love triangle and the darn child. I was really on my way to loving the series and then season two happened, I don't quite know how it'll get better without doing away with those characters and I don't think the show is ballsy enough to do that. I just hope that it doesn't get worse because I don't won't to hate a de Toro offspring.
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