Here we are at episode 2 of The Strain which has introduced a few new elements and raised further questions for those members of the audience who are yet to read the books (I highly recommend them). Yet again we have our plucky team (Yet to lose a member but fingers crossed Samwise is first on the chopping board) not yet formed but at least showing that each have a skill (Apart from that Samwise douche) that could prove handy when we get more toothy white people roaming the street.
Look at that cracker ass monsters.
So more moving of players and not a lot of answers this week, the episode did feel weaker in comparison to last weeks pretty solid opener but that is to be expected. I would have enjoyed if they jumped straight into the group meeting and finding their places but that would make it a very short series, for now we can be happy with a bit of back story and a great scene in a prison which echoes something that may have happened decades before (Not a spoiler but it does involve Nazis). Easily one of the highlights of this weeks episode was the introduction of Vasiliy Fet (Kevin Dunn) who started gleefully emptying a restaurant after finding out it may have an infection of small fuzzy creatures (Not Tribbles). Vasiliy is a stand out character in the book and here he already feels like he would have a place hunting down vampires once they start spreading around New York quicker than melted butter spreads on toast.
Rats can also be spread on toast but they do require some mashing.
A bunch of hints at what may happen to the survivors of the plane were also dropped including a nice scene of Bolivar having issues which cause him to disappoint 3 women (My record is 2, my mother and my girlfriend) and the airline pilot showing symptoms of possible vampirism. We are at the point in the series where we should be getting more monster fun shortly and that is when the budget will be strained (Excuse the pun), really when everything starts going full Lost Boys we cannot have these scenes of talking and slow plot building.
Or Samwise, no more scenes involving this bastard.
Anyway the 2nd episode serves up a couple of nice moments but also some bum notes. The little girl going home to her father felt shoehorned in before, now it feels completely out of place and having her change and kill her father when everyone else was just sitting around chatting for the entire episode breaks the pacing the show has been setting up.
This scene was creepy and not because that girl is a vampire.
I still enjoyed this weeks episode and will continue watching as I hope the story reaches its potential. I recommend this show to those with a fair bit of patience or who plan to watch till the end of this season.
I give it one Gary Oldman’s Dracula out of Keanu Reeves because fuck numerical ratings.
cinemageddon 