SPOILERS FOLLOW
'The Strain' is finally starting to look like a great show. For weeks it has been mired in mediocrity. This week finally showed signs of what it could be. There was still some story issues, but other then that, we were in for a highly entertaining hour this week.
The story gave everyone a shot to shine this week. The story was connected by the fact that it is an eclipse and that the strain is starting to spread. Just about every character got a chance to deal with it. Eph's family drama was actually interesting this week. He warned his ex to take Zach away from the city. The whole situation and aftermath was really fun to watch. His dealing with the FBI was also interesting to watch, especially when he decided to give them first hand experience with the vampires. Vasiliy's second encounter with the strain was awesome. We now know that he won't be weak when it comes to dealing with the infected. The rest of the story was mainly fluff. I assume the reason that Gus and Jim put the body in the water was to quickly spread the disease. And we got a quick look into the sadistic mind of Eichorst. Meanwhile, Matt stuck is nose in Goodweather family business and also got his first encounter with the strain. The only real problem I had was Vasiliy's meeting with his father. I didn't think it was that interesting, but I can respect them working to develop Vasiliy. This was definitely a story that was well tooled to give every character their due, and it did.
The mixture between story and horror was amazing this week. Usually they nail one or the other, but this week both got their due. As I said above the story gave every character their due and was all the more better for connecting them to one interesting topic. The horror aspects were few, but well done. I loved how they used Abraham's heartbeat as a drumbeat when he was in the vampires' house. They also kept you on your toes with the sheer amount of vampires in the house. The strongest point was when Vasiliy encountered what the strain can really do to someone, now that he saw what it did to his coworkers. He dealt with them using what he learnt about sunlight last week. Just watching this vampire essentially implode on itself was amazing considering a TV show budget. It was really cool and really well done. It seems like we will be getting more of the horror aspects now that it looks like the strain is spreading.
Overall, this was the best episode since the first week. The story kept moving and stayed interesting. All the characters got a spot to shine. And it finally progressed the story to point where it looks like we will see the strain. It looks like we are done tiptoeing around the issue and jumping straight into it in the coming weeks. Hopefully they keep on this track and improve on it to make 'The Strain' a masterpiece.
'The Strain' is finally starting to look like a great show. For weeks it has been mired in mediocrity. This week finally showed signs of what it could be. There was still some story issues, but other then that, we were in for a highly entertaining hour this week.
The story gave everyone a shot to shine this week. The story was connected by the fact that it is an eclipse and that the strain is starting to spread. Just about every character got a chance to deal with it. Eph's family drama was actually interesting this week. He warned his ex to take Zach away from the city. The whole situation and aftermath was really fun to watch. His dealing with the FBI was also interesting to watch, especially when he decided to give them first hand experience with the vampires. Vasiliy's second encounter with the strain was awesome. We now know that he won't be weak when it comes to dealing with the infected. The rest of the story was mainly fluff. I assume the reason that Gus and Jim put the body in the water was to quickly spread the disease. And we got a quick look into the sadistic mind of Eichorst. Meanwhile, Matt stuck is nose in Goodweather family business and also got his first encounter with the strain. The only real problem I had was Vasiliy's meeting with his father. I didn't think it was that interesting, but I can respect them working to develop Vasiliy. This was definitely a story that was well tooled to give every character their due, and it did.
The mixture between story and horror was amazing this week. Usually they nail one or the other, but this week both got their due. As I said above the story gave every character their due and was all the more better for connecting them to one interesting topic. The horror aspects were few, but well done. I loved how they used Abraham's heartbeat as a drumbeat when he was in the vampires' house. They also kept you on your toes with the sheer amount of vampires in the house. The strongest point was when Vasiliy encountered what the strain can really do to someone, now that he saw what it did to his coworkers. He dealt with them using what he learnt about sunlight last week. Just watching this vampire essentially implode on itself was amazing considering a TV show budget. It was really cool and really well done. It seems like we will be getting more of the horror aspects now that it looks like the strain is spreading.
Overall, this was the best episode since the first week. The story kept moving and stayed interesting. All the characters got a spot to shine. And it finally progressed the story to point where it looks like we will see the strain. It looks like we are done tiptoeing around the issue and jumping straight into it in the coming weeks. Hopefully they keep on this track and improve on it to make 'The Strain' a masterpiece.
Highlights:
| The Score: 7.5 out of 10 |