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What is this? The Strain is new series on FX based on a horror trilogy by Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, Blade II) and Chuck Hogan (Prince of Thieves, which became the movie The Town). Initially developed as a TV series, when del Toro couldn't get any buyers he went to Hogan to develop his ideas into a series of novels. Once those became a hit, FX decided to pick it up to series. Current discussion among the producers is for the series to span 35-70 episodes, with season one covering the first book, season two the second and seasons three and four covering book three. However, they've noted they might expand on things when new concepts and ideas hit them as the series develops. What's it about? A plane lands at John F. Kennedy International Airport with the lights off and doors sealed. Epidemiologist Dr. Ephraim Goodweather and his team are sent to investigate. On board they find two hundred corpses and four survivors. The situation deteriorates when the bodies begin disappearing from morgues. Goodweather and a small group of helpers find themselves battling to protect not only their own loved ones, but the entire city, from an ancient threat to humanity. Elsewhere in a pawnshop in Spanish Harlem, a former professor and survivor of the Holocaust named Abraham Setrakian knows something is happening. And he knows the time has come, that a war is brewing. Spoiler alert, they're vampires caused by a gross parasitic infection. Ever seen the del Toro directed Blade II? Imagine the political and vampire gene ideas from Blade II, except instead of Blade, it's Whistler as one of the leads. The cast features Corey Stoll, David Bradley and Sean Astin. Why should I watch? Good question, reaction to the pilot has been mixed but I've heard good things about the novels. The series is filmed in Toronto (filling in for New York) and it gave me a similar gothic vibe to the Blade series.
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# ? Jul 15, 2014 22:28 |
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 03:22 |
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I watched the pilot, and it was intriguing enough that I kinda want to track down the books. The show seems filled with cliches though, cliches that seem like they wouldn't be in the book version.
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# ? Jul 15, 2014 23:06 |
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CVagts posted:I watched the pilot, and it was intriguing enough that I kinda want to track down the books. The show seems filled with cliches though, cliches that seem like they wouldn't be in the book version. It's basically the same as the book so far. The only good part of the books is maybe the first half of the first one anyway.
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# ? Jul 15, 2014 23:08 |
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Is this gonna have a buncha corporate vampire poo poo like Blade or Underworld or whatever the gently caress? First episode was interesting except for every time they cut to the highrise vampire guy pulling the plot strings with his minions or whatever. That part was crap
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# ? Jul 15, 2014 23:19 |
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They are main cast members so yes it will.
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# ? Jul 15, 2014 23:21 |
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I also watched the pilot; I think the show would have more promise if it were focused on Walder Frey, Vampire Hunter, and not Dr. Douchebag. Also, having everything being guided by a big evil conspiracy is kind of cliche. I don't think I'm going to be watching any more. (Also, I looked up the plots for the books and they get pretty cracked out.)
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# ? Jul 15, 2014 23:22 |
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Yeah, I admit the thought of an underground Vampire Conspiracy sounds trite and boring, but I did like the way certain moments were filmed in the pilot so I'm giving it a try. It has to be better than, say, Falling Skies.
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# ? Jul 15, 2014 23:34 |
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zVxTeflon posted:Is this gonna have a buncha corporate vampire poo poo like Blade or Underworld or whatever the gently caress? First episode was interesting except for every time they cut to the highrise vampire guy pulling the plot strings with his minions or whatever. That part was crap The majority of vampires are like the ones in the morgue scene.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 00:02 |
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CVagts posted:I watched the pilot, and it was intriguing enough that I kinda want to track down the books. The show seems filled with cliches though, cliches that seem like they wouldn't be in the book version. Everything in the pilot is directly from the book, and the book is jam-packed with cliches. zVxTeflon posted:Is this gonna have a buncha corporate vampire poo poo like Blade or Underworld or whatever the gently caress? First episode was interesting except for every time they cut to the highrise vampire guy pulling the plot strings with his minions or whatever. That part was crap The vampires in The Strain are just the super vampires from Blade 2 with the serial numbers filed off. All the shadowy corporate stuff happening with Richie Rich's dad is him collaborating with the super vampire in exchange for immortality, which as any reader of genre fiction will tell you is something that totally works out 100% of the time and never ends with the person being killed when they have outlived their usefulness.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 00:18 |
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I was really excited to see Andrew Divoff was in this and then sad when he was killed and his head smashed in, which makes me assume that is all for him on the show.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 00:26 |
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I read the first book when it first came out, I was on holiday in the UK's Southern Ireland equivalent (Cornwall). I spent most of the time teaching my dog to surf, which was actually hugely successful. The book however was cheesy and brain dead as gently caress, and yet I still finished it. Due in part to the first name pairing of Guillermo and Chuck on the expensive looking HB's cover. Also 'expanding on developing ideas' or something is business talk? Are they talking to the shareholders or the passionate fans?
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 00:50 |
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The dialog in this show is so, so bad and everyone's kind of an idiot. I guess I'll keep watching.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 01:00 |
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watching it now and walder frey is too intense
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 01:07 |
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You know what, I know this show is kinda dumb and cliché'd, but it's fun and I want to see how things go inevitably terribly wrong for everyone. Also there is this level of self awareness that can make shows really fun. I mean, first episode and we already have vampire virus maggots, zombies, nazi vampires, a "dead" plane, vampires that can't cross water, a huge ominous carved coffin and a deliciously evil corporation. Also corporate vampire remind me of Vampires : The Masquerade (barely tried the pen&paper RPG but loved Bloodlines) so that's always a plus.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 01:12 |
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muscles like this? posted:The majority of vampires are like the ones in the morgue scene. My assumption from the pilot was that the infection has one of two affects on you. The majority go all zombified like the 200+ who "died" but a small percentage of people adapt better like the 4 "survivors." The high rise vampires could just be the lucky minority.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 01:13 |
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Iseeyouseemeseeyou posted:watching it now and walder frey is too intense One the few good things about the show Not to mention it's hard not to enjoy Toro's barf bag worthy designs The vampire premise is somewhat eclectic too since they seem familiar to Stroker vampire such as having the special coffin/soil from the home land but the actual biology is due to scientific reasons not supernatural ones. etalian fucked around with this message at 02:01 on Jul 16, 2014 |
# ? Jul 16, 2014 01:50 |
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It's a self aware horror genre piece. I think the sloppy writing fits that perfectly.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 02:36 |
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sector_corrector posted:It's a self aware horror genre piece. I think the sloppy writing fits that perfectly. Yeah it has some strange tone changes going from lame divorce fight drama over to body horror worm busting goodness.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 02:47 |
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I'll give it a few more episodes, why not?
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 02:59 |
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The protagonists shrugging off the gigantic coffin engraved with skulls and filled with dirt was a pretty good tone setter for the series I think. If the show can consistently deliver stuff like the autopsy scene, then I'm in.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 06:23 |
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Frackie Robinson posted:The protagonists shrugging off the gigantic coffin engraved with skulls and filled with dirt was a pretty good tone setter for the series I think. If the show can consistently deliver stuff like the autopsy scene, then I'm in.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 06:43 |
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It probably helps that (1) I'm a Del Toro fanboy, and (2) I watched this immediately following the absolute shitheap that is Under The Dome, but I thought the pilot was excellent. Not the best ever, but I like the leads, and it's got plenty of spooky weird poo poo going on. I think it's got promise. I'm in.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 09:28 |
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STAC Goat posted:My assumption from the pilot was that the infection has one of two affects on you. The majority go all zombified like the 200+ who "died" but a small percentage of people adapt better like the 4 "survivors." The high rise vampires could just be the lucky minority. That was what I thought too. They're still super gross. Also that divorce crap was insufferable. Plus the main guy is kinda annoying I'll still watch for a whole, but I'll avoid eating while watching
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 11:04 |
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Hey man, Corey Stoll was great in House of Cards.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 11:20 |
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There's a difference between Corey Stoll and Corey Stoll in a hairpiece. He's more hairpiece now than man. (No, but seriously, that thing is distracting as hell. And I'm usually the one rolling my eyes at people who are just so proud of being able to identify when some random actor's hair happens to be a piece, even though it's not an issue unless you're looking for it.) Other than that though, I like the clichés. The show is embracing its genre. Good. It hits the beats you kinda see coming, but then gives it an enjoyable twist and/or it just works. Like that guy getting his face bashed in when he comes across the vampire/monster. You know he's hosed, but the show takes it a step further. Not-Van-Helsing shows he's a badass then goes to his secret lair to do something weird, except the weirdness is still pretty cool, so hey, I'll go with it.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 11:46 |
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Nick Rivers posted:I was really excited to see Andrew Divoff was in this and then sad when he was killed and his head smashed in, which makes me assume that is all for him on the show. Aw man, I thought he looked familiar. He made the first 2 wishmaster movies extremely watchable.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 11:48 |
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The pilot is solid, but the toupee on our dead congressman is just too ridiculous for words.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 13:49 |
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To be fair, I don't find it implausible that the character is going through a mid-life crisis and is actually using a hairpiece. Hopefully a vampire will rip it off in the next episode.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 14:14 |
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etalian posted:
As someone who's read the books I can tell you that the vampire mythology aspect is one of the coolest things about it. There's tons of references to traditional vampire stories all throughout but it always stays unique due to the scientific aspect of the "disease". There's also a major character that hasn't been introduced yet that should be awesome. Basebf555 fucked around with this message at 14:24 on Jul 16, 2014 |
# ? Jul 16, 2014 14:21 |
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So what sort of scale are we looking at here? It seems like it's already far, far to late to keep this contained. I enjoyed it. A few questionable things but this probably isn't a show that you try to think about too much or the whole thing unravels.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 15:26 |
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ufarn posted:Hey man, Corey Stoll was great in House of Cards. I love Corey Stoll, but I dunno... maybe he was as distracted by his ridiculous hairpiece as I was.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 15:36 |
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Welp I was going to make a thread about The Strain this morning (yay slow work day!) because I couldn't find one a few days ago. So, yay thread! Anyway, I really quite enjoyed it. Sufficiently spooky and gross and the female CDC chick is easy on the eyes. As long as the vampires don't get all sparkly and start wearing Victorian era clothing, I'm in. The little girl showing up outside her fathers door saying she was cold was creeeeeeeeeepy
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 15:42 |
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Tide posted:Welp I was going to make a thread about The Strain this morning (yay slow work day!) because I couldn't find one a few days ago. So, yay thread! It sounds like I'm the only one in here that read the books, and of course I won't spoil anything, but yea the story stays plenty dark and the vampires stay pretty scary and never veer into Twilight/Anne Rice territory. The books had a ton of great ideas in them, but the quality of the writing wasn't great, so I expect it will make a drat good T.V. show. In fact at the time the book covers featured Del Toro's name on them very prominently, so I remember thinking that he probably got involved with the project because he knew it was a great premise for a movie or t.v. show.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 15:47 |
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Basebf555 posted:It sounds like I'm the only one in here that read the books, and of course I won't spoil anything, but yea the story stays plenty dark and the vampires stay pretty scary and never veer into Twilight/Anne Rice territory. It was originally written as a TV series but Del Toro and Chuck Hogan couldn't find a network that would pay for it, so they did some rewrites to make it work as a book series and after getting on a few bestseller lists it became a safer bet to make into a TV show.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 16:43 |
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I wish they would rethink the awful hairpiece for Corey Stoll. He was was awesome in House of Cards but he looks so ridiculous here. What's wrong with having a balding leading man? He has a stressful job in the middle of a stressful divorce, it's not impossible. Anyway, I read the book and I know how cheesy and pulpy the story can be, so I'm enjoying the show. I mean it's FX, not HBO....lower your expectations a little and you'll have a good time
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 17:58 |
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Americans only want bald leading men when they are bad guys like Tony Soprano or Walter White. Corey Stoll wore a piece in Midnight in Paris and it looked ok. It's just a bad wig on this show.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 18:11 |
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Noirex posted:Anyway, I read the book and I know how cheesy and pulpy the story can be, so I'm enjoying the show. I mean it's FX, not HBO....lower your expectations a little and you'll have a good time Yeah, haven't read the books but I think I've found my Goldilocks level trash television for the summer.
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 18:53 |
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I'll probably keep watching it along with The Last Ship and Dominion as time fillers till something worth watching comes back on air vv
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 21:11 |
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I think Corey Stoll's wig is loving awesome, personally. It is as much of a character as Ephraim is. I dunno, I think it works perfectly for the type of character he's playing. The cocky CDC agent who drinks milk has to have obnoxious looking hair.
Cpt. Spring Types fucked around with this message at 22:52 on Jul 16, 2014 |
# ? Jul 16, 2014 22:47 |
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# ? Apr 19, 2024 03:22 |
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Cpt. Spring Types posted:I think Corey Stoll's wig is loving awesome, personally. It is as much of a character as Ephraim is. I dunno, I think it works perfectly for the type of character he's playing. The cocky CDC agent who drinks milk has to have obnoxious looking hair. the best mass media big wig since Trump's
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# ? Jul 16, 2014 23:14 |