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 The Strain is a gross little show on FX about Vampires. No, not the sexy vampires of True Blood & Twilight (We miss you, Eric Northman.), but worm infested, mouth tentacle , pale and gross vampires. A head vampire called 'The Master' has landed in New York and decided it's time to gently caress poo poo up - start ing with a plane, full of victims. There will be some spoilers ahead.  Vampires The Vampires on this show are controlled by The Master, one of the ancients (They're also called Strigoi). Basically, you get one worm inside you, it'll replicate and they'll rewrite your DNA until it kills you. That is if a vampire doesn't suck you dry first. In which case you're dead and the worms reanimate you. We had some pretty gross infections so far, but the eye infection is probably the worst. Basically unless you're needed by The Master, you're his pawn, you lose your hair, your genitalia drops off (It isn't needed anymore), you start blinking vertically and you get a big loving retractable stinger in your throat. So, that means you can't really talk anymore. Eventually your nose drops off and your hand become claws. But most vampires are then driven by the desire to infect their loved ones and suck them dry. What'll destroy them? Sun, silver or destroying the brain.  The Master - He's old as gently caress, full of worms and can control his underlings. He can also choose to give his underlings their mind back. At the end of Season 1, he took a sunbaking and now his body is failing. Which body will he transfer into? We'll find outtttt!!!! Eichorst - This fucker was a Nazi, turned by The Master at the end of the war. He"'s been loving with Setrakian for decades (He was in a concentration camp) but mainly does The Master's bidding. He wears a shitton of makeup to try and appear human. He's a magnificent bastard.   Palmer - He's basically Rupert Murdoch. He's got moeny to spare, controls the media and wants immortality. He's helping stop the spread of information and helping The Master. In return for becoming immortal, that is. The Master rewarded him with some blood (No worms there!) at the end of Season 1 which rejuvinated his ailing old body and now he's all spritely. He still wants the worms though, Douchebag supreme.  Kelly - ExWife of Eph. Kelly's new fiance got infected. She fought back and unfortunately had a worm burrow through her eye and infect her. After turning she killed her bestie and her son on the search for Zack. She got shot by Eph at the end of Season 1 and ran away to recover. The Master has recently given her personality back to track her son, and therefore Eph and the vampire hunters.  On the side of the humans who've figured out there's a vampire apocalypse going on are: Setrakian - Jewish carpenter tortured in a Nazi concentration camp by Eichorst. His brother was killed by the master. After he escaped, he got a wife. Unfortunately his wife was turned by The Master. He killed her, cut out her infected heart and put it in a jar. He's full of information on the vampires and trying to kill them off. He's angry, impulsive and ever so tired. Oh and he has a heart condition.  Eph A CDC Doctor who tried to call the alarm on this pandemic, he soon found himself discredited, arrested by the police and on the run. Thanks for a vampire attack though, he escaped those FBI bastards. Eph has a super annoying son. He also had a fling with Nora, his co-worker. Eph failed to save his ex-wife, Kelly from infection. He's a sciency guy who doesn't believe in the mythology of the vampires. He's started drinking, because why not. Everyone also hated his wig back in Season 1. I don't know why.  Nora - Nora is also a CDC doctor but she's super boring. She believed Eph and wants to save everyone. She had a mum with alzheimers who got infected in Season 1, so she cut her head off to stop her turning. Oh, and she had a one-off with Eph.  Dutch - Dutch is one of the two most interesting characters on the show. She was paid by Palmer and convinced by Eichorst to bring down the intarwebs. Errywhere. With the help of a hacker group and a six-figure payout, she did this. After running into Eph and his crew at a doomed gas station, she admitted her part in the downfall of NY and tried to fix it. Her girlfriend (?) took off on her, so she's not fussed about that. She also helped Eph get broadcast on tv to help the people of NY understand what's going on.  Fet - Fet's the other super interesting character. A vermin exterminator turned vampire exterminator. He has a father/son relationship with Setrakian but loves his crowbar most of all. He gets poo poo done.  Zack - He is the worst loving character. Last seen throwing knives, bitching about his soda being hot and getting angry at his dad, Eph that his mum is now a vampire. He's now whinging that his mum is totes okay. Dumbass.  And then we have The Ancients Some other gross vampires who are against The Master. They're mostly asleep when not eating and get this half-vampire dude to get their work done for them. Some people are saying he's Quinlan from the novels, but the creators are playing coy. Gus however, got caught up doing some jobs for Eichorst which helped the initial infection spread. He spent Season 1 having his family infected, killing his family. Getting locked in jail with his infected friend, killing him and escaping custody. He was then saved by Quinlan and seems to be working with the Ancients for now. Who knows why.   
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Jul 19, 2015 11:26
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| # ? Apr 16, 2024 05:51 |
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It's probably cool to hatewatch this show or whatever but I unironically like it. One of my favorite shows on tv. I read the first book too, it was pretty good, but it mirrored the whole first season enough that I'm putting off reading further till after Season 2. One little problem is the math for Setrakian is starting to not work out...the original book came out 6 years ago, and he was in his 80s. As a guy who was in a concentration camp in his 20s, he's now in his 90s which makes him running around with a sword a bit of a stretch. Some guys in their 80s are still a bit spry but people tend to become very frail at 90. He's a badass character though. A Nazi Vampire as his nemesis is a great idea too, and Eichorst brings evil in spades. I also love the way they combine the myths and supernatural origins of vampires with Eph trying to fight them with science.
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Jul 19, 2015 13:18
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The first episode of this season was boring as poo poo which says a lot considering that my expectations couldn't be lower.
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Jul 19, 2015 16:43
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Eph's hair is much better and Nora is still hot as balls.
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Jul 20, 2015 01:40
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Young Boy, where are my cig-gar-rets!?
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Jul 20, 2015 01:43
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Ah poo poo, the Master is gonna take Fet as his new body isn't he?
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Jul 20, 2015 01:52
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Rhyno posted:Ah poo poo, the Master is gonna take Fet as his new body isn't he? Looks more like he's going to take the rockstar
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Jul 20, 2015 03:09
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Season 2, first episode is free on Google Play right now: https://play.google.com/store/tv/show?id=E21PWz5u1Ag&cdid=tvseason-Onbt_eBlh-NwPP_aS5x68w&gdid=tvepisode-zcsAjMINHgs&hl=en
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Jul 20, 2015 04:20
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Oh, what a weird name to spot in the credits: Nigel Bennett, Prince of Lexx, is on this episode.
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Jul 20, 2015 05:49
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Kid is even awfuller than the one last season 
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Jul 20, 2015 06:05
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A good episode, how about that?
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Jul 20, 2015 06:28
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I like this show.
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Jul 20, 2015 06:29
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DarklyDreaming posted:Looks more like he's going to take the rockstar I totally forgot about him and the others from the plane.
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Jul 20, 2015 08:11
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Brick Card posted:Kid is even awfuller than the one last season At this point they should just kill him off, just "sorry Eph, but your son stepped on a vampire landmine covered in worms, he was instantly infected and had to be put down sorry", then never mention him ever again. Last season kid was absolutely insufferable and this one is just as bad.
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Jul 20, 2015 13:00
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Brick Card posted:Kid is even awfuller than the one last season I have no idea why they recasted that kid.... The kid from last season was fine.
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Jul 20, 2015 16:55
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I was thinking, wouldn't taking colloidal silver like those weird alternative medicine nuts be a pretty good vaccine against the worms? It turns you blue over time but I figure being blue is better than being a mindless minion.
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Jul 20, 2015 19:30
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Kung Food posted:I was thinking, wouldn't taking colloidal silver like those weird alternative medicine nuts be a pretty good vaccine against the worms? It turns you blue over time but I figure being blue is better than being a mindless minion. They're pretending colloidal silver is not a thing in this series. It's a shame, because I want blue-skinned vampire hunters.
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Jul 20, 2015 20:16
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Apoplexy posted:They're pretending colloidal silver is not a thing in this series. It's a shame, because I want blue-skinned vampire hunters. the head hunter could be papa smurf
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Jul 21, 2015 00:22
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I imagine more like a combination of Colossus and Nightcrawler of X-Men fame.
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Jul 21, 2015 00:24
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Good to see the show still vacillates from great moments and good dialogue in spots to utter tripe, green screen shots that look like The Room and managing to find a kid even MORE annoying and insufferable than the last one. And HOLY gently caress the dialogue they give that kid.. what the christ is even happening. And it's like they light his face to put another kid's face on it in CG, the face is just floating there on a shadow neck and skull it's so loving odd. Oh yeah, and that vacillation? Multiple times in the same episode. Never change, Guelrielsomo Del Tornros The Strain.
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Jul 21, 2015 00:38
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Young Abraham looked like a 25 year old wearing 60 year old man makeup.
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Jul 21, 2015 00:40
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Oh, and I'm glad they decided that Dutch is bisexual. She's awesome and one of the best characters, the others being Setrakian and Vasiliy. edit: Oh, and Quinlan and Gus are up there, but they're hardly main characters even. Their screen time needs a bump up this season, we've only seen each of them for a few seconds, damnit!
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Jul 21, 2015 00:52
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I'm really glad they managed to bring 9/11 into the show this season.
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Jul 21, 2015 07:37
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Apoplexy posted:Oh, what a weird name to spot in the credits: Nigel Bennett, Prince of Lexx, is on this episode. Actually spotting Nigel Bennett, Lacroix from Forever Knight, gave me a happy giggle.
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Jul 21, 2015 07:55
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The protagonists are nearly all stupid, boring, and clueless, but god I can't not watch this show because the vampires (okay except for the Master, who loving approved that poo poo) are cool as hell. Plus I always have fun playing Spot the Doug Jones in a del Toro production. This show would be perfect if it was just about people killing gross vampires instead of crappy romance and annoying kid drama and also sometimes they kill vampires.
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Jul 21, 2015 17:29
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I'm binging through the first series and this is actually quite compelling? The characters aren't stupid and the vague 'there's a media blackout/eclipse/the internet is hosed' excuse holds out well enough for the drama to not feel ridiculous. The blonde bisexual model cum super hacker should be terrible but she's actually growing on me. The first few episodes definitely worked better for the budget though. Heading into the end of the series a few big scenes of mass infection feel obnoxious in their absence. The show unambiguously saying "its love, love is the main thematic point here" in the first episode helps it all hang together too.
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Jul 21, 2015 21:53
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A lot of people bagged on it but I really enjoyed the first season. I can't really put my finger on why, it didn't like blow my socks off, but it was the show I was looking forward to weirdly most every week. It's not great all the time, but there's a lot of neat stuff here and I think the mythology of the monsters is pretty neat and I do love that they are "disgusting vampires". I read the books and enjoyed them but that was just because I kept picking up the next one a year or two down the road the next time I took a flight. Decent airport fiction. Gonz posted:Young Abraham looked like a 25 year old wearing 60 year old man makeup. Yeah, he looked... off? I really liked how he looked in the concentration camp (that sounds terrible), and I couldn't tell if it was the same actor or not just with a lot of costuming and makeup and what not. BlackJosh fucked around with this message at 22:01 on Jul 21, 2015 |
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Jul 21, 2015 21:59
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It confused me that the guy that was obviously asian had a very white dad?
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Jul 21, 2015 23:50
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Apoplexy posted:Oh, what a weird name to spot in the credits: Nigel Bennett, Prince of Lexx, is on this episode. drat. I wouldn't have recognized the Prince without the heads up. He's still the best  Also they seem to have gotten a new crew for making their combat scenes, they seem to be much more elaborate ala Hannibal than the runt of the barrel that was the first season.
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Jul 21, 2015 23:53
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My main complaint so far (besides the Master looking like the Toadwart of the Gummibears) concerns the vampire that infected that Piolish / Romanian noble Sardu; He was so cheap, it looked like a random actor covered in ill-fitting lycra overalls. I suppose they went for a loose skin effect, but it didn't work at all.
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Jul 21, 2015 23:57
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The kid is the loving worst holy poo poo. You know he's going to ruin everything for everyone.
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Jul 22, 2015 00:15
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GreenNight posted:The kid is the loving worst holy poo poo. You know he's going to ruin everything for everyone. No show should have kid characters, unless it's pure, straightforward family drama.
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Jul 22, 2015 00:17
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steinrokkan posted:No show should have kid characters FTFY. Middle-aged Setrakian looked awful. I don't think it was the same actor as the one in the concentration camp scenes, though I could be wrong. They couldn't find a more appropriately-aged actor and glued some hair onto his face?
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Jul 22, 2015 01:11
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show is best for the body horror moments and worst for all the cheesy family drama/forced infighting moments.
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Jul 22, 2015 01:16
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etalian posted:show is best for the body horror moments and worst for all the cheesy family drama/forced infighting moments. Oh, but Nora is as much of a character as the people who actually do things!
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Jul 22, 2015 01:20
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steinrokkan posted:drat. I wouldn't have recognized the Prince without the heads up. He's still the best To me, he is Nick Knights maker from forever Knight and always will be.
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Jul 22, 2015 02:22
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I thought the master looked good for what he was supposed to be. People with gigantism tend to have funny faces: 
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Jul 22, 2015 03:32
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I really enjoy this show, it's legitimately fun in my opinion. Eichhorst is the best character, I'm assuming at some point he's going to destroy Eldritch and it's going to be so satisfying.Whispering Machines posted:FTFY. Middle aged Setrakian I think is played by the same guy as young Setrakian, at least according to IMDB he is. The reason he looks bizarre is because he has a very obvious prosthetic nose to make him look more like old Setrakian. It's definitely off putting. The makeup and physical effects people clearly spent all their time on the vampires (which look amazing) and then took 5 minutes to give Setrakian a stupid nose and Eph a lovely wig.
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Jul 22, 2015 05:15
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maybe Eph will be reverse Samson, he gets more powerful as he loses hair.
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Jul 22, 2015 05:26
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Streebs posted:I really enjoy this show, it's legitimately fun in my opinion. Eichhorst is the best character, I'm assuming at some point he's going to destroy Eldritch and it's going to be so satisfying. Evil Nazi Vampire is a really fun bad guy to have. If I remember right from the books I think his character is much bigger in the show. I want to say Setrakian had already killed him back in like the 70s and he has no part in the modern day story in the books, but I haven't read them in awhile. The master looked a lot less goofy with half his face burnt off. BlackJosh fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Jul 22, 2015 |
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Jul 22, 2015 21:07
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