THE STRAIN

Episode 1×02 “The Box”

Because of my school schedule and Law vacationing in France/Canadian France-Land, we couldn’t get a podcast going this week.  Instead, I’m covering the episode with a little review, because we here at BingeMedia pride ourselves on service above all else, and if we can’t shove some opinionated aural into your ear holes, we’ll write this shit down and make your eyes beg for more (puns intended).  Episode two was, noticeably, a lot of setup for later arcs, and that is to be expected in a show like this.  Much like The Walking Dead before it, The Strain is, in my opinion, our first real foray into vampire gore/drama, and there are certain concessions that need to be made to get this stuff on the screen, namely all the human drama littered throughout this episode.

While the book took its time mulling over the details of the airplane, there was something that irked me about this episode’s investigatory scenes.  I know we are following people on the hunt to discover whatever caused this incident, but there was something much more procedural about it in this episode, which is a turn for the worst.  Also, I have to say, all the time spent on Ef’s family life, his awkward handshake with his wife’s new boy-toy, and his explosion at his boss all seemed way out of character.  While Corey Stoll seemed like a great choice in the season opener, he delves into the cheesier side of things in this episode, which could be a bi-product of the fact that Guillermo DelToro didn’t direct this.  If this pattern continues with the series, I’m legitimately worried that the finer details and nuances of the book won’t be covered properly.  I’m not jumping the ship on the series yet, far from it actually, but the writing is really going to need to shine moving forward for all the characters, not just Abraham.  Speaking of Abraham…

What a great scene he and Eichorst had this week.  Stories that can describe and call upon a lineage or history always catch my attention, and the way this conversation was handled was really something special.  It takes great actors to elevate the standard “conversation-through-a-pane-of-glass-scene”.  Luckily, Bradley and Sammel are those guys.  In watching the scene, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the great Christoph Waltz from Inglourious Basterds, the way Sammel’s German accent juxtaposes some truly satisfying diction with cold and sinister content.  While Ef’s scenes were a good example of what the showrunners shouldn’t do going forward, this scene was a great template of what they should do from here on out.  Let’s hope they’re smart enough to see the difference.

We were also introduced to Kevin Durand’s Vasiliy, someone who will play a larger role as things play out.  I have a cat so I’m partial to any tough-guy character that has a cat.  In fact, my cat brings dead mice inside all the time, an act he gets treats for as a reward for protecting our homestead, so I can totally relate to this guy.  We don’t get much from him outside of that, save for a scene where he clears out a restaurant with some dead rats, but the casting is good and somewhat how I pictured him in the book.

The episode ends on a high point, showing some brutal carnage from our favorite undead little vampire girl killing her father.  The shot of the cloudy water filling with blood was a cool effect and something I look forward to seeing more of.  My only hope going forward is that we don’t take too long to reveal The Master.  I know how he’s handled in the book but I hate when shows like this tease us for 9-12 episodes only to reveal the big baddie in the finale.  That’s way too long a wait and I just want to see what he looks like, get a sense for what we’re dealing with.  Overall, I’m still aboard the Strain-train, I just have a little trepidation about it.  There’s enough good here for me to keep the faith, and keep the faith I shall.

RATING – 7 on 10