The Strain

Is anyone else watching this show? Am I the only one who thinks it's the best thing since Citizen Kane? Ok, not really, but I like it quite a bit. The last episode, however, ended on such a high note that I began to wonder whether or not there are duders who are in love with it as much as I am. What do you guys think of this show? Has anyone out there seen tonight's show and also read the book I Am Legend?

Edit: This thread might be a little light on room for conversation, so I wrote a crappy blog review of this episode. You guys can skim that if you feel like talking about The Strain. Or you can just let this thread die and I'll sit in my room crying about how the internet doesn't want to talk about TV with me.

Been watching it, and it's been pretty entertaining so far!

@bleshoo: Well did you see tonight's?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

@slaps2: Not yet, going to be watching it in a few minutes though.

@bleshoo: Oh my god! Fucking watch it. The ending is great.

@slaps2: I'll report back when I've watched it!

I'm now two episodes behind as of tonight, but this show is pretty excellent.

My cousin and I love the show. Kind of forgot it was Sunday and tonight was another episode but I don't have a cable box in my room so I'll be watching it later today (Monday).

Huh. I'm not sure what to make of tonight's episode. It was certainly interesting.

@bleshoo: Every episode leaves me saying to myself, "Oh, man! I can't wait to see what they do with that next week!" but it isn't until an episode later until I realize that I was a little disappointed. I want next week's show to be all about vampire SWAT. Those guys were fucking cool as hell.

Does it get any better after the first episode. My wife and I watched the pilot and we both thought it was pretty terrible.

@horseman6: If you read my crappy blog, you might get a good idea of it. #shamelessplug That's the long answer. For the short answer, look up the title for episode 4.

I haven't seen tonight's show yet, but thought it's worth mentioning that I've read that book and also the book this show is actually based on (The Strain) and find little correlation between the two outside of the rudimentary concept of, you know, vamp apocalypse.

But yeah, the show is awesome for your average horror nut like me. The effects have maintained a level of quality I haven't seen in ages from a TV-show. Though I'd dare say to @horseman6 that this show doesn't really change that much as it goes along; it's horror nonsense from the get go and remains that way. No real high drama to be found here. If that isn't your thing, don't bother watching it further.

(SPOILER FOR TONIGHT'S SHOW)

It's been a good four or five years since I read it, but I seem to remember vampire SWAT appearing in both. That's what I was getting at. Entertainment needs more vampire SWAT.

I've been watching it, and I enjoy it for the most part, but then there are certain moments where people act way to damn stupid and I'm like "you wouldn't say that.Just Fucking stop."

That being said, I really like the new take on the Vampirism. It makes things much more realistic and unsettling as well. I mean, it's not scary, but it's definitely unnerving and uncomfortable. I also like the diverse cast too, seems to me that at some point these guys will become a team. Personally I love Vasily and Abraham the most, I mean a Russian rat hunter and a jewish vampire slayer? How can you not like that?

Furthermore, the antagonism between Abraham and Thomas Eichorst is fantastic;it's so much more personal now that Thomas use to be a Nazi in the past, and I absolutely Iove that they do their business gracefully; It's like they have this "I'm to old for this shit" attitude. It's hilarious and awesome.

Can't wait to watch the latest episode. Will give my thoughts on it later on.

Honestly, I think the show is pretty fucking silly.... but I like it just for that reason. Can't wait to see a luchador dropping vamps.

Don't forget the Russian! :D

I thought that guy was Ukrainian ?

He is? My mistake.

@theacidskull: Yeah he mentions that his family was from Ukraine but left.

Just finished watching the latest episode. Absolutely loved it. Maybe it's the Thomas/Abraham dynamic that really won me over, I mean, every scene they are together in is an absolute blast. It's intense, interesting and just plain fun. I was really worried for a second that Thomas was going to die, which would kill off one of the main attractions of the show. And also HOLY FUCK what an awesome ending. A Vampire team who exterminates vampires? Awesome.

Though again, I'm surprised at how unwilling the main characters loved ones are to listen to what people tell them. Why would a person who loves you, lie to you and make up such ridiculous excuse? Sure It's understandable if you don't buy it right away, but I'd at least consider the possibility when 4 people in the room are telling the same story. I would get if it the circumstances supported the possibility that the claims are just jokes, but they don't. Also, if they aren't going to explore Gus's story to a certain degree, they shouldn't really show small bits of what's going on with him.

Yeah, I must have missed it.

I dont know, I want to like the show but its just not clicking with me. I do enjoy it, and will definitely keep watching, but part of me is just kinda not that interested in it. I guess I dont really care for most of the cast. Eph is ok, as are the German (prob best char by far), and Abraham, but the rest of the cast kinda sucks. The rat catcher has some potential too. The supporting chars/small roles just dont feel very compelling. I know most of that is fast paced set ups for background, but still. If nothing else its still good to see a new show that is trying for something more, and isnt run of the mill tv BS. Wonder if the books are better?

I just watched the latest episode "loved ones", probably one of the worst installment yet. The Hacker girl or whatshername is a fucking moron.

how dare you mention I am legend in the same topic as the strain

I've read both and one is mediocre pulp and one is actually literature, and yes I am a snob, sue me!

@azrailx: It was very clearly a comparison of content, not quality. BUT! If you're going to book snob me, you should know that I Am Legend was not the most well received book in the world. To quote Wikipedia quoting someone else:

The book is full of good ideas, every other one of which is immediately dropped and kicked out of sight. The characters are child's drawings, as blank-eyed and expressionless as the author himself in his back-cover photograph. The plot limps. All the same, the story could have been an admirable minor work in the tradition of Dracula, if only the author, or somebody, had not insisted on encumbering it with the year's most childish set of "scientific" rationalizations.

If you need more convincing, know that "Robert Neville" is an anagram for "terrible novel". Even Richard Matheson had a low opinion of his book. Though it's been adapted a small handful of times by filmmakers, it is not necessarily a seminal piece of literature.