This is one of those things that I like in spite of myself. The franchise is somewhat schizophrenic, in that it really can't make up its mind what it wants to be. Sometimes it reads and views like a Michael Crichton story, and other times, it's straight-up supernatural horror. Usually it meanders a crooked path between the two extremes, but erratically.
I'm an old-school monster fan, especially for the gang of misunderstood ne'er-do-wells commonly referred to as the Universal Monsters, and their associated friends. These concepts have all been told and retold over and over, to the point of stagnation. So when a new take on a familiar idea comes along, I'm usually receptive to a fresh approach. In this particular case, the story draws very heavily on Dracula-inspired concepts, but instead of starting from a supernatural angle, The Strain introduces vampires to you as the result of a disturbingly efficient plague, carried by tiny worms which are transmitted by the infected.
The basic premise: a vampire (called 'The Master') travels to America aboard an airliner, whose passengers are all infected in flight. The infection kills and reanimates the host, and also reconfigures the body, making it susceptible to sunlight and silver, but also giving it strength, agility, and a need to feed on human blood, via a truly disgusting retractable prehensile stinger that shoots out from the throat (in lieu of fangs). Two epidemiologists, a ratcatcher, a hacker, and an aged European professor who's been hunting the Master for decades team up to try and stop the plague, and when that fails, attempt to destroy the Master himself. Along the way, they discover powerful human collaboration with the vampires, but also gain a few unlikely allies. The series gets progressively darker, and heads into a nightmarish future two years down the line where the Master has effectively conquered everything save a few holdouts.
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| The Master: Love Child of Skeletor and Voldemort, raised by Dracula. |
Let me start with the books. The concept is really neat, and approaching vampires in the scientific context of a contagion is an interesting and logical way to reinvent the idea. There are several core characters who are likable enough, and the backstory and mythology of the series are compelling. The premise starts out well, but devolves quickly, into a predictable chain of events that comes closer and closer to traditional Dracula as it progresses. Most of the characters end up being more two-dimensional than they deserve to be, and the shifting narrative viewpoints, coupled with minor characters being introduced only to be killed off a short time later, robs the story of a significant amount of impact. Additionally, as the story goes on, the science falls away and becomes more of a supernatural thriller than anything else. Instead of being exciting, it just ends up being kind of depressing and obvious...though the eventual ending is at least satisfying.
The second season of the adaptation, which carries us through most of the second novel in the trilogy, just ended, and I have to say that thus far, I like the show better than the books. In fairness, the Strain was originally intended to be a TV series, but was turned into a novel series when Del Toro couldn't find a buyer. That definitely explains a lot of the narrative discordance, as well as the rather cinematic descriptions, but frankly, I feel it just works better on screen.
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| Corey Stoll and David Bradley as Dr. Seward and Professor Van Helsing....er...Dr. Goodweather and Professor Setrakian, rather. |
For one thing, you've got a really solid ensemble of character actors at work, many of whom have a lot of prior experience in the realms of geek culture. Corey Stoll (Ant-Man) and Mia Maestro (Alias) play the two doctors at the center of the outbreak, guided by David Bradley (the Harry Potter series, Game of Thrones) as Abraham Not-Quite-Van-Helsing Setrakian. Also appearing are Kevin Durand (Lost, X-Men Origins), Jonathan Hyde (The Mummy, Jumanji), Natalie Brown (Being Human), and in the first season, Sean "Samwise" Astin. (Duh.) All of the characters benefit from a greater fleshing-out (pardon the pun) on screen, and the writing elaborates on the concepts on the book, allowing for richer development and less stereotypical protagonists.
Actually, the show does itself a favor by dramatically upping the roles of a number of minor characters in the books. Astin & Hyde's characters, while important, have fairly minor page time in the books, but are much more interesting in the show. Thomas Eichorst (Richard Sammel), who appears as a Nazi commandant turned vampire lieutenant, is an utterly evil and unapologetically over-the-top SOB, but Sammel is so clearly enjoying himself in the role that it's hard not to have fun watching him. His character is hugely prominent on the show, but is relatively minor in the series, appearing periodically in scenes in about half of the second book. Ruta Gedmintas plays Dutch Velders, a hacker who's become increasingly important on the show, and her character doesn't even exist in the novels.
All that said about the cast, however, there's an exception. At some point, I shall write an entry about my hatred of the Child in Danger trope, but for now, I shall content myself by saying that Zack Goodweather, the 11-year old son of the protagonist, is an absolute piece of vampire dropping. As TV kids go, even by that scale, he's a whining, smirking, eye-rolling idiotic, ungrateful, useless waste of space whose contributions include: being a pill, endangering the bona fide heroes of the series, and complaining. The character is no better in the books, but on the series, Zack (played by Ben Hyland in Season 1 and Max Charles in Season 2) is a completely unlikable drain on the show. The problem is, he is regrettably a focal character, and characters make decisions based on Zack that end badly and drag the show down. Worse, the relationships with the kid are so artificial, they strain credulity. I'd have just let the vampires have him.
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| Black is the new Black: Kevin Durand, Mia Maestro, Ruta Gedmintas and David Bradley |
I should point out that the show is extremely graphic - violence is intense and on full display. Not only that, but the very nature of the vampires themselves are really disturbing...the writhing worms, the blood vomit, the enormously unsettling stingers that eject from the strigoi's mouths...not images for the faint-hearted. The original poster for the series actually featured one of the worms entering a victim's eye, and so many people complained that they had to redo the design...see above. These are not charming vampires, but that's actually one of the things I like about the show. To my mind, vampires should be scary, dangerous, and unsettling. Over the years, there's been an increased demand for sexed-up vamps, which led us to the unfortunate but probably inevitable genre nadir that is the masturbatory excretion known as Twilight. So as much as these vampires have a good deal of phallic imagery going on, there's nothing about them that's sexually appealing - which I find a refreshing change. I would add that the effects are quite solid, overall - which is only a propos, given its home channel.
The show is doing a better job, thus far, of highlighting the scientific elements of the story, but the supernatural elements are slowly creeping in with greater frequency. As much as I like most of the characters - and while the dialogue stays on point - the plotting is starting to meander, and my hope is that the third season will be able to keep the central characters in focus and on topic, rather than indulging in excesses that do nothing but spin the wheels. Backstory and development are all well and good, but getting bogged down in phony relationships that have little bearing on the plot (such as Dutch's ex-girlfriend) ultimately accomplish nothing and slow down the show. To be fair, it appears the writers are not afraid of jettisoning the book when it suits them - the end of the second season saw the continued survival of one character who didn't make it in the book, and the 'shocking' death of another character who survives until the end of the novel series. It does appear the show is learning to improve itself over its source material, which is why I'm enjoying the show more than I did the books.
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| The Master needs your help procuring an item - it's small, gold, and lights up in a fire.... |
The creators say they plan for a five-season run, which strikes me as overly ambitious, at least based on the plot in the books. Should they choose to go in a different direction, maybe they can stretch it out, but I'd hate to see them do that just for the sake of longevity. Better to tell a tighter, more coherent story than spin it out indefinitely. When Season 3 starts next summer, we'll see how closely they adhere to the novels, but with the way the last season ended, I won't be surprised if they improvise a bit. I'm okay with that - much like Game of Thrones, it's nice to know that the series still has potential to surprise you, even if you have read the source material. That way, you can discuss it without being a know-it-all about what's coming. You know - be a pill, a brat....
....a pain in the neck.
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| The main cast & showrunners. They never smile this much on the show. They must like my stupid puns. |
