The Strain

The Strain reifies its connections between political and melodramatic themes with the gory action for which the series is best known--the monsters’ neck-piercing six-foot tongues, the silver bullets’ exploding effects--in kitschy evidence during the battle against that takes up the bulk of the storage facility scene.

Some of the situations--the tension between Eph and his son, Zach (Max Charles, replacing Ben Hyland); a new romance between Vasiliy and Dutch--are dull plot stretchers, setting up future crises and filling time until the story lines mesh. Or so we can hope. Meanwhile, the show still gets the tone mostly right and offers consistent pleasure in its details.

The fun here comes without that extra layer of philosophical fanaticism. In that sense, The Strain is an enjoyable (and sufficiently sicko) episodic diversion.

The Strain knows how to to gross. It needs to get better at the engrossing part. [24 Jul 2015, p.50]

The Strain continues to rely too much on action and not enough on compelling character development. The uneven results are entertaining but hardly infectious.

The Strain has a single narrative line stretching across both seasons, but it is composed of numerous subplots that are fed to us in really brief dribs and drabs. It lacks the epic weight and scope such an ambitious premise needs.