The Strain

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Mahes

Mahes

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Vvoid_sl said:
I had sort of blocked it out, but the rat catcher guy was far and away the best part of the first book. Glad they got someone big and imposing to play him.
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That was the best part of the 2nd episode.

I DVR skipped right through the AA meeting and the family time. It would more interesting to have the main character suddenly realize that he needs to take a shit. He walks into the bathroom, picks a toilet. The camera remains while we listen to the sounds. After about 5 minutes he comes out and washes his hands(This part is important as it serves to educate people of the importance of washing your hands). Then he rejoins his team with a remark about how he ate something that did not agree with him. The story progresses on. Not until later, does this scene become critical, as you find out that the worms enter the body multiply and the ovum are spread by feces through the water system.


Sigh...
 
Slaythe

Slaythe

<Bronze Donator>
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Mahes_sl said:
That was the best part of the 2nd episode.

I DVR skipped right through the AA meeting and the family time. It would more interesting to have the main character suddenly realize that he needs to take a shit. He walks into the bathroom, picks a toilet. The camera remains while we listen to the sounds. After about 5 minutes he comes out and washes his hands(This part is important as it serves to educate people of the importance of washing your hands). Then he rejoins his team with a remark about how he ate something that did not agree with him. The story progresses on. Not until later, does this scene become critical, as you find out that the worms enter the body multiply and the ovum are spread by feces through the water system.


Sigh...
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Wait, are you saying the vampires spread through recovering alcoholics?
 
Lanx

Lanx

<Prior Amod>
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this show is officially unbearable with family time and emo AA meetings.

rat catcher looks like a slayer candidate, maybe old jew van helsing will train him or something, then it'll be fun, but the ppl here are NBC stoopid.

oh look, manager of the airport or whatever he is, got watermelon smashed, it's cool, we live in JFK, no worries.

Nosferatu easily lifts a coffin away, it's cool, probably a security camera glitch

main guy somehow attracts hot ass, he's divorcing hot wife, and when he's done with her he'll have hot assistant girl as a fallback plan, while he bumblingly stumbles on this CDC case, note he's too stoopid to actual solve it, he's basically just waiting for vampires to rise up.

and why is every spanish gangster wannabe a 4th rate actor? i saw training day, i've seen how spanish thugs talk!
 
khorum

khorum

Murder Apologist
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Maybe Walder Frey trains the vato loco to be a mexican van helsing? He apparently married Lady Stoneheart so it wouldn't even be the biggest twist.
 
Cantatus

Cantatus

Lord Nagafen Raider
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Vvoid_sl said:
I had sort of blocked it out, but the rat catcher guy was far and away the best part of the first book. Glad they got someone big and imposing to play him.
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Sort of hard to tell from that introduction though. I mean, we basically just saw the guy doing his job. He was dropped into the episode completely inconsequential to anything else that was going on. I know from reading things online that he'll become a more major character eventually, but I found myself wondering why he was even in the episode. They should've saved him until he'd play more of a role in the main storyline.
 
Void

Void

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Cantatus_sl said:
Sort of hard to tell from that introduction though. I mean, we basically just saw the guy doing his job. He was dropped into the episode completely inconsequential to anything else that was going on. I know from reading things online that he'll become a more major character eventually, but I found myself wondering why he was even in the episode. They should've saved him until he'd play more of a role in the main storyline.
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Oh, I'm not saying his role in this episode was anything special, or even that good. He was just the best part of the book, and it gives me hope that he'll be decent because of the book and the actor.

I have to imagine they introduced him now (which is way earlier than the book) because they want to get any boost he might give the show now instead of later, and because TV viewers are dumb and saving him until the last few episodes would confuse a lot of people. But I'm actually fine with that change, because I'd rather watch an entire episode of him killing rats vs. AA meetings and custody battles.
 
Gravel

Gravel

Mr. Poopybutthole
40,339
133,675
This show is fucking terrible. I'll give it one more episode because it's Guillermo del Toro, but so far there's almost nothing positive to say about it.

I think the worst part is the forced character development with tired tropes like the custody shit and alcoholism. It's just bad.
 
Miguex

Miguex

The lad himself
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i'm ok with it so far, but i've been half drunk for both episodes. And I have little idea whats going on so far.
 
Oldbased

Oldbased

> Than U
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67,574
The Last Ship took #1 in viewers again this last week with twice as many viewers. Even Falling Skies did better than The Strain.
Personally I wanted this to do well but I agree this last episode was shitty. Even the dude letting his zombie daughter bite/kill him and the whole series has been like this.

Bunch of dead people on a plane, oh look a coffin that opens from the inside and full of dirt. Let's ignore that, oh wait some dude saying some supernatural force after seeing dead people for no reason and a coffin, he must be crazy. Oh look my dead daughter walked home from the airport, glad you are home honey! It goes on and on.

I mean if this actually was to happen, how many of you would ignore the possibility before going game over man, game over. We're all gonna die.
 
Gravel

Gravel

Mr. Poopybutthole
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To me it's just an amazing amount of people acting completely illogical. Take the plane survivors, where only the pilot acts rationally and thinks, "Maybe I should go to a doctor."

You're a lawyer, so let's just say you're moderately intelligent. You just got off a plane whereeveryonebut you and 3 other people died mysteriously. They try to quarantine you, but you start threatening to sue them so some reason. Ok, fine, we'll go with that. Then you leave quarantine and start having all sorts of crazy symptoms that something isn't right like a ridiculous ringing in your ears and strange bleeding. Time to consider the fact that maybe you're carrying something? Fuck no!

If it were just that one person acting like an asshat, I could buy it. But it's literally every single scene. You just see people taking these ridiculous leaps in logic to justify suspense.

Morgue not returning your calls despite the fact that there's a crazy pathogen you don't understand? They're probably just busy.
Two crazy old men talking about killing each other while in jail with a guard 5 feet away from each person? I dunno, I guess they don't care?
My daughter who was just dead (along with 200 others) walks home in the middle of the night, is acting like a fucking zombie, and even looks like one? She's probably got a tummy ache or something.

It's just infuriating. It's bad writing. Those are just small things, not the ones already pointed out like them waiving off the fact that a giant cabinet just goes missing and whatever else. Add in the forced drama with the main characters, and I just want to shake the shit out of everyone responsible for this crap. It's honestly insulting that this is the kind of shit we have to put up with, and they deserve to fail for fucking up so bad.
 
Void

Void

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Elurin_sl said:
To me it's just an amazing amount of people acting completely illogical. Take the plane survivors, where only the pilot acts rationally and thinks, "Maybe I should go to a doctor."

You're a lawyer, so let's just say you're moderately intelligent. You just got off a plane whereeveryonebut you and 3 other people died mysteriously. They try to quarantine you, but you start threatening to sue them so some reason. Ok, fine, we'll go with that. Then you leave quarantine and start having all sorts of crazy symptoms that something isn't right like a ridiculous ringing in your ears and strange bleeding. Time to consider the fact that maybe you're carrying something? Fuck no!

If it were just that one person acting like an asshat, I could buy it. But it's literally every single scene. You just see people taking these ridiculous leaps in logic to justify suspense.

Morgue not returning your calls despite the fact that there's a crazy pathogen you don't understand? They're probably just busy.
Two crazy old men talking about killing each other while in jail with a guard 5 feet away from each person? I dunno, I guess they don't care?
My daughter who was just dead (along with 200 others) walks home in the middle of the night, is acting like a fucking zombie, and even looks like one? She's probably got a tummy ache or something.

It's just infuriating. It's bad writing. Those are just small things, not the ones already pointed out like them waiving off the fact that a giant cabinet just goes missing and whatever else. Add in the forced drama with the main characters, and I just want to shake the shit out of everyone responsible for this crap. It's honestly insulting that this is the kind of shit we have to put up with, and they deserve to fail for fucking up so bad.
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You hit the nail on the head when you said bad writing. Because almost all of that is exactly how it was written in the book. They are just going with what the source material says, which for some reason people seem to rate highly, so you can't really blame the people making the show.
 
Void

Void

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Jesus. I quit after the first book just because I struggled with that one, but if I had known where they were going with it I would have never even started. By the looks of it, it will only get this one season, but now I can't help but hope they get another season to see some of this stuff. Although end of book 2/start of book 3 is apparently where it really gets fucking crazy, and I doubt they'll ever make it that far on TV.
 
Gravel

Gravel

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Vvoid_sl said:
You hit the nail on the head when you said bad writing. Because almost all of that is exactly how it was written in the book. They are just going with what the source material says, which for some reason people seem to rate highly, so you can't really blame the people making the show.
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My understanding was that they wrote the books specifically to be adapted into a TV show. So I'd imagine the same writers, or at least the book and show writers had major collaboration. If the source material is so piss poor though, why even bother adapting it? And even more, why adapt it directly as opposed to improving it? No matter the reason, it's still shit and I don't understand the writing.
 
Lanx

Lanx

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but how can writers be this dumb for a non nbc/abc show. i mean the only way for the story to move forward is if the main characters are utterly stupid. and no one is immune, heck i think back to it.

jew van helsing, recognizes the issues, decides to get his way through many levels of staff, only to then speak like an idiot when given the chance. he had no issue carrying on a full two way conversation with a heart, but when it was a possibility to expose the plot as the only person in the world that knows whats going on, he stammers like a retard and talks in riddles. And when that fails, fck it, burn them all burn them to hell!

we've all seen this type of bad writing b4, in all those bad abc/nbc shows, where the writers can't figure out a way to move the story forward, except to have everyone fumble about.
 
Cantatus

Cantatus

Lord Nagafen Raider
1,437
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Elurin_sl said:
To me it's just an amazing amount of people acting completely illogical. Take the plane survivors, where only the pilot acts rationally and thinks, "Maybe I should go to a doctor."

You're a lawyer, so let's just say you're moderately intelligent. You just got off a plane whereeveryonebut you and 3 other people died mysteriously. They try to quarantine you, but you start threatening to sue them so some reason. Ok, fine, we'll go with that. Then you leave quarantine and start having all sorts of crazy symptoms that something isn't right like a ridiculous ringing in your ears and strange bleeding. Time to consider the fact that maybe you're carrying something? Fuck no!

If it were just that one person acting like an asshat, I could buy it. But it's literally every single scene. You just see people taking these ridiculous leaps in logic to justify suspense.
Click to expand...
It's because the writers apparently got all of their characters after a night of reading TV Tropes. You have the brash but brilliant protagonist who is battling his own demons, the wizened old man no one listens to, the Nazi, the unrequited love interest, the bitch lawyer, the partying rockstar, the bureaucrat who just wants to sweep everything under a rug, etc. They're all hollow stereotypes we've seen a million times before. And even that wouldn't be so bad if they acted like actual human beings rather than set pieces that are just moved around to force the plot in a certain direction. It's some of the laziest writing I've seen in years.
 
TJT

TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
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The special effects are good. That will keep me watching it. The wife of that guy watching him drink steak blood out of the fridge with the vampire sucker and just casually walk off was hilarious though. Jesus, what would it take for that lady to call 911 or something?
 
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