Review: The Strain – “For Services Rendered” S01,E07

“I give you another day of life, Jew…for services rendered.” – Thomas Eichorst (Richard Sammel)

One of the things that really elevates “For Services Rendered” is the dynamic between the former Nazi/current vampire Eichorst and Holocaust survivor/vampire hunter, Abraham Setrakian (David Bradley/Jim Watson).

Though the relationship was hinted at back in “The Box” and expanded upon in flashbacks in “The Runaways“, “For Services Rendered” crafts an excellent tale regarding the two adversaries. Thanks to the juxtaposition between flashbacks in the concentration camp and the modern day pursuit of Eichorst by the ever expanding team of heroes (which now includes Sean Astin’s Jim), we’re treated to just how deeply connected the two are.

Back in “The Runaways”, I complained about how ineffective the flashbacks were. While they revealed information, they were more intrusive to the overall story than they should have been and seemed out of place. In “For Services Rendered”, however, writers Bradley Thompson and David Weddle have deftly interwoven them into the present day tale, helping to move the action and plot forward even though the events happened 70 years ago. Adding to the great dialogue is the chemistry between the actors. Sammel, who is always fantastic, portrays two different types of monsters here with equal success. He’s no less threatening as a Nazi commander taunting the young Abraham (a similarly superb Jim Watson) as he is a powerful vampire nearly killing the elder Abraham (David Bradley, excellent as always) later in the episode. It’s great to see the writing rising to the level of the acting talent involved with The Strain. If the story between the two foes were the sole focus of “For Services Rendered”, it would still have been successful, but there’s oh so much more going on.

When the episode begins, the as yet unseen husband of Joan Luss (Leslie Hope) arrives home, only to be greeted by vampires lurking about outside. He narrowly escapes, but is attacked by his wife, unrecognizable after turning completely to a vampire while he was away. After the nanny and her daughter return with the Luss children (Chloe O’Malley and Jayden Greig), Joan and a few other vampires drive them into the wine cellar and she’s about to attack, but is killed by a spike to the head. Her assailant?

This mystery “man”.

Meanwhile, Jim’s wife is off to her cancer treatment and Gus (Miguel Gomez) is tossed in jail along with the infected Felix (Pedro Miguel Arce) but both storylines are wisely kept to a minimum of screen time to allow the other action to unfold.

If there’s one minor quibble I still have with The Strain, it’s that there are still too many characters, though the current forward momentum is starting to eliminate a lot of the unnecessary baggage. While I’ve enjoyed all of the actors in their roles, some of the characters stayed on long after needed, but that appears to be what I would assume is the fault of the writers failing to trim fat from the book adaptation. Perhaps they’ve realized that as much as you’d like to be faithful to the source material, it makes for better television to change as much as you can to avoid getting bogged down.

Finally, kudos have to be given to director Charlotte Sieling who helmed a very successful episode, not only maintaining a perfect pace, but for focusing on the strong performances of all actors involved. It’s worth noting that there’s one very impressive scene in the train station where Eichorst threatens Jim and the background noise drops out to a near silence before seamlessly introduced once again when Eichorst backs off. I was so impressed, I had to rewind it.

I’m hoping to continually be impressed as the season rolls toward the finale. If this high quality is maintained throughout, I might even find myself looking forward to next summer for reasons other than a respite from the harsh winter months! Congratulations to everyone involved with The Strain on the renewal to season 2.

He just looks cool so why not one more pic? Who IS that cloaked man?

The Strain – “For Services Rendered” grade: A

Review: The Strain – “Occultation” S01,E06

 “What I find fascinating is how love is considered a gift, a blessing…with no acceptance to the fact that it also binds, chokes and strangles.” — Thomas Eichorst (Richard Sammel)

The only characters in The Strain that have been wholly accepting of a potential threat from the very beginning are those without strong personal relationships. Abraham (David Bradley) learned long ago (an incident only briefly touched upon thus far in dialogue between him and Eichorst) how loving someone can blind you to true horror and Vasiliy (Kevin Durand) has been more of a loner (at least until this episode) whose eyes noticed strange occurrences almost immediately.

As for the others, well, they were slow to come around because they were more focused on their loved ones and, therefore, short-sighted to trouble.

Thematically, “Occultation” really brings that to the forefront, especially with Eichorst’s above statement because, while our main characters savor their personal relationships, they almost always lead to their downfall (if even only temporarily).

The episode opens not on New York, but high above the earth, where a satellite allows us to listen in on random chatter from across the city revealing concerns over the impending eclipse. People view this occultation as a portent of doom and with good reason; with the sun blocked, the creatures are free to roam about the city, spreading the infection faster.

Thankfully, the eclipse, while slightly contrived, is a godsend to The Strain because it also speeds up the overall momentum of the series. Our main characters’ arcs are starting to intersect–and rather seamlessly, I might add. Gus (Miguel Gomez) is both blackmailed and strong-armed by Eichorst into disposing of a body and Jim (Sean Astin) acts as his driver. Eph (Corey Stoll) and Nora (Mia Maestro) reunite at Abraham’s pawn shop where Abraham reveals that he has a new plan of attack.

Even Vasiliy is moving closer to the main group. When he returns to work, he discovers that his coworkers have been infected and are starting to turn. Even though he cares about them, he doesn’t hesitate to destroy them by tearing down the blinds and scorching them with sunlight. Hopefully, it won’t be long before both he and Gus join forces with the others.

Speaking of Vasiliy, I’m really impressed with the way the writers deftly wove his back story into the episode without beating us over the head with it. Through the conversation with his father, we discover that Vasiliy is highly intelligent (which was pretty much evident already) and, for some unknown reason, rejected a full scholarship at Cornell in architecture to become an exterminator.

Concise, descriptive exposition. You know, the blueprint for a successful scene.

Overall, “Occultation” is a complete 180 from the past two episodes, “Runaways” and “It’s Not For Everyone” in that it finally offers a great deal more progress story-wise than we’ve seen in weeks. If future episodes are as similarly structured and well written and directed (in this case, as in last week’s episode, by Robocop‘s Peter Weller), The Strain will conclude the second half of its freshman season in style.

The Strain – “Occultation” grade: A

Review: The Strain – “Runaways” S01E05

If “It’s Not For Everyone” seemed a little sluggish, then “Runaways” felt as if it moved at a snail’s pace or downright stopped.

By the fifth episode, we should see the action picking up, not slowing down, but the latest installment believes otherwise. Yes, we get to see the plot move forward a little, but “Runaways” is so scattershot in its approach, it’s barely noticeable.

Leslie Hope returns as Joan Luss (whose name I had to look up because it’s been so long since we’ve seen her that I’d forgotten the character’s name), still in the early stages where the vampires (or, as Abraham calls them, Strigoi) are kind of just sniffing people and thinking about sucking on their blood. I guess each victim’s metabolism plays a part in how rapid the vampiric (or Strigoic) changes take place. Or whatever. But, yeah, she’s still around threatening legal action against the airline and waiting to transform instead of maybe seeking medical attention.

Bolivar (Jack Kesy) is still in his lair and, thanks to his manager Ruby (Regina King) who serves up not one, but two meals, is doing okay for himself. Apparently, Ruby is totally fine with murdering a urologist and a clandestine “cleaner” who she enlists to cover up the crime. Other than Ruby, no one is the wiser to his issues. Eh, Eph (Corey Stoll) and Abraham (David Bradley) will get to him eventually but, until then, he’s still transforming and not seeking medical attention.

Speaking of Eph and Abraham, they finally arrive at Ansel’s house and find his wife hanging from the ceiling because she couldn’t live without Ansel (Nikolai Witschl) who is still in the shed feasting off the neighbor she tossed in there last episode. Eph and Abraham off them but Eph insists that he gets video proof so he can show it to the CDC (and presumably put it on YouTube where at least someone would believe him since the CDC doesn’t).

Eph and Abraham are slowed down, however, by unnecessary flashbacks to Abraham’s younger days in a concentration camp, a fact already established by the numbers on his arm. Did we really need to see Abraham’s first glimpse of a hooded creature feeding upon the others in the barracks to indicate Abraham has a past with what he dubs “the Master”? No, because the conversation between him and Eichorst (Richard Sammel) in prison was satisfactory as exposition.

As for Nora (Mia Maestro), who mysteriously abandoned Eph last episode…well she serves as this week’s Gus in a terrible storyline involving a visit to her mother. Her appearance in “Runaways” exists solely to underscore (with a bold marker, mind you) Abraham’s warning that the Master’s manipulations involve the already infected spreading the virus to the ones they love most.

We get it. We’ve gotten it for weeks now.

Unfortunately, the most promising of the 1700 storylines currently going on in The Strain is the one with Vasiliy Fet (Kevin Durand) who goes into the sewers investigating the rat problem and beats a hasty retreat after discovering a horde of vampires lurking about. If we could have spent more time with him and the horror ready to burst forth upon the city, it might have made “Runaways” a great episode instead of one that languishes in too much idle chatter.

The Strain – “Runaways” grade: D

Review: The Strain – “It’s Not For Everyone” S01E04

Is it just me or is “It’s Not For Everyone” the first episode of The Strain that felt a little sluggish?

The hour started off promising, picking up exactly where “Gone Smooth” left off, with Eph (Corey Stoll), Nora (Mia Maestro), and Jim (Sean Astin) standing over the pilot’s corpse. The team decides to perform an autopsy on him and discover a lack of genitals, dried organs within the body cavity, and a new set of organs designed to better propel the “stinger” (i.e. the parasitic mechanism used to drink blood) forward. Eph concludes that the creature uses the mechanism to “reproduce and consume its host”.

Then Jim drops the bombshell that he allowed the box to pass through unchecked so it could leave the hospital safely in return for money to pay for his wife’s cancer treatment. Eph does the first logical thing he’s done thus far and punches him.

Meanwhile, Ansel’s wife, Ann-Marie (Alex Paxton-Beesley), who previously took their kids away from him at his request, returns to find their dog mutilated and strange thumps coming from the shed. She discovers Ansel (Nikolai Witschl) inside, dried blood around his mouth and neck chained to prevent him from attacking her. He tells her to get away for her own safety as he’s fully aware something terrible is happening to him.

Ann-Marie at first seems like kind of an idiot, wandering around in a stupor instead of maybe alerting authorities to his condition. Then she runs into an arrogant neighbor who confronts her about the noises in the shed and she encourages him to go in and quiet what he believes is the dog. The best part about the scene was watching blood run out of the bottom of the shed and onto the white snow below.

Somewhere across town, Eldritch Palmer (Jonathan Hyde) arranges for all cell and internet communication to be basically shut down so that contact within and out of the city is impossible. Not a bad move and a nice plot point to hamper our heroes. However, it didn’t really need to be mentioned more than once unless the woman he hired is going to return at some point.

For some reason, there was an inordinate amount of focus on Gus (Miguel Gomez) and his family which basically brought the episode to a standstill. I like the characters but seeing him and his friend Felix (Pedro Miguel Arce) just hanging out and committing crimes isn’t really adding to the momentum of the overall story. It’s almost as if they wandered in from a different show. If Gus is to become part of the team that confronts the evil, the writers need to come up with a way to get him there fast.

The episode ended on a somewhat positive note as Eph and Nora finally meet up with Abraham (David Bradley) when they investigate Emma’s house and find that she and her father are now vampires. While it’s nice that at least part of the team is coming together, Nora inexplicably declines to join the two even though she sought out Abraham’s help in the first place. Eph informs her that their job is to investigate and eliminate threats but she’s not really on board with any project that involves hunting and killing humans (though it’s been made pretty clear to her that these beings aren’t human anymore). It’s also stretching a bit of credibility that Eph is suddenly a complete believer in all things vampire but maybe he’ll have second thoughts next week.

Perhaps titling the episode “It’s Not For Everyone” was prophetic because, for the most part, it wasn’t for me. There were some strong elements in the hour, but too much valuable time was wasted on story arcs slowing down a show that was just starting to gain some traction. In the end, I could possibly look back and see that these scenes were necessary, but I’m betting they’re not at all important to the season.

The Strain – “It’s Not For Everyone” grade: C-