"The Strain" Pilot: What the hell, Guillermo?

I was pretty excited for Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan's The Strain novel when it first came out. Blade 2 is one of my all-time favorite vampire/superhero films, and the premise of an ancient vampiric virus being unleashed onto Manhattan following a mysterious plane arrival at JFK sounded promising. Ultimately though, what could have been a Del Toro homerun, combining his imaginative storytelling with icky organic science, turned out to be an uneven careening mess. I made it through the second book, but never felt the need to finish the trilogy. Still, when the show was announced, I was reminded of all the cool visual moments the books contain and told myself that a good show could actually be extracted from the source material, especially since GDT is a visual storyteller first and foremost. Unfortunately, this doesn't appear to be the case and, if anything, the show's pilot is even weaker the novel itself.

Though it boasts a quality cast on paper ( Corey Stoll and David Bradley should make for compelling leads going forward), the secondary actors are cringe-worthy across the board. There are several points during the pilot, and it starts right from the get-go with the laughably bad worried flight attendants, that only manage to distract rather than immerse us into the story. It's also concerning that some of the bad acting -- from the unconvincing gang bangers or Corey Stoll's partner for example -- will ostensibly be recurring problems going forward. Yes, this is television and they don't have an exhaustive budget, but they quite simply should have done a better job casting some of these roles.

But not all the blame can be laid at the actors' or casting's feet. The dialogue is stilted and clichéd, and the direction itself is generally lackluster and unimaginative. Sure, the effects are quite good and there's always GDT's signature gold/blue contrasted look with reds that really pop, but the jump scares and story beats feel completely phoned in. The pilot isn't particularly spry or suspenseful, and what sounded visceral and cool on page now only looks good. Tighter direction and editing are desperately needed here.

Considering how much time the creators have had to handle the source material, it's sad to see they could only expose its flaws rather than enhance it. Yes, this is a potentially cool vampire story on an epic scale, but just like with Pacific Rim we should expect and demand much better from Guillermo Del Toro.