Today I’m taking a bit of a departure from my usual reviews.  Instead, I’m going to review a television series, although one with a cinematic quality and a Hollywood director attached:  The Strain (2014-2017).

The Strain is about a group of creatures that resemble a zombie-vampire hybrid called the strigoi (also called “strigs” and “munchers” in the show).  These creatures are filled with parasitic worms that they pass onto their victims.  Even one worm will multiply rapidly inside a host body, although the full transformation into a strigoi takes a few days.

The strigoi in the show are under the control of The Master, an ancient, powerful strigoi who has almost limitless power over his minions:  he can see through their eyes; he can speak through their mouths; he can command them to attack (or not to do so); and he can give some strigoi greater or lesser degrees of autonomy and/or their original personalities.  The Master can also transfer himself (in the form of a red parasitic worm among thousands of white ones) to other bodies, and can give humans “The White”—a white substance that, in the right doses, grants humans incredibly renewed health and an extended lifespan.

There are strigoi not under The Master’s control, but the show never clearly explains why.  One strigoi, The Born, is the vengeful offspring of The Master and a human.  There are also The Ancients, a set of which reside in New York City (the “New World Ancients”), and a set that reside in the Old World.  The New World Ancients are portrayed as vampiric husks, existing in a state of stasis and complacency.  All of these strigoi are at odds with The Master.

A plucky band of humans, led by the elderly Jewish pawnbroker Abraham Setrakian, also fight against The Master, to degrees that grow increasingly desperate as the show progresses and their numbers dwindle.  Setrakian is a Holocaust survivor, and his archnemesis is Thomas Eichhorst, the chief lieutenant of The Master.  Eichhorst was the commander of the concentration camp where Setrakian was held captive, and the two share a lethal bond that, I would argue, is the best part of the show.  The decades-long duel between them is fascinating viewing.

So, what of the show itself?  I have mixed feelings about it, to be sure.  Over the course of its four seasons, I found much about the show that I found tedious and boring.  Season 3, particularly, got bogged down in side stories, but the finale almost made the ride worth it.

First, what the show does poorly.  It’s insufferable.  The show came out at a time when cosmopolitanism and calls for “representation” were growing, and the cast reflects it:  an Argentinian CDC doctor; an Armenian Jewish pawnbroker (awesome character); a half-English chick hacker (whose name is “Dutch” for some reason); a Ukrainian rat catcher (the best character in the show); a Mexican gang member with a heart-of-gold; a masked Mexican luchador with a limp who works at an Indian restaurant; and on and on.  There’s nothing wrong with any of those character concepts in and of themselves, and most of them are excellent.  But it definitely builds on the trope of the enemy being a bunch of white guys, and that “diversity is our strength” against the uniformity of the strigoi horde (all people assumed, essentially, into The Master’s consciousness).

Of course, the show did get something right—an Indian CEO collaborates with the strigoi to build a processing facility for bleeding humans dry of their blood, and he sells out everyone, even his own wife, to try to keep his job (and his life).  That was pretty on the nose.

There are several scenes that are super preachy.  For example, as the strigoi take over New York City, a feisty City councilwoman from Staten Island enacts draconian security measures to clear the island of strigoi—and succeeds.  The Argentinian doctor, Nora, nasally asks Vesiliy Fet, the rat catcher, “but what about constitutional rights?”  Sure, it’s a concern, but there are literal vampire-zombies that can, if they want, masquerade as humans pretty easily; the Constitution is not a suicide pact, and given the circumstances, no one is really worried as long as the monsters are destroyed.

(Fans of the show really hate Eph’s son, Zach [Eph is also pretty annoying]—justifiably—but I was relieved when Nora’s mom [spoiler alert] gets killed:  she was such an annoying character.)

Also, the characters we’re supposed to love the most—Eph and his Argentinian mistress/colleague Nora—are some of the least likable in the show.  Nora at least has a kind heart and maternal instincts; Eph is a lousy father who parents his son so poorly, his son joins up with the monsters!  Eph and Nora also have to deliver all the lines that talk down to the audience, such as when they just randomly start using a bunch of medical jargon to explain what is going on in a scene.  Show, don’t tell!

The show is an adaptation of a book series by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, meant to be something of a blend of horror and a crime procedural.  The procedural part comes in with all of the medical technobabble between the show’s ostensible main character, Dr. Ephraim “Eph” Goodweather.  Eph works for the CDC’s Canary Team, which is tasked with hunting down and preventing outbreaks of major diseases.  In the days before The Age of The Virus, I could maybe see the CDC making for a compelling hero, but even when I first watched the show in 2014, I remember thinking it was kind of lame that the “good” organization was a corrupt government agency (although, to the show’s credit, it does go on to demonstrate how corrupt the CDC’s top brass are).  Watching it now, though, it’s just laughable that the CDC would do anything for the betterment of humanity.

It’s also clear that del Toro peppers the show with his inherent Latinophilia.  I mean, it makes sense—he is a prominent Mexican director who is very proud of his Mexican nationality and Hispanic heritage.  More power to him.  But imagine if a white American male director made Hulk Hogan a major character.  I remember when the Mexican luchador was introduced, it took me out of the show, because I could see del Toro’s fingerprints all over it—and not in a good way.

But I digress.  What does the show do well?

Well, the first season is very strong.  Each episode is tightly written, and does an excellent job of drawing viewers into the world of the strigoi and the early days of the outbreak.  The humans still hold the upper hand, but can’t quite seem to work together to stop the menace.  A powerful business group, led by Eldritch Palmer, is secretly in league with the strigoi.  Palmer, who has suffered with lifelong physical and medical ailments, craves to become a strigoi himself so that he can live eternally.  His machinations complicate things for Abraham Setrakian and his motley crew of fighters, who struggle to compete with the alliance of powerful humans and The Master.

There’s also much more mystery in the first season.  How do the strigoi replicate?  How do they communicate with The Master?  Who is The Master?  Everything builds to a satisfying climax and end-of-season cliffhanger.

Also, the character of Abraham Setrakian is incredible.  He’s spent his life hunting The Master, and through a mix of academic rigor and hardboiled sleuthing has managed to learn as much as possible about the strigoi.  His quest to defeat The Master has become something of an obsession, and he sometimes behaves recklessly and with a disregard for his life and the lives of others when he thinks he has a chance to defeat The Master.  His frailty becomes a problem for him, but he has a secret to managing it that is quite interesting, and plays an important part in the plot.

The other awesome character is Fet, the rat catcher.  He possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of New York City’s buildings and underground, which come in handy when locating strigoi nests.  Perhaps the Eastern European/Balkan overlap with Setrakian makes him open to the idea of the strigoi, and he becomes an eager disciple of Setrakian.  Fet’s character development over the course of the show is the best in the series.  He really is the main protagonist of the show, not Eph.

Eph grates on the nerves.  He is constantly irritable (understandably) and obsessed with his awful son.  His every line is sarcastic or condescending, and he is one of the least likable “protagonists” I’ve ever seen.  But the writers manage to soften and round him out over the last two seasons.

So, would I recommend this show?  I’ll give it a tepid maybe.  The first season is pretty solid.  I felt like I was just trying to get through the last two seasons so I could say I did.  The series finale is very good, though.

Also, the characters are just awful sometimes.  Dutch, for example, is a solid character, but she’s basically the hypercompetent bisexual chick who somehow sleeps with everyone.  Also, her voice is constantly breathy, like she’s talking without her mouth completely open.  After four seasons, hearing her breathily say one-word phrases just grated on my nerves.

But the show shines in certain scenes.  Sadly, those scenes become fewer and further between in the later seasons.

In short, The Strain has its moments, but getting through it is a strain.  I’d rather have worms than watch it again.