Everything and everyone in this show is excellent. With one glaring exception. Zach. I despise that kid so much. There are literal Nazi Vampires in this show that are less evil than that stupid kid. All other characters are great. The atmosphere is great. The story is great. But that kid is the embodiment of evil, stupid stupid evil.

The beginning is interesting, although it degrades the common story of the vampires. But ... the show is monotonous, very long and uninteresting flashbacks, a bad acting turns this series into pigwash. And that kid...In my life, I have not seen a person who is more annoying in the show. Every time the kid appears it's very painful to watch. Grumpy, brainless kid with punchable face. I reduced the rating by 3 stars only because of him. Generally, very tedious, boring show.

The Strain season oneThe below contains spoilers for the first season.The Strain is a television series about a vampire apocalypse. The series starts with a flight landing in New York City where all of the passengers have seemingly perished. From this moment, the vampire apocalypse begins as the city and the world are ravaged by a fast-acting parasite that changes its victims.The Strain takes the vampire apocalypse concept and applies it slowly. The series follows CDC agents as they discover and attempt to stop vampirism from spreading. This is thwarted by agents of the vampires as they have a plan for world domination. The story also features a pawnbroker and "survivors" of the flight as the vampire apocalypse begins. The television series is incredibly slow as the story follows many perspectives. This is one of the weaknesses of the show as the main story arc with how the characters are used or seek the thwart The Master's plans are sidelined and brought up occasionally.I did not find myself enjoying the story of the survivors of the flight as it was obvious after the dead vampires rose in the morgue what they would become. The scenes felt superfluous and their characters were bland. I did however like the different choices each survivor made to confront their vampirism.The questionable choices some characters make when confronted by the vampires is also a weakness here. In one scene, a taxi driver is attacked by a vampire hitting the window of the car with its proboscis. This should have scared the driver into driving away but instead the driver walks out and dies to the vampires. It is scenes like these that are baffling and can prevent enjoyment of the television series.The main characters are overall likable. Vasiliy Fet is a great character in the first season with him figuring out the vampirism on his own. Likewise, Abraham Setrakian, played by David Bradley does a good job here with his gruff demeanor.The Strain's first season is rough but overall it is recommended. It is an interesting take on a vampire apocalypse.The Strain season twoThe below contains spoilers for season two.The Strain season two picks up where the first season left off. The Master has been wounded by the heroes during a raid. The vampires are wounded but not destroyed as more people are infected in New York City. The heroes find themselves struggling as more people become infected by the strigoi. Meanwhile a city councilwoman is leading a charge to establish safe zones around New York. Kelly, who was infected in the first season, has regained her memories and is now driven to a mission to kidnap Zach.The Strain season two has a grander scope than the first season. This is one of the good aspects of the second season as the series likes to offer backstory and character histories that can be interesting and engaging. More characters are introduced in the second season and the series takes its time to develop. This can be frustrating at times when the season explores Gus more. His character and story became weaker with Vaun's death. The series continues to focus on his mother even when she is turned and The Master taunts him through her. Gus' character is fine, but his story did not feel as engaging as the main story with Eph, Fet, Setrakian, Dutch, and Nora. With the grander scope, comes a higher budget as the television series puts more actors on display. More of New York's police department come up against the vampires which allows cool scenes such as the defense of Red Hook. Likewise with the vampires, Eichorst and Kelly are explored in more detail. The show focuses the bulk of some episodes on them. Kelly Goodweather is adapting to her new vampiric condition as she seeks her child. Eichorst's Nazi history is explored as he is the focus of one episode where his pre-Nazi past is shown. These scenes were cool even when they slowed down the main story.The main arc of the season is the characters trying to research and acquire the Occido Lumen. The series is at its best as the characters try to find the best way to defeat The Master. Although I did not like the concept of the Occido Lumen, I found the execution to be good. The characters have all of their personalities from the first season. The actors and actresses do a fine job. The concept allowed all of these characters to interact more organically which is always something positive.I would recommend The Strain season two. The series takes a grander scope while still retaining a grounded feel.The Strain season threeThe below contains spoilers for the third season.The Strain season three picks up with some time after the end of season two. The third season follows the cast as the vampires begin to take over New York. Eph has lost Zach to Kelly and the vampires. Fet, Setrakian, and Quinlan try to translate the Occido Lumen in order to discover a way to finally end The Master. Eldritch Palmer continues to seek immortality by finding a way to replicate the white.The third season takes a darker turn as the vampires gain the upper-hand over humanity. The hallmarks of the seasons before this are still present. The dialogue, acting, sets, and design are all at a high quality. The series is still slow with the episodes choosing to develop characters and past events. If audiences do not enjoy these scenes, they can easily be skipped in favor of the main story. This does bring in the problem of too much filler in this series, but at the very least the filler episodes are enjoyable. The action and the characters are fun to watch and entertaining. One of the great points in this season is Eldritch Palmer. His character arc becomes much more interesting this season. Gus' character arc is still not exciting and it still focuses on his mother's infection.The writing is one of the weak points in this season. The series conclusion is rushed. This season felt that rush with plot points that occur because of forced character stupidity. One of these bad points is the series following Zach. He helps his vampire mother even when she is clearly hurting other humans and almost killing Zach. Zach also accepts Kelly's words even when she would say stuff her human self would never say. This culminates in the season finale where Zach helps The Master win and become free after the heroes conduct a well-executed plan.Even with the writing being rushed, The Strain season three is recommended.The Strain season fourThe below contains spoilers for the fourth season.The Strain season four takes place months after the end of the third season. The vampires have brought about an apocalypse and vampires can now roam during the day. The nuclear bomb detonated in the end of the third season by Zach is referred to as "Illumination Day". This plunges the world into one that is ruled by The Master and our heroes from the previous seasons are hunted by the vampires. The heroes seek a nuclear weapon to attempt to destroy The Master one last time.The tone of this season is absolutely the best part of the season. All of the characters know the are nearing the end of humanity if they abide by the world The Master rules. They all resist in different ways and try to reconnect with each other. Eph had become disillusioned with his son's betrayal and now focuses on survival. Dutch is one of Setrakian's closest supporters and she attempts to escape a prison to find Setrakian. Quinlan and Fet attempt to retrieve a nuclear bomb in order to destroy The Master. The last season felt the most focused as there is little filler. This is a great benefit as all of the character arcs are resolved. Eph comes to terms with his son. Dutch and Setrakian make amends for the mistakes they made in the past. Quinlan and Fet must deal with aggressive humans that have surrendered to the new order.The weakness of this season is still the rushed writing. Zach is not a likable character and the ending with his reconciliation with Eph felt mis-written. I did not buy the shift in his character at all.The Strain season 4 is recommended. Across the entire series, the episodes provide high quality entertainment in a unique setting with vampires. I would recommend the series as a while.The entire series as a whole is recommended. The best seasons of the series are the first and fourth seasons. The second season is the weakest with the third season simply a build up to the fourth season. The first season is good because it started out well. The fourth season was able to tie every arc back together in a mostly satisfying way. The main problem with the second and third season is the slow pacing. Nothing about the pacing can be considered good unless the audiences likes the universe of The Strain.

I had such high hopes for this. Although I gave up on the books as I simply lost interest, I hoped that the TV-version would be better. Sadly, it is not. Del Toro said in an interview that he wanted this to be a series, rather than a movie trilogy, as that gave more room for character- and story development. But what use is that when the story hardly moves forward and the characters are so stereotypical that you really don't care about their backstories (in fact they, and their dialogue are so ridiculous that it's sometimes hard to watch). Or when their development is so predictable that you start checking your Facebook feed whenever they try to delve into the histories of characters you don't care about. It actually came to the point whee I started disliking the people I was supposed to care about, and began hoping for them to die (but of course they don't, no matter what).Yet I kept watching, having been led to believe that there only would be three seasons. I regret that now, as it turns out they couldn't fit all the failed attempts to stop the Strigoi (ridiculous name) from taking over the US. And yes, the many, many failed attempts get incredibly tedious.So no, Mr. Del Toro. You should have gone for the movie trilogy. I'm sure that would have been less silly and boring, and far more interesting.