Sunday, August 17, 2014

The Strain - Season 1, Episode 6 "Occultation" Review


                The past few episodes of The Strain I would describe as episodes that feel like payoff to buildup in the first few episodes of the series. The episodes contain a lot of action and suspense with increasingly more thrilling scenes than scary scenes. There has been some character development in them, but the episodes are mostly action. This episode of The Strain absolutely is what I was describing, but also has some very smart directions the plot goes in.

            In this episode of The Strain, Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll) continues to run from the FBI as Nora Martinez (Mia Maestro) tries to get her mother and herself to safety. Abraham Setrakian (David Bradley) continues on his plan to destroy these monsters. Thomas Eichorst (Richard Sammel) gives Jim Kent (Sean Astin) and Gus (Miguel Gomez) a new task. Vaslily Fet (Kevin Durand) continues to investigate what’s going on in New York.

            This is a fast-paced episode with action and thrills present. However, there’s also some very good dialogue and really well directed horror/suspense scenes. I really enjoyed this episode, and while it may not be as good as the last, it still delivered, especially in the direction. It’s very odd how Peter Weller, most known for playing Alex Murphy (Robocop) in Robocop (1987), would become a TV director, let alone a very good TV director. This episode not only looks very good, it’s also just a really well directed episode. The combination of wide shots and close up, the mixing cut-back-and-forth-between-the-actors and the hold-a-still-shot, really give this episode a feel of originality that creates a sense of a well-made episode. The decisions of the placing of the shots, the framing of the shots, the choosing to pan sometimes but cut sometimes: they all combine to make this episode have a different kind of feel than other TV. Weller is also able to create suspense and intensity with the camera. The suspense scenes and action scenes are well done, as well as dialogue scenes.

            The idea of the plot surrounding this episode was a good one. And the way this episode intertwines all of the different characters’ stories is well written. All of the narrative elements here are well thought out and realized through the script for this episode. The dialogue here is also very good. It helps give us a sense of depth with some of the characters that don’t have as much depth as others. The bits of character development in this episode shine here as well written scenes. And the dialogue isn’t only good for character development; it’s good in general. The dialogue in this episode is just good dialogue. It’s realistic. It’s compelling. It’s interesting. It’s very good dialogue.


            This episode of The Strain is very well written and directed. It’s a very entertaining episode that shows promise for future episodes of the series. It does deliver in being a payoff episode to some of the buildup we got in earlier episodes. It’s well made and well thought out. It continues to build upon the greatness of the first episode and progress the show.

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