[NOTE: This review is for The Strain Season 1, Episode 1 and contains SPOILERS!]

FX’s marketing department has been busy touting Guillermo del Toro’s The Strain as the next big horror event of the summer. Based on the book series written by del Toro and Chuck Hogan, The Strain is looking to join the roster of hit shows already on FX such as Justified, American Horror Story, and Sons of Anarchy.

So, does The Strain live up to the hype and will it be FX’s The Walking Dead? Well, not at the rate it’s going. The pilot episode suffers from ‘too much too quickly’ syndrome, or  – as Abraham said – “It’s too much to say all at once here without sounding crazy.” So let’s break “Night Zero” down.

International Regis Air Flight 753 is returning from Berlin.  However, the plane has landed safely on the tarmac, the crew remains unresponsive to tower control, and none of the passengers have tried to communicate out. CDC etiologist Ephraim “Eph” Goodweather (Corey Stoll) and his team Nora Martinez (Mia Masetro) and Jim Kent (Sean Astin) are called in to investigate. What they find will defy logic.

I’m not really sure why the decision was made to make this episode an hour and forty minutes and not two separate one hour episodes. The first hour definitely tells a solid story and leaves you wanting more. The tension building during Eph and Nora’s investigation earns every one of the jump scares, making you wonder if they’re about to get mobbed by a hoard of reanimated corpses (or at the very least bitten) seeing as the camera locks into place when they show Emma’s face and how close Eph’s finger gets to her mouth.

Then we are introduced to pawn shop owner and harbinger Abraham Setrakian (David Bradley). The events that go down at the pawn shop not only ground his character, but ensure that by the time he goes into his “Arrow” cave, the supernatural element is digestible instead of jumping the shark, even while ending with the discovery of a nine foot coffin.

The second episode could have just as easily started with Stoneheart hiring Gus, keeping in line with a prologue and then getting inundated with literal signs warning us about an eclipse on February 12 (which is four days away for those of you keeping count). It could have also further developed and expanded on characters like Kelly Goodweather (Natalie Brown) instead of simply having her watching the news on her laptop, or Gus and his connection to Stoneheart.

Sadly, for the most part, the last forty minutes simply feel tacked on – although there is a particular twist involving a business card that was a terrific yet shocking moment – and merely do a passable job of introducing us to various character and subplots; Gus and the coffin, Palmer and Thomas Eichorst (Richard Sammel), the coroner, and Emma and her father, all of which – for the most part – end  with some kind of resolution by the end of the episode. But with so many concluding narrative threads, it starts to feel like you’re watching the “Return of the King” since each one could stand alone and subsequently end the episode. Hmm, now that I think about it, you kinda do get a Ringwraith… plus Samwise Gamgee is in attendance… but I digress.

Guillermo directed the pilot, and it definitely shows with the skillful camerawork providing the illusion of watching a movie instead of a TV show. I’m shocked that he opted for CGI when it came to The Master (who reminds me of the smoke monster) since del Toro himself is “the master of practical effects”. He’s also great at world building, and some of the set-pieces and costumes at really quite remarkable, such as Setrakian’s pawn shop. Conversely however, others are a little more on the ridiculous side such as Eldritch Palmer’s lair, which is a blend of Underworld meets I, Frankenstein (either way, I was expecting Bill Nighy to make show up). Despite how goofy some of the sets look – and there’s more on the way – their uncanny appearance does a decent job of mirroring their respective graphic novel counterparts.

Unfortunately, most of the acting is pretty terrible, especially the first seven minutes. I mean “This is bad… real bad.” Thankfully, it starts to get a lot better when we start to focus on the epidemic and Corey Stoll and Co. conducting their investigation at the JFK. David Bradley manages to make some of the craziest lines actually sound convincing, although his opening and closing narration seemed out of place. Sadly, characters like Gabriel Bolivar (Jack Kesy) and Gus (Miguel Gomez) are just downright laughable.

Overall, the pilot was mediocre and pretty much a chore to watch, but it stiill has potential. The show needs to work on restraint by not concluding a plot point so quickly. It also has to be willing to spend more time on developing characters instead of bouncing around NYC. It’s a problem when the end credits sequences ends up being more creepy and entertaining than the events of the pilot itself. My biggest fear is the combination of Carlton Cuse (Lost) and Guillermo. Lost asked a lot questions and didn’t bother to answer a lot of them, while Guillermo stories tend to have “open ended” endings, which could cause some big problems from a narrative standpoint.

So, are you encouraged or discouraged to watch the rest of the season from what you seen so far? Guillermo wants the series to span three to five seasons. Could you see this series could go on for that long?

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The writer of this piece is:

Laurence Almalvez
Laurence has previously written over at Whatculture.com.
Laurence tweets from @IL1511