This is my last week with this show, if it continues to disappoint, I'm going back to Mountain Men on History channel.
The funny thing is, we've continued to watch The Strain because not a lot of other good TV is on now and while it's still craptastic, it too has picked up a bit. It's barely watchable but we'll stick with it. _
I've been trying some cross-thread pollination and it seems some posters here are already on the ball. _
The stoning of that woman was so unnecessary and ridiculous...Damn this show, fucking annoying crap. One thing is clear, that guy who shoots dogs is real.
I wasn't too impressed with the 4th episode, so I only have a few comments on it: The stolen doll representing baby Jesus in the Nativity was not that compelling of a story, but the messages within that story compensated for it. I liked the opening scene, how it shows the factory making all of these dolls, baby Jesus' on the assembly line; that was pretty cynical with a nice bite. In the end, Kevin winds up throwing the doll aside, after it's so easily replaced by Matt. The Mayor applied pressure on Kevin to replace the doll, and he would've felt guilty for just buying a new one. I think his daughter experienced some sort of similar feeling when she chose NOT to shoot the flaming arrow at the doll. And ultimately, Kevin recoups the doll, and when he announces it at the dance, no one cares. I think all of that pretty much speaks for itself, or you can take from it what you will. The ending, when the GR steals the photographs from peoples' houses -- that was fucked. You hear about people who've experienced their house burning down, and they'll say that one of the most devastating things is the loss of photo albums because they are irreplaceable. So, that's essentially what the GR did. I give kudos to the writers because they do an original job of making the GR a nonviolent threat, while simultaneously, a threat that is capable of things even worse than some violence (stolen family pictures is much much worse than a fistfight or something of that ilk). Again, wasn't thrilled with the 4th episode, but those were the two things that piqued my interest. ------------------------------------------------------------- The 5th episode was called "Gladys," aptly named for the GR member, for who the episode revolves around. As I mentioned earlier, that was brutal. Before she's kidnapped, we see her walk by a man in need on the street -- he was an old guy who fell down, and she walked right past him as if he wasn't there. We're not morally obligated by law to help people in need, but that was cruel. Despite that, I don't feel that she should've been stoned to death. I suppose if you walk around disrespecting the departed, then you're bound to get attacked by someone who snaps. What do you think the guy meant when he said, "Don't investigate too hard" when he was talking to Kevin through the window of his car. Kevin fell asleep, watching over the GR, then wakes up to that guy at his car window. They briefly discuss Gladys' death, and then the guy walks away, as he makes that comment to Kevin. It seemed suspicious, but like, too obvious to be suspicious. There's another brief moment when Kevin is in his kitchen, talking to Jill's hot friend, and he ultimately says, "I can't win." And she says, "Now, you're gettin it." I thought that exchange might have been representative of one of the show's motifs. The stuff with the government raised my eyebrows. Apparently, there are agencies within the government, the FBI, that go around whacking out cults. This explains the raid on Wayne's ranch, earlier in the season, when the S.W.A.T. team slaughtered all those cult members. And the reason for the raid was probably fabricated; hence, Wayne's "taste" for young Asian girls. That's what I gathered from Kevin's phone conversation with the agent. And that adds a whole other layer to this, now that we know there are cults natonwide, and the government is trying to eradicate them. I really liked Matt's conversation in the car with Kevin. The Biblical anecdote and his explanation was a cool moment. I'm not the religious type, but I do like Matt. That said, Laurie blowing the whistle in his face was a nice touch. One thing that's somewhat respectable about the GR is their level of commitment. I don't like them, but they are committed. One thing that confused me was Kevin's shirts at the dry cleaners. Was there something shady occurring? Was it an honest mistake? 8 shirts is a lot of shirts to lose. I thought maybe the cleaners were stealing the shirts and selling them to the GR or something. But Kevin wound up retrieving them in the end. So, I don't know what the deal with that was.
Hmm.. Actually, did Kevin recoup random white shirts from the cleaners? Initially, I thought they were his, but based on the dry cleaners guy's reaction, it seemed like he just gave Kevin whatever white shirts he could find. And that still leaves the question: What happened, originally, to Kevin's shirts?
Do you mean that it was unnecessary for the people to tie her up and kill her? Or are you saying it was displayed gratuitously by the show's creators? I can agree with one of those stances, but not both. Also, good call about the bald guy. Forgot about that. It's safe to say, now, that he's a real guy who everyone can hear and see.
I don't view it that way, though, I understand you do. The graphic nature of that scene, IMO, is necessary to convey something. If we had read a note that said, "One of our GR members was stoned to death" we would have much different reaction. If we had only seen her body tied to the tree and already dead, we still wouldn't have the reaction that we do from actually seeing it. I think the intention of showing it is, first and foremost, to evoke an emotional response from the audience. We have a visceral reaction to that, intensified, more than those two previous scenarios I described. Secondly, I think we're supposed to really start grasping how fucked up society has become after the event. We even get to see the brutality of people, especially after an event like the departure. Seeing it happen served more of purpose than gratuitous violence. However, I won't hesitate to admit that it was really difficult to watch and I wanted it to stop.
I was thinking it happened during the last episode when the GR went into the homes and took the pictures, maybe they also stole white shirts? I would be surprised if those are actually his shirts. Anyone think Matt had something to do with the stoning? Maybe he wanted to get some emotions out of the GR and he gets the vigil.
That's a good call about the GR having possibly stolen his shirts. One of my buds also suggested that, so I'll buy it. I figured that Kevin, being a cop would've, been able to figure that out, especially since he knew that they B&E'd. But maybe he didn't think of it. I believe Matt when he said he didn't want to kill any of the GR. He had that discussion with Kevin in the car, about how he wants to bring them back to regular society and as empathetic humans. I think significance of his vigil was to show the GR's resistance with the focus on Laurie stepping up for the cult.
