'The Strain' – Season 2 (2015)



So I can't finish a book to save my life, at the moment, but I am finding it incredibly easy to polish off box sets. Funny how it goes sometimes, isn't it?
I'm still saving my last couple of 'classic' Doctor Who DVDs for future posts so today, we're headed back into the world of 'The Strain' and a fight against what was originally thought to be a disease but has ended up becoming so much more...
I'll do my best to avoid major spoilers for this season but we're talking Season 2 now so there may be at least one spoiler for Season 1, don't say I didn't warn you...

What's left of the CDC's Canary Team has finally heeded Abraham Setrakian's advice and faced down the Master in his own lair, Has the Master been destroyed though? Of course not, this is only Season 2...
As the fight against the infection continues, new allies appear and New York finally mobilises but will it be enough? The struggle becomes more personal for some. Eph in particular has a fight to convince his son that his mother is no longer human...

So Season 1 was all about the infection gaining a foothold in New York City and how it's a little more than 'just' an infection that kills people, brings them back to life and then sends them after their closest family. There's a plan starting to come to fruition here but it's a long way off yet. That's ok though because people can't (or won't believe) that there is some truth in certain legends, the truth can save you but you have to believe it first...

Season 2 then is about branching out from this initial concept and starting to show us what people's inaction (or misguided beliefs) can lead to. The short answer is vampires of course, really cool ones that look as if they were on their way to star in 'Blade 2' before getting lost and ending up on the wrong set. It makes for amazing TV with all the dark places around Manhattan being exploited for jump scares and action scenes. It's great and one of the reasons why I powered through this season in about three days I think (thank you Lockdown...)

The story itself is still very much in its infancy so you won't see any real conclusion to anything here. That's ok though because we get things like a further look into the life of Abraham Setrakian which tells you all you need to know about why he is such a man on a mission, the hunt has literally been his entire life. We also get to see the crisis take on a more personal note for particular characters as events throw them down new and strange paths. Eph Goodweather is the main focus here as the infection forces him into conflict with his son but Gus is also an interesting one to follow as he must reconcile pretty much his whole outlook on life with the new reality that the infection brings. You'll want to slap some sense into them but you can't help but feel for them at the same time.

The emergence of a new faction promises new developments while Justine Feraldo's attempts to take back New York have an underlying fragility that promises more interesting developments in Season 3. Season 2 of 'The Strain' can, at times, feel like it's in a bit of a holding pattern (setting up events that will play out much later) but there's still a lot going on that make it worth watching. I'm well into Season 3 now, I'll let you know how it goes...

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