Tyler and I are huge Guillermo del Torro fan boys and, therefore, we have both been waiting in anticipation of his vampire television saga The Strain. For those rolling their eyes, I know I know it was a book series first, but that would involve reading…we are not THAT big of fans. Given the series premiered recently, I will review each episode of the first season. Here is the third of those reviews.

Episode: “Gone Smooth” (3:13) Air Date: July 27, 2014 Directed: David Semel Written: Chuck Hogan

“Gone Smooth” begins with Eichhorst (Richard Sammel) going through the painstaking process of putting on his face; literally. He seems to take certain amount of pride in this process, but at the end Eichhorst hints he will be happy when the charade is over. While this is going on, the victims of the plane disaster are continuing to deal with the aftermath of the incident.

Eichhorst’s alterations is a genius way to kick off an episode that is all about transformations. Unfortunately the rest of 50+ minutes cannot compete with its opening scene. Where the first two episodes had a centralized focus, “Gone Smooth” seems to meander around. The episode shows viewers a bit of everything hoping one of these threads will peak our interest. Some do, but most do not. The show-runners continue to tease a connection between the events unfolding and rats, but we do not seem to be any closer to a revelation on that front. Which is a shame because Kevin Durand is killing it with the little screen time he is getting. Besides Goodweather and Setrak, Fet is easily my favorite character. Both Goodweather and Setrak had interesting moments in this newest episode with varied degrees of effectiveness. Setrak had a great, surprising comedic scene; while the scenes with Goodweather and his continuing custody battle seemed like a rehash of what we have seen before. It is hard to believe that a child so young would have the wisdom to compartmentalize his desire to see his father and his father’s devotion to his career. The closing moments of this episode, like the ones before it, end with a bang. At the end of the season, “Gone Smooth” will be an episode that we will look back on and either say it was great foreshadowing or a misfire. Time will tell.

(2.5 / 5)