Admittedly my memory of the first season of The Strain is a bit rusty, but I remember mostly enjoying it, and I remember enough to not be completely lost in this first episode of season 2. So let's begin with the prologue, directed by Guillermo del Toro, this prologue was good shit, it's in 1932 and it shows a very young Abraham being told a story that is basically the origin story of the Master, I won't spoil it here but I like the story being told, though I think the master's 'birth' was a bit needlessly gross, but there's a brilliant shot through a kid's bedroom window that was just spine chilling, I loved it. Back in the present interesting things are going on, and the "join your enemy or die alone" line makes sense, to cut a long story short there is a rogue faction of vampires out to kill the Master, and while I think this sub plot has the potential to really go places, I think what's more likely is they'll take a backseat, which I really hope won't be the case, because they're cool as hell. In the first episode a lot of things are just speculation, but I hope more interesting things are done with Abraham, played by David Bradley, not that I didn't like him in season 1, but aside from that heart in a jar and those flashbacks he was just the crazy old guy who is also a badass vampire hunter, and I hope his character becomes more developed in season 2, especially with the rogue vampires. What I really liked is Eph, played by Corey Stoll, who in the first episode of season 2 has turned to drinking, while he and Nora, played by Mia Maestro try to find a more scientific way of killing the vampires, I don't remember finding him very funny in season 1, but there were times in this episode where he made me laugh. His family though, they've recast his son for season 2, and I'm not sure how it will go, the kid from season 1 wasn't annoying, but I don't know if this new kid will be annoying, something kid actors so often are. But now, not to anyone's surprise they've made his ex wife a bad guy, I think this could really work, giving Eph some real adversity, though the blind kid minions is a bit odd, and I don't really know what to think about them. Just like in season 1, I like Fet, played by Kevin Durand, I just think he's a cool character, he's an exterminator, but he's a natural at killing vampires and he inexplicably carries dynamite on him just in case. Richard Samuel is still awesome, and one of my favourite things about the series, he plays Eichorst, a former Nazi turned vampire henchman who is just awesome, he's cool and he's creepy, just what every vampire should be. Finally there was a cool scene at the end in a storage lock up which, while brief, had some cool vampire killing and a very nice application of muzzle flash.
At this point there isn't a lot to go on, and there's a lot of speculation, but I did like this episode a lot, I hope that some interesting story lines don't get wasted or turned to crap, and more is done with the characters, but I liked the characters in this episode and it had some sweet vampire killing at the end and some creepy imagery, specifically in the prologue, I'd like to end season 2 saying I enjoyed it, and that's looking likely based on this first episode.
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