Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

The Strain: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Slightly more strained than before.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 26, 2016

Guillermo del Toro is not exactly known for restraint, as evidenced by hyperbolic elements which accrue in many of his works. Del Toro’s own brand of magical realism tends to perhaps cloak these tendencies in a way that likely helps to distract from just how much is actually going on in any given del Toro outing, but as this acclaimed director has found out with regard to a couple of recent releases like Pacific Rim and/or Crimson Peak, there may be a small (but perhaps incrementally increasing) vocal minority made up of devoted fans who are nonetheless saying, “Hey, enough is enough already!” Some of those same curmudgeonly types may be apt to roll their eyes now and again at just how overstuffed The Strain’s second season is, for this is a show that virtually wallows in excess, weaving what is in essence a vampire tale into all sorts of other genres or at least niches. The Strain therefore isn’t content to merely document the terrifying rise of a vampire known as The Master, it also works in subplots that variously touch on contagion (vampirism is a “disease” of sorts in this series), the Holocaust (a kind of Simon Wiesenthal- esque character is on the hunt for The Master), and (just for good measure) a kind of The Walking Dead ambience whereby your friends, neighbors or even your estranged wife might suddenly be “turned” into a shambling undead sort when you least expect it. The Strain is an undeniably dense, novelistic series, one that is attempting to build a fascinating mythology while staying grounded in a supposedly (more or less) realistic framework that lapses fairly regularly into more traditional del Toro territory of folklore, fairy tale (of the Grimm variety) and, yes, magical realism, though perhaps not in the totally hallucinogenic manner that tended to make films like Pan's Labyrinth so instantly iconic. Because there’s so much going on in this series, the narrative through line often feels diffused or dispersed, but the series continues to provide typical del Toro-ian flourishes, especially with regard to a really evocative production design and overall visual approach that helps to paper over some of the actual storyline deficiencies.

For those wanting to reacquaint themselves with the story thus far, I refer you to our The Strain: The Complete First Season Blu-ray review. Those who haven't yet picked up the first season on Blu-ray and who might like a charming (?) bust of a vampire to perk up their abode may want to check out this edition: The Strain: The Complete First Season .

The second season indulges in a patently fairy tale-esque opening, as we see a young Abraham Setrakian being regaled by his Grandmother. “Bubbe” is supposedly trying to get young Abraham to eat his soup, but the kid won’t slurp it up unless he’s told a story, and the story he wants is, well, a horror tale. Grandma kindly obliges, and the scene shifts to her story, one of a kind of mutant giant who unfortunately has a close encounter of the squirm inducing kind with a vampire whose host body is dying. The vampire of course simply “transfers” its life force (or at least a lot of parasitic vampire worms) into the giant, at which point all the children from the village begin disappearing. It’s a wonderfully creepy way for the series to start, but it also tends to point out the kind of odd tonal disparity that The Strain often offers. For every moment of folktale wonder, there’s a curiously pedestrian sequence that, for example, has hero Eph Goodweather (Corey Stoll) lamenting that he’s “s*** as a vampire hunter”. This ping ponging between the more whimsical and supposedly more realistic elements continues to occasionally grate throughout this second season.

The realistic side of things probably gets its most vigorous workout with what might be termed the “epidemiological” aspect of the series, as Eph and his team struggle to confront a “disease” that kills its host, making a traditional vaccine a non-starter (“you need a bloodstream for a vaccine,” as Eph states at one point). This element gives The Strain’s second season an almost procedural angle that is often quite interesting, even if it’s regularly interrupted by more soap operatic accretions like Eph’s tendency to down significant quantities of hooch or whatever the opposite of father- son bonding is with regard to Eph’s kid Zach (Max Charles), who can’t quite believe that his Mom—well, isn’t his Mom. There’s a whole “new” subplot involving Kelly Goodweather (Natalie Brown) which centers around a coterie of students at a blind school who become a new sub-breed of strigoi.

Meanwhile (and there are a lot of “meanwhiles” this season), Abraham Setrakian (David Bradley) makes a perhaps Faustian bargain with the Ancients as he continues on his quest to defeat a now badly injured Master. He’s also on the hunt for a priceless and enigmatic magical book from ages past which may provide a clue as to how best to dispose (permanently) of the Master, in a subplot that is in many ways the mirror to Eph trying to find a “cure” for the increasingly abundant strigoi. Any individual element in The Strain is more likely than not to be quite intriguing, but taken as a whole, this series suffers from what may be termed “too much of a good thing”. That tends to make parts of this second season, well, strained.

The Strain: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Strain: The Complete Second Season is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. I frankly hadn't looked at the series' IMDb listing since I wrote the review for the first season, and the addition of the Arri Alexa XT as a camera probably indicates that much and maybe all of this second season was filmed with it, instead of the Red Epic (if anyone can point me toward reliable and verifiable information, I'm happy to update the review). The series continues to look very strong throughout the second season, though I'd probably downgrade overall clarity and detail levels just slightly from the first season, due to this season's prevalence of a kind of sickly green-yellow grading for many of the strigoi scenes, as well as the typical cool slate gray to blue tones that are utilized for many of the lab or more medically inclined sequences. When these sometimes pretty aggressive grading issues come into play, detail levels can dip noticeably (see screenshots 8, 10, 11 and 14). The show does venture out into bright daylight occasionally (the Master be damned!), and here the palette looks relatively fresh and natural, with excellent detail levels. CGI continues to be quite impressive in this series, with some of the shots of strigoi tongues looking like snakes that shoot out of mouths like arrows. My score for this second season is 4.25.

The Strain: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Strain: The Complete Second Season features a nicely immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 that provides plenty of traditional horror film startle effects, especially when strigoi suddenly jump out of nowhere to attack. There are a number of other fanciful sound effects that are quite well done, including the "simple" sound of strigoi tongues ricocheting out to attack unsuspecting humans, and in more ostensibly realistic scenes, in the mundane ambient environmental noises of the series' urban environments. Dialogue is cleanly presented throughout the season on this problem free track.

The Strain: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 4:12) offer Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

Disc Two

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 5:22) offer Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.


• Meet the Crew of The Strain (1080p; 7:31) is a good introduction to some of the "below the line" talent on the series.


• The White Room (1080p; 3:54) is a fun little featurette focusing on a certain padded room.

Disc Three

• Audio Commentary on "Night Train" featuring Carlton Cuse


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 3:59) offer Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.


• Gag Reel (1080p; 2:19)


• Beyond the Page (1080p; 11:02) focuses on the adaptive process from del Toro's original source books.


• Sentient Strigoi (1080p; 7:08) profiles the "turned".

The Strain: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm still finding The Strain involving, though I frankly asked myself more than once during this season, "Why are they doing this?" The show seems to delight in stuffing more and more tangents and/or subplots into what is already a filled to the brim melange of ideas, concepts and even genres. Del Toro is famously febrile, as almost all of his movies prove, and that tendency is certainly on display throughout this series. Therefore, the best approach toward The Strain is to perhaps not binge watch it, but to break it off into easily "digestible" chunks, since the story is so dense so much of the time. Technical merits continue to be very strong, and The Strain: The Complete Second Season comes Recommended.