The Strain: Season 1, Episode 8

The Strain
Episode Title: "Creatures of the Night"
Channel: FX
Director: Guy Ferland
Writer: Chuck Hogan
Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi, Horror
Runtime: 60 min
Rated: TV-MA
Original Air Date: August 31, 2014

A 'semi-bottle episode' in which a lot happens. The audience is treated to a lesson on the hierarchy of the strigori, Vasiliy finally joins team Setrakian, and Eph's team suffers a setback. Not bad for an episode that spends the majority of its time in two rooms. “Creatures of the Night” did not seem like a conventional 'bottle episode,' which is normally a cost saving method, cheapening the production for one episode, so that the money can be spent on another. There are plenty of effects, makeup, and explosions present here. The structure of the episode was more intended to heighten the tension, and it worked.

One irritating thing of note, is that the surprising ending from the previous episode is in no way expounded upon. I know it's supposed to keep the audience tuning in for answers, and with so many separate story lines running parallel everything can't be touched on, but I need to know what was going on with those guys. The only other thing that struck me as odd about this episode was poor Hasan. If the creatures were there for our intrepid heroes, than they might've passed him by completely. There's a chance he was still alive and well inside the building at the episode conclusion, which would be bad news for him.

On the technical side of things this was an average episode. Mr. Hogan's teleplay surpassed his previous attempts, it looks as though he's getting the hang of writing for television. The direction is fine, if a little no frills, with the action framed well in the shots, but with little going on to spice it up. I think, with the various lighting available in this episode, that more could've been done to make normally plain shots more interesting.

Conclusion: “Creatures of the Night” significantly advanced the stories of several of the characters, and helped whittle the running arcs down to a more manageable number. As the focus of the story veers away from personal lives, and more towards the actual crisis the characters are becoming less annoying for the most part, although I still wish they'd give Nora more to do than agreeing with people.

Rating: 7/10