Now that’s a pilot! No pun intended
Pilots are a tricky business. They are a tough balancing act. They need to tease just enough to get the audience hooked, but not overshoot themselves and try to accomplish too much either. But that’s not enough for the big networks anymore, is it? Pilots are no longer known for their subtlety in setting up the premise of the series to follow. They have to go all out. It’s a tried and tested method that works every time, provided the show has some quality to it.
Both the Flash pilot and Constantine pilots had our protagonists taking on a baddie and overcoming them within the first episode, and setting themselves up for episodic arcs. My biggest gripe with that is that in such a format, the show is only as good as the last episode, because there isn’t too much emphasis on continuity. It gives writers the leeway to get away with major plot and character inconsistencies
But thank god for Guillermo Del Toro and Carlton Cuse.
If you caught the Strain Pilot, you’re faith in the vampire genre has probably been restored, or at least is on its way to being restored depending on how the next few episodes pan out.
The Strain pilot was perfect in almost every way:
1. It signified the inception, or return from the looks of it, of an ominous evil force.
2. It masterfully employed the use of horror elements and thrills to keep viewers glued in.
3. It set up characters perfectly.
4. Most importantly, it firmly kept the characters front and center throughout, and established deep emotional connects with the audience. This is something Guillermo Del Toro does masterfully.
If you wonder why he is considered one of the finest directors today it’s point 4. He takes surreal premises in a lot of his films, but makes the characters so relatable that you buy into the premise and the sense of danger.
The pilot had an omnipresent sense of dread throughout. You knew something epically bad was on its way, but not sure what exactly.
To be honest, I still can’t say I know what it is; Undead Vampires? Blood sucking zombies? Or something truly genre bending? Whichever it is, you can rest assured it’s something you have never seen before. And in a genre that’s been done to death and beyond, this is something refreshing.
Why the pilot worked for me was the characters. They are real people trying to make sense of the incidents surrounding them, trying to come to logical, scientific conclusions as to what has transpired. Given that the show starts off in a grounded, real world scenario, I ‘m excited to see how the characters are handled with coming to terms with the supernatural elements of the show.
The Pilot didn’t do too much, it teased just enough. The main characters haven’t directly encountered the supernatural entity(entities) yet, and even the audience hasn’t been fully informed of the premise. It does a great job of ensuring the viewers tune in for more, and take this journey with these characters. And with
Carlton Cuse on board, it seems we will see some really well etched out protagonists. I just hope Del Toro is looking after the ending, not Cuse.
The last scene did a perfect job of encapsulating the spirit of the pilot, and hopefully the show. The unfortunate thug driving a package, having no idea of the evil inside the box he’s delivering, stating he doesn’t know what it is, but it’s about to bring him good luck.
While Del Toro won’t be directing all the episodes himself, we can only hope the quality he achieved in the pilot will be contagious to the other episodes too.