History YMMV / TheStrainTVSeries

*** Before this, it was widely agreed that the wig was obvious enough to fall into this and be ''very'' distracting to audiences, especially anyone who knows about Stoll's normal look. Cuse and Del Toro had to defend its use prior to Eph's SignificantHaircut.

*** Before this, it was widely agreed that the wig was obvious enough to fall into this and be ''very'' distracting to audiences, especially anyone who knows about Stoll's normal look. Cuse and Del Toro had to defend its use prior to Eph's MeaningfulHaircut.

** Zack was fairly well liked by the fandom in the first series, but he's dropped straight into Scrappy territory as of season two. He's been recast, and all the new actor seems able to express is petulant anger.
*** He's now pretty much everyone's least favourite character after he gets [[spoiler:Nora]] killed in the season two finale.

* CompleteMonster: The Master's sadism was brought over from the books.

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!Tropes.

** Gus and Quinlan, Gus and Vaun...Gus is paired with quite a few of the vampires in Fanon.

* UnpopularPopularCharacter: Vasily Fet is adored by the fandom due to his badassery, his sharp lines, his willingness to progress the plot without letting his personal life get in the way and Kevin Durand's excellent portrayal. In-story, our eponymous heroes Eph and Nora despise him, with Eph in particular looking down on Vasily and holding a grudge [[spoiler:due to Fet's killing of Jim.]]

** Councilwoman Justine is also quickly becoming this, due to the fact that she's so far the only politician who understands the true threat of the vampire plague and takes the appropriate actions (namely killing the infected rather than simply containing them.)

* FridgeBrilliance: Fet returns to the office to discover his co-workers have been turned into vampires. He promptly dispatches them both. One of them was the receptionist who Fet has just learned has a baby. Given that the vampires first try to turn their loved ones and the receptionist was still at work when Fet found her, he just may have saved the child's life.

* FoeYay: Abraham Setrakian and Thomas Eichhorst, especially in the flashbacks. Eichhorst is just a little too obsessed with Setrakian.

** Mitigated in Season 2 after the Master transfers his consciousness to Bolivar.
* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Many fans started warming up to Nora, especially in the latter half of Season 2 when she started becoming the Badass warrior she is in the books. Unfortunately, [[spoiler: she [[DeathByAdaptation unexpectedly dies]] ]] in the Season 2 finale.

* CompleteMonster:
** The Master's sadism was brought over from the books.
** Eldritch Palmer is willing to arrange the deaths of countless innocents just so the Master will grant him immortality.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Many fans started warming up to Nora, especially in the latter half of Season 2 when she started becoming the Badass warrior she is in the books. Unfortunately, [[spoiler: she [[DeathByAdaptation unexecpected dies]] ]] in the Season 2 finale.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Many fans started warming up to Nora, especially in the latter half of Season 2 when she started becoming the Badass warrior she is in the books. Unfortunately, [[spoiler: she dies]] in the Season 2 finale.

** The Master's face is definitely causing this. While some fans love that it looks ridiculous while still looking very off-putting, many fans feel that it is too silly and fake looking.
*** Curiously, people are now saying that the Master's face seems to have been modified to make it look less outlandish from its first appearance.

* TheScrappy: Unfortunately, it seems like half the cast is this. Everett Barnes, Gabriel Bolivar and Matt Sayles don't really count since they're meant to be frustrating and unsympathetic, but Eph comes across as too much of a self-absorbed asshole to be likable and his family drama slows the plot down to a grinding halt; Kelly is saddled with the cliched role of the nagging ex-wife, and Jim Kent is UnintentionallyUnsympathetic.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Like in the books, Vasily Fet and Abraham Setrakian are growing immensely popular with each passing episode due to their high levels of competence (particular in contrast to the more incompetent leads) badass ways and talented cult actors playing them. Perhaps more surprisingly, Thomas Eichhorst is growing in popularity despite being a Nazi, mostly due to Richard Sammel's wonderfully creepy performance.

* TheScrappy: Unfortunately, it seems like half the cast is this. Everett Barnes, Gabriel Bolivar and Matt Sayles don't really count since they're meant to be frustrating and unsympathetic, but Eph comes across as too much of a self-absorbed asshole to be likable and his family drama slows the plot down to a grinding halt; Kelly is saddled with the cliched role of the nagging ex-wife, Nora takes far too long to come around to the vampire-killing idea, and Jim Kent is UnintentionallyUnsympathetic.

** The only (protagonist) characters who have more or less universally escaped Scrappiness are Setrakian and Fet. Not coincidentally, they're the only two characters who actively seek out the vampires and ''do something'' about them instead of standing around asking the same questions we've been hearing since the pilot.

*** Indeed, as of season two the most disliked characters are Zack > Nora > Eph, with many fans deriding Nora for being "too soft" and "useless", while wishing Zack would just "get his head chopped off already".

* UnpopularPopularCharacter: Vasily Fet is adored by the fandom due to his badassery, his sharp lines, his willingness to progress the plot without letting his personal life get in the way and Kevin Durand's excellent portrayal. In-story, our eponymous heroes Eph and Nora despise him, with Eph in particular looking down on Vasily and holding a grudge [[spoiler:due to Fet's killing of Jim.]] This has only increased Eph and Nora's scrappiness.

** When Eph is [[ItMakesSenseInContext cutting his hair]], you can very clearly see the line between the wig and Corey Stoll's head. It's especially amusing when you see the reveal of his new look... and it's an almost exact duplicate of [[HouseOfCards Peter Russo's]]!

* CreepyChild: The goddamn [[spoiler:Feelers]]. They move twice as fast as other vamps, make an extremely unsettling gurgling/clicking/chittering noise, oh, and they're [[spoiler:[[UndeadChild undead children]]]].

** Eldritch Palmre is willing to arrange the deaths of countless innocents just so the Master will grant him immortality.