When the TV adaptation of Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s vampires-as-virus novels The Strain debuts on FX next Sunday, July 14, I’ll be recapping the series for Amazing Stories, as I did with American Horror Story: Coven and Hannibal.
I’m coming into the series almost entirely cold; the totality of what I know about it is this:
- There were 3 novels
- There have been comics adaptations
- Guillermo Del Toro, who co-wrote and directed the first episode, has made a bunch of movies I’ve seen, some of which I’ve liked
- The series is about an outbreak of a vampire virus in New York (at least according to Wikipedia).
And that’s it. This is the first time in a while that I’ve dived into a new TV series where I had no idea what to expect from its plot, characters, execution, etc. I’ve kept it that way on purpose. I enjoy Game of Thrones, but the TV series always pales in comparison to the same events in the books. I don’t want that same kind of knowledge to influence my enjoyment of The Strain.
I’m wary of the series—I don’t love vampires and the virus metaphor feels a little exhausted after laboring under a decade-plus of zombie outbreaks—but any time there’s a prestige horror production on TV it’s worth a look.
For now, I’ll leave you with this compilation of teaser clips for the series. See you next week for my recap of the first episode of The Strain, Season 1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed9GuFN3hB0
