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.
