FX's The Strain

This past Sunday saw the premiere of Guillermo del Toro's "The Strain" on FX (that channel that gets away with saying the curse word "shit") 

and the first episode starts off with a mysterious flight landing at JFK and all aboard the plane appear dead with no signs of struggle. Naturally, the CDC is called in and they are represented by Corey Stoll (House of Cards) and some lady and Samwise Gamgee. I don't really want to give away what is going to happen on this show or what I've seen but i am going to say that this series approach to the Vampire myth and breaking it down to something like a disease is fascinating to me. In this world based on a comic book, the vampires aren't always handsome devils but really nasty and most of the time bald with hoses in their mouths that drain you of your blood with perfect precision (no stupid and obvious puncture marks so if someone was bitten you'd never know!). The show also has another main character that is beautifully brought to life by David Bradley (The World's End/Game of Thrones) who plays an old man who used to hunt vampires in his youth and what really works with Bradly's portrayal of Abraham Setrakian is that he has the ability to appear unimportant while actually being the one guy who knows what is happening. A sort of "yeah vampires are real, now let's kill them before this becomes a problem" but Corey Stoll's CDC leader scientist Ephraim Goodweather classically dismisses the idea which spells trouble for everyone. As far as i can tell from certain sources this first series will be only 13 episodes long with no scheduled season breaks in sight for the future so we are basically golden till October 12th when the season finale airs. Check it out, you guys.

The Strain 

Sunday on FX 

Corey Stoll as Ephraim with a hairpiece.

-R