The Strain: Your Next Addiction
You’re already dreading it, aren’t you? The pangs of withdrawal once we say goodbye to Walter, Jessie and the pink teddy bear next weekend. Oh, sure, we’ll still have ‘Sons of Anarchy’ and ‘Boardwalk Empire’ and ‘Game of Thrones’ to lean on, but what will be that next can’t-fucking-wait, did-you-see-that-shit? weekly buzz show the masses froth over? ‘Dads?’ Shit, we don’t even have ‘Dexter’ to kick around any more, and at one point – Season 4, to be precise – it was this year’s ‘Breaking Bad.’
We may have to look down the road for our next fix, and if it all pans out, it will be so worth the wait.
It hasn’t even filmed its first episode yet, but there’s already plenty of buzz ‘The Strain’ will own our ass by this time next year. Here are ten reasons why:
- Guillermo Del Toro: Even if this year’s ‘Pacific Rim’ underwhelmed a bit, his name is virtually a guarantee of quality. The Bearded One co-wrote the trilogy of books this is based on, and it’s doubtful he will allow anything less than top notch to have his name attached.
- Vampires: I mean, real, sick-looking, fucking scary vampires. In fact, they’re barely vampires at all – ‘The Strain’ offers parasitic creatures straight out of your friggin’ nightmares. They share the same quality as vampires – the story brilliantly lays out in scientific terms how they are what they are – but these suckers will, once and for all, bury ‘Twilight’ and remind us what assholes vampires really are.
- John Hurt: He has been cast in the vitally important role of Abraham Setrakian, basically ‘The Strain’s version of Obi Wan. He’s a Holocaust-survivor who confronted the vampires in a concentration camp decades ago, and holds all the secrets to defeating them today. In his own, feeble way this character kicks so much ass, and Del Toro gets good stuff out of Hurt (Hellboy I and II).
- A Contained Story: The plan is for ‘The Strain’ to run up to 65 episodes, which is about right for all the major shit that goes down in the three books. Most importantly, it will be a story leading to a clearcut ending, not a make-it-up-as-we-go-along narrative. In that sense, the worst thing that could happen is the show becomes a massive hit and the network orders additional episodes. That will leave the show feeling, uh, strained. That likely won’t be an issue because …
- FX: They may not be in the same league as AMC or HBO yet, but this is still the network that gave us ‘The Shield’, ‘Rescue Me,’ ‘Justified’, and ‘Louie.’ About ‘The Strain,’ FX prez John Landgrof has said “What if a television show could be just the length that is optimal for that story?” Preach it brother!
- The Books: We keep coming back to them for a reason – they’re great. The first deals with the outbreak, the second deals with the fall of humanity, the third deals with saving what’s left of the world. Del Toro co-wrote them with crime novelist Chuck Hogan (‘The Town’), and they are three of the scariest, most detailed and bizarrely plausible vampire stories ever made. In other words, if a real-life plague hit us – ala the zombies in ‘World War Z’ – it would look a lot like this.
- The Creatures: The show hinges on them, and FX already knows it. That’s why they’ve reportedly committed $500,000 to get them looking right for the pilot.
- The Return of Real Horror to TV: Look, ‘American Horror Story’ has its moments but gets too caught up in its own goofy excess (did last season really need aliens on top of everything else?), and ‘The Walking Dead’ is more of a drama most weeks. ‘The Strain’ will not be a funny show. It will not be a family-friendly show. It does not have a happy ending. If faithful to the books, it will be among the most frightening, disturbing things on TV not starring a Kardashian.
- The Style: Del Toro has said it will resemble the documentary, reality camera work we saw on ‘The Shield’ and ‘Southland,’ which only makes the already dark story feel grimier and more suspenseful (not to mention saves on the budget). This is exactly the way I saw the story in my head while reading it, so … yay me.
- The Golden Age: That’s right, we’re still in The Golden Age of phenomenal TV – a time when quality rules, and every great show seemingly wants to top the competition. ‘The Strain’ won’t join the fray to be a bystander, it will be an A-lister. It may start slow (the first book took painstaking care setting the scene with that Boeing 777 at JFK), but – much like ‘Breaking Bad’ – it will reward patience and sharp eyes in subsequent seasons.
‘The Strain’ is supposed to start filming in Toronto this month. If greenlit, the series starts filming in November. Which means we start wetting our pants next September. Deliver us some evil, Del Toro.
Khalil
September 19, 2013 @ 5:22 pm
YES, agree on all counts – can’t wait for this! It’s one of the best books to share with people too. The first novel’s audiobook is read by noneother than Clay Morrow himself…
Jim Law
September 19, 2013 @ 7:13 pm
Really bothered me that he didn’t read all of them. When you listen to them all in a row everybody’s voice changes in the second book.
James
September 19, 2013 @ 7:40 pm
“The Style: Del Toro has said it will resemble the documentary, reality camera work we saw on ‘The Shield’ and ‘Southland,”
I don’t like the sound of that. This thing should be cinematic not documentary/reality style.
The Ragi
September 19, 2013 @ 7:40 pm
If Perlman had read the other two I’d have bought them already. He did such an amazing job on that audiobook.
That man can read out loud.