Corey Stoll
David Bradley
Mía Maestro
Kevin Durand
Jonathan Hyde
Richard Sammel
Jack Kesy
Natalie Brown
Miguel Gomez
Ruta Gedmintas

Created by:
Guillermo del Toro
Chuck Hogan

2014-
Drama, Horror, Thriller
FX
TV-MA

“The Strain” has a superb first episode, directed by horror veteran Guillermo del Toro. I only hope that the rest of its episodes continue in the same vein. During this episode, you instantly know that something wrong is about to happen. It looks perfect, and the pacing is correct. Plus, the acting is strong: The beats and beat changes all work.

The writing by co-creators Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan effectively uses horror and sci-fi techniques, and there’s just enough character development to make the central characters interesting without detracting from the plot. (But we do get the “Meddling Wife” story line again. During this episode, she decides to leave her husband ostensibly because he’s spending too much time helping to save lives at the CDC; he’s not being faithful to her, either, but she supposedly doesn’t know that yet. She needs to get over it. In contrast, their son loves his father and doesn’t have much interest in her new love interest.)

“The Strain” is another in a long line of shows and movies that introduce a new kind of vampire. This show’s vampire incarnations are intriguing: They can move or even fly, depending on the vampire, in unexpected ways. Also, their feeding mechanism is more complex than are those of other vampire mythologies. We’ll see how that develops.

Guillermo del Toro has a lot of experience in this genre, and it shows. However, in many of his films, the editing isn’t as precise as it could be. But “The Strain” doesn’t have any editing problems that I can discern; well, not yet. I just hope that the television format will help to keep del Toro and the rest of his staff on task. If so, then this show could be a horror version of “Fringe,” one that’s lighter on sci-fi and heavier on thrills. …

The second episode of “The Strain” continues to deliver on the promise of the pilot. I’m more confident in the quality of this show’s future episodes, as a result. It’s just so much fun to watch; that’s its greatest attribute. So, when something stupid or annoying happens, it’s not too hard to take it in stride. This is thoroughly enjoyable horror television for the summer. I’m so thankful for that!

Verdict: Very Good Overall

About: (Source: strain)

The transformation has begun.

It can no longer be denied — New York City is rapidly falling to an evil epidemic, and no one is coming to its rescue. Its citizens must fight or die.

Dr. Ephraim Goodweather and his unlikely allies tried to take down the embodiment of this evil — the Master — and failed. Now Eph and Dr. Nora Martinez concentrate on creating a biological weapon to wipe out the creatures, while Abraham Setrakian searches for an ancient book he hopes will reveal the strigoi’s entire history…and possibly a way to kill them. Meanwhile, the Master is out for revenge, unleashing new and even more terrifying breeds of bloodthirsty creatures. They need to find a way to defeat him before the infection spreads too far and becomes irreparable…before they become monsters themselves.