After waiting with baited breath, The Strain is here! From the minds of Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan, we see what terror truly is in its most terrifying form! This is what a vampire series is about! It’s hard to put this into perspective, but fans have been waiting for this since December 2011, when the book first hit the shelves. So, basically, there was probably some premature…(you know what) from the long build-up!
The show begins with some kind of unholy terror in a cargo room on an airplane headed from Berlin to JFK Airport. Once the plane lands, it goes silent, and the tower can’t figure out what’s going on inside. The police arrive on the scene, followed by every agency you can think of. Meanwhile, CDC scientist Ephraim Goodweather is having a counseling session with his estranged wife. He keeps getting phone calls from his boss, and exits the meeting.
As he finally makes it to the airport, he realizes that something big is going down. He and his partner, Dr. Nora Martinez, get into Hazmat suits and enter the airplane. They find all the passengers are dead, and also find out that some sort of fluid has been splattered all over the plane that can only be seen with UV lights. As they’re inspecting the rest of the plane, Nora moves toward the cockpit. She’s startled when one of the pilots wakes up from his “death,” and Goodweather rushes to examine him.
After a quick look, neither Nora or Ephraim can determine what happened, so they unload the “dead” bodies, and also the four people that seem to still be alive in some capacity. In another scene, some corporate mogul-type guy is being relayed some information about the plane at JFK. The older gentleman and his business associate remark that “He’s here,” and begin to move some kind of plan into motion. Can Dr. Goodweather and Dr. Martinez figure out what’s caused the deaths, and why it didn’t kill only four passengers? I don’t know, but New York City better be ready, because something very evil is about to be unleashed!
This was a great start to this series even though it varied slightly from the comic book. There were a couple of variations, but they could’ve been things from the novels that I’m unaware happened. Of course, the show was very edgy, and ever so slightly over the top with some dialogue and violence. Definitely not one for the kiddos. I was actually hoping for a bit of a pull-back with the violence and language, being that it was on TV, but that really didn’t happen.
The characters are the draw, though, and the cast mixed quite nicely. From the leads to the role players, it was an overall great casting job, and you really get a sense for the family problems Ephraim is having, which makes it even tougher to deal with the everyday stuff going on. Hopefully, next time the show airs, we’ll get to see the origin of Professor Setrakian, and dive even deeper into the mystery of his past life!
Get to it and look for this show, because it’s going to be my favorite new show for quite some time! A quick side-note: Anyone looking for some reading material, get online and grab the first volume of The Strain! Here are some stills from the first episode:
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net
