It’s a great time to be a fan.
The Strain, by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan is a thriller that tells the story of Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, the head of the Center for Disease Control Canary Team in New York City. He and his team are called upon to investigate a mysterious viral outbreak with hallmarks of an ancient and evil strain of vampirism. As the strain spreads, Eph, his team, and an assembly of everyday New Yorkers, wage war for the fate of humanity itself.
A Boeing 767 arrives at JFK and is on its way across the tarmac, when it suddenly stops dead. All window shades are pulled down. All lights are out. All communication channels have gone quiet. Crews on the ground are lost for answers, but an alert goes out to the CDC. Dr. Ephraim “Eph” Goodweather, head of their Canary project, a rapid-response team that investigates biological threats, gets the call and boards the plane. What he finds makes his blood run cold.
In a pawnshop in Spanish Harlem, a former professor and survivor of the Holocaust named Abraham Setrakian knows something is happening. And he knows the time has come, that a war is brewing.
So begins a battle of mammoth proportions as the vampiric virus that has infected New York begins to spill out into the streets. Eph, who is joined by Setrakian and a motley crew of fighters, must now find a way to stop the contagion and save his city – a city that includes his wife and son – before it is too late.
That’s the IMDB synopsis. What it doesn’t tell you is how utterly butt kicking the main characters in this story is. Their Van Helsing archetype called, Abraham Setrakian is a total bad ass holocaust survivor. One of the servants of the master, “Eichorst” comes to bail him out in the guise of being his lawyer. In actuality he’s one of the Nazi’s who tortured him and killed his wife. I tell you what, he was calling the guy was calling him by his number and referring to him as “Jew” on the last night’s episode of the televised version, currently airing Sunday nights on FX Network. It really got my blood up. It’s so tense.
These vampires are not your typical teenage angst glitter covered cliché’s. They are nasty. If you like your fantasy entertain with a splash of brutality, this is the show for you.
As I just started on book 2 of the trilogy, The Fall, it’s just a neat thing to see it all fleshed out in live action. Guillermo del Toro, pffttt! What a genius that guys is!