FX’s vampire thriller The Strain ran for four seasons and 46 episodes, from July 13, 2014, to September 17, 2017. It was created by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, based on their novel trilogy of the same name, with Carlton Cuse as executive producer and showrunner. Del Toro and Hogan wrote the pilot, “Night Zero,” which del Toro directed. That is a serious pedigree for a show about a plane full of dead people.
Trailer, via FX Networks.
A Plane Lands at JFK
The premise is a good one. Dr. Ephraim Goodweather runs the CDC’s New York-based Canary Project. His team is called to investigate an airplane landing where everyone aboard is dead. What they find is a viral outbreak with the hallmarks of an ancient strain of vampirism. The virus spreads, and Goodweather works with his team and a group of the city’s residents to wage war for the fate of humanity.
Corey Stoll plays Goodweather. David Bradley plays Professor Abraham Setrakian. Kevin Durand plays Vasiliy Fet. The cast list is the show’s real argument:
- Corey Stoll as Dr. Ephraim Goodweather
- Kevin Durand as Vasiliy Fet
- Miguel Gómez as Augustin ‘Gus’ Elizalde
- David Bradley as Professor Abraham Setrakian
- Jonathan Hyde as Eldritch Palmer
- Richard Sammel as Thomas Eichorst
The Recasting That Saved Setrakian
The behind-the-scenes story is worth knowing. John Hurt played Setrakian in the original version of the pilot, then dropped out. The role was recast with David Bradley, and his scenes were reshot. That is the right call. Bradley’s Setrakian — an old man who has hunted the Master for decades — gives the series its spine.
Del Toro and Cuse cast the show together. Stoll got the lead based on his performance in Midnight in Paris. Durand, who appeared in Cuse’s previous show Lost, was cast as Fet, though the character was originally created with Ron Perlman in mind. Lauren Lee Smith was originally cast as Kelly Goodweather and was replaced by Natalie Brown. Del Toro wanted Doug Jones for a major role, but scheduling conflicts forced him to decline; he later played the Ancient and the Master’s previous incarnation. Sean Astin was cast as Jim Kent because del Toro and Cuse “thought it would be funny to have the most famous sidekick of all times be a betrayer.”
thought it would be funny to have the most famous sidekick of all times be a betrayer
Four Seasons, One Long War
FX ordered a thirteen-episode first season on November 19, 2013. The pilot premiered at the ATX Television Festival in Austin, Texas, in early June 2014. Renewals came fast: a 13-episode second season on August 6, 2014, a 10-episode third season on August 7, 2015, and a fourth and final season on September 27, 2016. The second season premiered July 12, 2015; the third on August 28, 2016; the fourth on July 16, 2017.
As the series progresses, Goodweather finds new allies as they discover a dark underworld, political corruption, and a sinister plot for dominion. That is a lot of machinery, and the show does not always carry it.
What Holds and What Sags
The Strain is at its best when it stays small: a CDC team, a plane, a virus, a pawnshop. The vampire mythology is gruesome and specific, and the political-corruption thread gives the horror a second front. The weakness is sprawl. Four seasons and 46 episodes is a long war, and the middle stretch spends too much time on the sinister plot and not enough on the people. Max Charles replaced Ben Hyland in the series regular role of Zach Goodweather for the second season, a swap that never quite settles.
This is a genre show with a real director’s eye behind the pilot and a genuinely great villain in Setrakian’s long hunt. It is not a classic. It is a good, nasty, occasionally great four-season run that knew when to stop.
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