The Strain (TV series)

The Strain
Genre	Vampire horror Drama
Created by	Guillermo del Toro Chuck Hogan
Based on	The Strain by Guillermo del Toro Chuck Hogan
Starring	Corey Stoll David Bradley Mía Maestro Kevin Durand Jonathan Hyde Richard Sammel Sean Astin Jack Kesy Natalie Brown Miguel Gomez Ben Hyland
Composer	Ramin Djawadi
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	11
Production
Executive producers	Guillermo del Toro Carlton Cuse Chuck Hogan Gary Ungar
Producer	J. Miles Dale
Production locations	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Cinematography	Gabriel Beristain
Editor	Kathryn Himoff
Running time	39–43 minutes (regular) 70 minutes (pilot)
Production companies	FX Productions Carlton Cuse Productions Double Dare You
Original release
Network	FX
Release	July 13, 2014 (2014-07-13) – present

The Strain is an American horror–drama television series that premiered on FX on July 13, 2014. It was created by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, based on their novel trilogy of the same name. Carlton Cuse serves as executive producer and showrunner. Del Toro and Hogan wrote the pilot episode, "Night Zero", which del Toro directed. A thirteen-episode first season was ordered on November 19, 2013. The pilot episode premiered at the ATX Television Festival in Austin, Texas, in early June 2014.

On August 6, 2014, FX renewed The Strain for a 13-episode second season, with production set to begin in November 2014.

Premise

A plane lands at John F. Kennedy International Airport with the lights off and doors sealed. Epidemiologist Dr. Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll) and his team are sent to investigate. On board they find 206 corpses and four survivors. The situation deteriorates when all the bodies disappear from the morgue. Goodweather and a small group of helpers find themselves battling to protect not only their own loved ones, but the entire city, from an ancient threat to humanity.

Cast and characters

Main

• Corey Stoll as Dr. Ephraim "Eph" Goodweather, the head of the CDC Canary Team in New York City.
• David Bradley as Professor Abraham Setrakian, a Holocaust survivor turned New York pawn-shop owner. Jim Watson portrays Setrakian in flashbacks.
• Mía Maestro as Dr. Nora Martinez, a member of the CDC Canary Team under Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, who is Eph's closest ally.
• Kevin Durand as Vasiliy Fet, a once-solitary rat exterminator of Ukrainian descent.
• Jonathan Hyde as Eldritch Palmer, an elderly billionaire invalid driven to obtain immortality.
• Richard Sammel as Thomas Eichhorst, the leading human-appearing vampire who is tasked with persuading humans to join the Master's cause.
• Sean Astin as Jim Kent, a CDC administrator who works with Goodweather and Martinez. (season 1)
• Jack Kesy as Gabriel Bolivar, a philandering rock star with an appetite for recreational drug use and one of the outbreak's few survivors.
• Natalie Brown as Kelly Goodweather, Ephraim's estranged wife.
• Miguel Gómez as Augustin "Gus" Elizalde, a gang banger just out of juvenile prison.
• Ben Hyland as Zachary "Zach"/"Zack" Goodweather, the son of Ephraim and his estranged wife Kelly.

Recurring

• Pedro Miguel Arce as Felix, Gus' friend. (season 1)
• Adriana Barraza as Guadalupe Elizalde, Crispin and Gus' mother.
• Anne Betancourt as Mariela Martinez, Nora's mother who suffers from dementia.
• Francis Capra as Crispin Elizalde, Gus' brother who is a con artist always looking for an easy and profitable way out. (season 1)
• Roger Cross as Mr. Fitzwilliams, Palmer's caregiver and head of security.
• Ruta Gedmintas as Dutch Velders, an internet hacker hired by Palmer.
• Leslie Hope as Joan Luss, an attorney and one of the outbreak's few survivors. (season 1)
• Chloe O'Malley as Audrey Luss, attorney Joan Luss' daughter.
• Daniel Kash as Dr. Everett Barnes, the director of the CDC.
• Regina King as Ruby Wain, Bolivar's intelligent and accomplished manager.
• Robert Maillet as the Master, an ancient vampire. The character is voiced by Robin Atkin Downes.
• Steven McCarthy as Gary Arnot, father of a deceased passenger on the flight. (season 1)
• Stephen McHattie as Mr. Quinlan, a mysterious vampire hunter who also happens to be a vampire himself.
• Melanie Merkosky as Sylvia Kent, Jim Kent's cancer-stricken wife.
• Drew Nelson as Matt Sayles, Kelly Goodweather's live-in boyfriend. (season 1)
• Alex Paxton-Beesley as Ann-Marie Barbour, Ansel's concerned wife. (season 1)
• Jonathan Potts as Captain Doyle Redfern, pilot of the flight and one of the outbreak's few survivors. (season 1)
• Kim Roberts as Neeva, Joan Luss' nanny and housekeeper.
• Nikolai Witschl as Ansel Barbour, one of the outbreak's few survivors. (season 1)

Production

Development

Promotional poster which was withdrawn from circulation after a number of complaints.

In 2006, del Toro pitched The Strain as a television series, but negotiations broke down when the network president at Fox Broadcasting Company asked him to make it a comedy. An agent suggested expanding the concept as a novel series instead. Del Toro asked Chuck Hogan to co-write the series, explaining: "I've written short stories in Spanish and English. I've written screenplays. But I'm not good at forensic novels. I'm not good at hazmat language and that CSI-style precision. When Stoker wrote Dracula, it was very modern, a CSI sort of novel. I wanted to give The Strain a procedural feel, where everything seems real." Hogan agreed after reading a page and a half of del Toro's 12-page project outline; the duo collaborated for the first year on a handshake, with no contract or publishing deal in place. The first installment, The Strain, was released in 2009. It was followed by 2010's The Fall and 2011's The Night Eternal.

After the first book's publication, studios and networks began making offers for the film and television adaptation rights, but del Toro and Hogan declined, not wanting a screen version to influence the way they were writing the books. After the third book's publication, the authors talked with every cable network that had expressed interest. FX was deemed most suitable because they wanted to follow the books closely and liked the idea of The Strain as a close-ended series consisting of three to five seasons. Del Toro stated that the first two novels can be covered by one season each, while The Night Eternal may be split into two or three seasons. The author is also open to creative detours that may develop as the series goes on, possibly incorporating material cut from the books. Del Toro intends to direct as many episodes as his busy schedule allows. Before the series order was announced, FX gave the writing team the go-ahead to script another ten episodes, which del Toro rewrote. FX president John Landgraf has stated that the series will consist of "39–65 episodes, no less, no more", adding "What if a television show could be just the length that is optimal for that story?"

Regarding the style of the show's production, del Toro stated: "Basically I'm trying to do what I do in my movies which is to show it as a reality, but as a reality that is stylized. It's not like CSI or The Wire, it's real but it feels a little stylized. But the way the camera work will be is very realistic. We want to keep the camera very documentary even if the look of the show is not. The look of the show is very designed. The style of the camera and the storytelling will be very loose. It will evolve from that feel of reality, and little by little we want to evolve into more stylish, horror feel that requires smoother camera moves, more suspense and atmosphere-driven moments so it will be a mixture. I don't think that mixture has been seen a lot on TV."

FX ordered a thirteen-episode first season for the series on November 19, 2013, and announced that the series would premiere in July 2014.

Casting

Del Toro and Cuse cast the series together. Stoll was cast as Eph Goodweather based on his performance in Midnight in Paris. John Hurt played Abraham Setrakian in the original version of the pilot, but later dropped out. The role was recast with David Bradley and his scenes were reshot with Bradley. Del Toro had previously expressed interest in casting Roy Dotrice, who played Setrakian in several live-action advertisements for the first novel. Kevin Durand, who appeared in Cuse's previous show Lost, was cast as Vasiliy Fet, although the character was originally created with regular del Toro collaborator Ron Perlman in mind. Lauren Lee Smith was originally cast in the role of Kelly Goodweather. 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".

Filming

The pilot episode began principal photography on September 17, 2013, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Shooting of the pilot was finished on October 31, 2013. FX has ordered 13 episodes. Season one was expected to film from November 25, 2013, to April 30, 2014. A full writing staff was hired to script subsequent episodes. FX reportedly committed $500,000 to creature creation. Twelve swords used in the series were provided by Missoula, MT based bladesmith company Zombie Tools.

Music

The music was composed by Ramin Djawadi, who previously scored del Toro's 2013 film Pacific Rim.

Marketing

The original key art for the series prominently featured a worm, a vector of the vampiric virus, burrowing into a person's eye. Following complaints from members of the public, FX announced that they would replace the artwork on several of their billboards.

Episodes

Season		Episodes	Originally aired		DVD and Blu-ray release date
			Season premiere	Season finale	Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
	1	13	July 13, 2014 (2014-07-13)	October 5, 2014 (2014-10-05)	December 2, 2014 (2014-12-02)	TBA	TBA
	2	13	Summer 2015	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA

Season 1 (2014)

No. in series	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Teleplay by	Original air date	Production code	U.S. viewers (millions)
1	1	"Night Zero"	Guillermo del Toro	Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan	July 13, 2014 (2014-07-13)	XSN01001	2.99
A disturbance inside the cargo hold of an inbound jet to JFK International Airport alarms the flight crew. Upon landing, the plane immediately loses all contact with ground control and all but one window shade are drawn. It is feared everyone aboard is incapacitated, possibly by a contagion or some other mechanism. The CDC Canary team, headed by Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, is called to investigate. Goodweather and Dr. Nora Martinez enter the plane, finding all passengers seemingly dead. They also discover parasitic worms and fear an Ebola-like plague could break out. Four people are unexpectedly found alive, including the pilot, Doyle Redfern, though none know what happened. While at JFK, Goodweather is approached by Abraham Setrakian, an elderly Spanish Harlem pawnbroker who insists the victims' bodies must be destroyed and the elaborately carved cabinet that was removed from the stricken plane's hold must not leave the airport. Meanwhile, recently paroled Gus Elizade is hired by Mr. Eichorst, a mysterious man connected to Eldrich Plamer, a wealthy and powerful entrepreneur to retrieve the cabinet from the airport, assuring him there will be no difficulty in removing it. When Eph and Nora discover the cabinet missing, they are unaware their CDC co-worker improperly allowed its release from the quarantine area. An airport official is attacked and killed by an enormous human-like creature that uses a throat appendage to suck out blood, before smashing his head.
2	2	"The Box"	David Semel	David Weddle & Bradley Thompson	July 20, 2014 (2014-07-20)	XSN01002	2.12
Gus delivers the cabinet to its destination, then is frightened off. The four survivors continue exhibiting symptoms, though the CDC releases them over Ephraim's protests and insistence that they are suffering from a viral infection and not carbon monoxide poisoning which is the "official" explanation given publically for the disaster. His CDC boss, Dr. Everett Barnes, removes him from the case, but Eph continues working to expose the worm-driven virus, focusing his attention on the large box he believes is the source of the contagion. Eldrich Palmer hires computer hacker, Dutch Velders to disrupt the city's entire Internet and telecommunications systems, and Eichorst visits his old enemy, Abraham Setrakian, who was jailed after being arrested at the airport. Setrakian vows to halt the Master's plan to create a vampire army). Attorney and airplane survivor Joan Luss files a law suit against the airline while another survivor, rock star Gabriel Bolivar, bites a girl's neck, craving blood. Captain Redfern, who has been hospitalized, quickly deteriorates as his body begins transforming. Eph is surprised and confused when Mr. Arno calls him saying his daughter, Emma, one of the victims, has returned home safely. Eichorst takes Palmer to meet the Master. Eph discovers that Dr. Bennett, the coroner performing the autopsies on the victims, is missing, along with the victims' bodies. At the Arno home, Emma attacks her father with a throat appendage.
3	3	"Gone Smooth"	David Semel	Chuck Hogan	July 27, 2014 (2014-07-27)	XSN01003	2.30
Eichorst's true appearance is revealed when, applying nose, ear, and throat prosthesis, he prepares himself to look more human. The four survivors continue worsening. Captain Redfern is quarantined, but Eph and Nora are unable to treat him and he deteriorates. Jim Kent meets with Eichorst, refusing to take any more bribes. Eichorst offers for Jim's terminal wife to participate in an experimental cancer treatment in exchange for his continued cooperation. After Setrakian is released from jail, Nora seeks him out for information. He says the victims' bodies must be destroyed. Elsewhere, Bolivar remains holed up in his penthouse, showing increasingly erratic behavior and physical transformation, including his atrophied penis falling off. After turning completely, Redfern escapes quarantine and flees to the hospital basement where he feeds on stored blood. As Eph, Nora, and Jim approach, Redfern attacks. After a struggle, Eph bludgeons him to death with a fire extinguisher.
4	4	"It's Not for Everyone"	Keith Gordon	Regina Corrado	August 3, 2014 (2014-08-03)	XSN01004	2.27
Jim Kent has confessed to Eph and Nora that he was responsible for allowing the large box leave the airport and that he has been accepting small bribes to help pay for his wife's medical bills. Eph, furious, strikes him. Meanwhile, Ansel Barbour, another survivor, tries masking his worsening symptoms from his wife, Anne Marie. He insists she take their children to his sister's when he starts lusting for blood. Returning home, she finds the family dog dead and Ansel chained inside the garden shed. He wants to attack her, but, still cognizant, restrains himself and warns her to leave and never come back. An obnoxious neighbor appears, complaining about noise at the Barbour house. Learning he once struck her dog, Anne Marie tricks him into entering the shed and locks him inside with Ansel, where he is fed upon. Eph and Nora visit the Arnot household to verify Mr. Arno's claim that Emma was still alive and returned home. They find Emma and her father fully infected. As they attack Eph and Nora, Setrakian arrives and decapitates father and daughter. He asks Eph and Nora to join his quest.
5	5	"Runaways"	Peter Weller	Gennifer Hutchison	August 10, 2014 (2014-08-10)	XSN01005	2.03
After Gabriel Bolivar slaughters the urologist sent to treat him, his agent hires a "cleaner" to dispose of the body and remove any residual mess. Bolivar also kills the cleaner. Joan Luss, another survivor, turns more slowly. When her maid, Neeva, sees Joan's inner vertical eyelids, she flees with the Luss children. Nora is repulsed by Setrakian's cold-blooded, killing method of the infected, but Eph is open to joining him. They plan to video record an infected (vampire or Strigoi, as Setrakian calls them) which Eph can show his superior, Dr. Everett Barnes at the CDC. At the Barbour house, Eph and Setrakian find Ann Marie, who has hanged herself, unable to face life without Ansel. The fully-turned Ansel and the neighbor are in the garden shed, and Eph video records Setrakian killing them. Eph takes the recording to Everett Barnes at the CDC, but quickly realizes he has been set up to be arrested for murdering Captain Redfern. He escapes with Jim Kent's help. Flashbacks reveal a young Abraham Setrakian arriving at a concentration camp commanded by a still-human Eichorst. Setrakian is a talented craftsman and Eichorst orders him to build a giant box and carve an intricate design on it. Setrakian witnesses a strange creature feeding on sleeping prisoners and plots to kill it with a stolen silver knife. One night, Abraham's brother is a victim. Nora visits her mother at the nursing home. A Strigoi attacks a resident, and Nora and her mother flee to Nora's apartment. Vasiliy Fet, a city exterminator, notices city rats behaving strangely and tracks them to the sewers where he encounters subterranean Strigoi, barely escaping alive.
6	6	"Occultation"	Peter Weller	Justin Britt-Gibson	August 17, 2014 (2014-08-17)	XSN01006	2.28
The F.B.I. arrest Eph at his estranged wife, Kelly's, house after Matt, her new boyfriend, contacts them. Before being taken away, Eph urges Kelly to take their son, Zach, and leave the city, telling her it is unsafe. Eichorst forces Gus to remove a body (Redfern) from the hospital morgue and dump it. Gus is aided by Jim Kent. Knowing that recently-turned Strigoi return to their loved ones, Setrakian visits a plane victim's home intending to execute any infected he finds but is nearly killed. To evade the F.B.I., Nora and her mother leave the apartment. With coming nightfall, the streets are unsafe, and Nora seeks refuge at Setrakian's pawnshop. Vasilily returns to his office only to discover that his co-workers have been infected. An eclipse provides an opportunity for the Strigoi to feed during daytime. In the ensuring mayhem, Eph escapes while being transported by the F.B.I. Gus and Felix are attacked on the street by a Strigoi (who was Dr. Bennett), and Felix is infected. Gus kills the Strigoi, but he and Felix are arrested. Eph goes to Setrakian's where he is reunited with Nora.
7	7	"For Services Rendered"	Charlotte Sieling	David Weddle & Bradley Thompson	August 24, 2014 (2014-08-24)	XSN01007	2.43
Joan Luss' husband, Roger, arrives home from a business trip unaware of the horrors awaiting him. He escapes vampires on the street, only to be ambushed and fed upon by his freshly-turned wife inside their house. Meanwhile, Eph and Nora, hiding out at Abraham Setrakian's pawnshop, are gathering weapons and supplies. At their colleague Jim Kent's apartment, they find him attempting to explain to his cancer-stricken wife that his actions (accepting bribes from Eldritch Palmer) were only intended to help her. She is unforgiving and leaves for the airport to take part in an experimental cancer treatment in another state. Jim is steadfast in his desire to amend his past misdeeds and vows to help Eph and Nora. They formulate a plan to use Jim as bait to lure Eichorst into leading them to the Master, but the plan fails, and Eichorst escapes. Elsewhere, Neeva, frightened by Joan's strange behavior, has kept the Luss children at her home, only to be countermanded by her own daughter, who insists on returning the children to their parents. At the Luss' house, Joan and another vampire attempt to attack the group who barricade themselves in an office. A rebel band of vampires arrive and kill Joan and another strigoi. They also kill Neeva's daughter, who was infected, but release the others unharmed.
8	8	"Creatures of the Night"	Guy Ferland	Chuck Hogan	August 31, 2014 (2014-08-31)	XSN01008	1.91
Following their unsuccessful encounter with Eichorst at Grand Central Terminus, Eph, Nora, Jim, and Setrakian regroup while awaiting the Master's retaliation for attacking Eichorst. Making their way to Brooklyn, they break into a medical supply store to procure ultraviolet lamps to combat the vampires where they encounter Vasiliy Fet, who had the same idea. The group stocks up at a nearby convenience store but when vampires attack, they barricade themselves inside the store. The other customers, including computer hacker, Dutch Velders, are shocked by the horrific events unfolding. Setrakian explains that the Master is manipulating the vampires to specifically hunt them. After a skirmish outside, Jim is infected. Eph and Nora remove a worm from his face, only to realize it has already spread throughout his body. They want to treat Jim at a hospital, but Jim begs to be killed before turning. Setrakian concurs and Vasiliy fatally shoots Jim. As the vampires are about to overrun the convenience store, the group escapes in a delivery truck parked outside.
9	9	"The Disappeared"	Charlotte Sieling	Regina Corrado	September 7, 2014 (2014-09-07)	XSN01009	1.87
Eph and the others go to the Goodweather house in Queens, arriving in time to save Zach from an infected Matt. Setrakian, Dutch, Vasiliy, and Zach return to the pawnshop while Eph and Nora stay behind to burn Matt's body and wait for Kelly, who is missing. Dutch's apartment building has been infected, and Vasiliy convinces her to come with them. At the pawnshop, Vasiliy agrees to join Setrakian's mission, and Dutch admits to being responsible for crashing the communication networks for Eldritch Palmer. Elsewhere, Felix has fully turned into a vampire and, while en route to Rikers Island, attacks the occupants inside the police van, crashing it. Gus kills Felix, then escapes. Kelly's friend, Diane, arrives at the Goodweather house, and Eph tells her to contact him should she hear from Kelly, then he and Nora return to the pawnshop. In the WWII flashback, Setrakian, armed with the knife he hid, tries to kill the Master while it feeds on the prisoners. He underestimates the creature's stealth and strength, and it confronts him, crushing his fingers with its enormous hands. The following day, Eichorst, after seeing Setrakian's injuries, sends him to the group that is about to be executed. The prisoners escape, thanks to a surprise allied attack on the camp. Later, Eichorst arrives at a secret bunker in the woods that houses the Master's coffin. There the Master transfuses a worm into his body, triggering Eichorst's rebirth as a vampire.
10	10	"Loved Ones"	John Dahl	Gennifer Hutchison	September 14, 2014 (2014-09-14)	XSN01010	2.22
At the pawnshop, Zach is able to track Kelly's phone on a laptop. Eph searches for her but discovers that a homeless woman had found the phone next to Kelly's abandoned car. A bloody tissue is inside. In flashbacks, Kelly is attacked at home by a newly-turned Matt. She escapes but has been infected. Over the next 24 hours she gradually turns, and, thirsting for blood, arrives at Diane's house where she attacks Diane and her son. When Eph goes there searching for Kelly, he is forced to kill the infected. Kelly is not there, but Eph finds her necklace is in Diane's hand and breaks down, realizing Kelly probably attacked and turned them. Dutch tells Setrakian that she believes it is possible to undo the damage she caused to the city's communication networks but needs to infiltrate Eldrich Palmer's Stoneheart Group headquarters. She and Vasiliy enter under the guise of city exterminators, but security spot Dutch, and Palmer's assistant, Fitzwilliam and his team intercept them. Dutch is brought before Palmer, who reveals his plans for immortality, then orders Fitzwilliam to dispose of the intruders. Fitzwilliam instead releases them, now doubting his boss' actions. Vasiliy entreats him to join their cause, but Fitzwilliam declines. Eph returns to the pawnshop and offends Dutch, who angrily leaves, preferring to take her chances on the street. Meanwhile, a fully turned Kelly is summoned by the Master, who meets her face-to-face and tells her to "rejoice."
11	11	"The Third Rail"	Deran Sarafian	Justin Britt-Gibson & Chuck Hogan	September 21, 2014 (2014-09-21)	XSN01011	2.28
The group formulate a plan to infiltrate the Master's underground lair. Eph wants Nora to stay behind and protect Zach and her mother, who suffers from dementia. Nora refuses, and Eph instead leaves Zach in charge of watching Mrs. Martinez. He locks them into the pawnshop, leaving Zach the keys. Eph, Nora, Vasiliy and Setrakian enter a deserted railway tunnel leading to the 9/11 attack sites where they believe the Master is hiding. Meanwhile, Zach, yielding to Mrs. Martinez's incessant demands for cigarettes, leaves the pawnshop to find her some. Inside a deserted grocery store, Zach encounters a vampire. When looters arrive, the vampire attacks, and Zach narrowly escapes. Outside, he runs into Gus, who is armed with an ax. Gus had just returned home and discovered his infected family. He killed his brother and also the infected landlord, but was unable to harm his mother and left her behind. Gus sends Zach safely on his way, then goes in to destroy the vampires. Meanwhile, Eph and the others have located the Master's lair only to find it littered with sleeping Strigoi. Eph is drawn by what sounds like Kelly's voice crying out for help. Setrakian, knowing it is a trap, saves him. They find the large coffin, but when the Master arrives, Vasiliy wards it off with a home-made bomb. The Master escapes and while searching for it, the group stumble across hundreds of nesting, newly-turned vampires. Setrakian wants to continue the pursuit, but the others force him to retreat.
12	12	"Last Rites"	Peter Weller	Carlton Cuse and David Weddle & Bradley Thompson	September 28, 2014 (2014-09-28)	XSN01012	TBA
13	13	"The Master"	Phil Abraham	Carlton Cuse & Chuck Hogan	October 5, 2014 (2014-10-05)	XSN01013	TBA

Reception

The series has received generally positive reviews from critics, and has a Metacritic rating of 72 out of 100 based on 37 reviews. It currently holds an 87% "Certified Fresh" rating with an average score of 7.4 out of 10 on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. Its consensus states "The Strain makes the most of its familiar themes through an effective mix of supernatural thrills and B-movie gore – though it may not appeal to everyone".

External links

• Official website
• The Strain at IMDb