My Sunday nights are busy. Usually, I watch The Last Ship, then Falling Skies. Finally, I switch to HBO and watch the last season of True Blood. I kept catching glimpses of The Strain, the new vampire show on FXX. The commercials drew me in, piqued my interests, but I am a loyal watcher of my favorite shows and don’t have time for anything else.
This weekend, with nothing else of TV, I made time for The Strain and boy am I glad I did. Within fifteen minutes of the first episode, I was hooked. Dracula on a plane with a captive audience, Holy Hell. Dracula—AKA The Master—doesn’t look like Luke Evans. He is the opposite of sexy. The dude is huge and Evil with a capital E.
I don’t want to give away any spoilers, and there are many—but if you are looking for a real vampire story with characters that don’t sparkle or whine, The Strain is for you.
There is no comparison to Vampire Diaries, The Originals, Buffy, Angel, or True Blood. This is no angsty hormonal teen drama set in a suburban high school or the bayou of Louisiana. NYC is the setting. The grit and grim are as real as the tension and danger. And I loved every second of it.
The Strain executive by Guillermo Del Toro is a cut above the rest of the pack. Reality (the CDC and a runaway virus) and fantasy (Dracula and his minions) blend perfectly. I have to reorganize my Sunday night, because The Strain is my new must watch show.