You're right, September 24 and 31 should be September 21 and 28. Will fix.Pretty excited for this. Going to try to convince a few people I know to watch it too so I'll have someone to talk to about it. Awesome job OP, but I think the dates of the last few episodes are off unless they're going to switch it to Wednesday nights or something.
Why did The Strain become a TV series instead of a movie?
From the beginning it was pitched as a TV series. And then when we couldnt do it, I knew I wouldnt want to make a movie because I would have huge censorship problems with the fact that you are spending so much money that they wanted to make it a commercial and acceptable even if its a horror movie they tried to make it conform a lot to canons that could cripple the essence of the story, which is the painful loss and destruction of a family, one by one, and then the vampirization of society through the family nucleus. I went and re-wrote the three books, and we knew we didnt want to sell the rights for film. The genesis of it all was when I started to fall in love with long-form TV in the early days with Deadwood and The Wire and The Sopranos. I was so enamored of being able to do a bottle episode, like, you know, when Christopher gets lost in the woods [in "The Sopranos"]. And I like the idea of doing a series that was as much procedural as it was horror, and hopefully as much melodrama as it was horror. We tried to do that with the books. What I said to Chuck when we started the books was to promise the audience some of which were disappointed that the three books were going to be very different from one another. The first book is going to beWe did just that with the books. The TV series is going to be a lot less clear-cut; we can combine and mix and match. We tried to make the books completely different from each other, which to some readers was joyful, to others it was frustrating.basically the scientific aspect of the plague, the second book is going to be the sociological aspect of the plague, and the final one is going to be the spiritual, religious, mythological aspect of the plague.
There are 13 episodes in the season, right?
Yes, 13 episodes. Ive seen all the cuts, Ive color timed all the way to episode eight so far. We are mixed, right now, all the way to episode five. Were expecting episode seven next week. Ive seen most of the bits and pieces, and Im very happy with the whole first season.
Color timing. Mostly post-production work.Mixed, as in sound? And what is color timing?
Color timing. Mostly post-production work.
There's a few up on metacritic already. Mostly positive.Has any early reviews for this come out yet?
- NY daily news review:FX is so steeped in brooding drama, the comicbook-y roots of The Strain feel mildly off brand, but also like a breath of fresh air. While theres not much new to be done with the vampire genre, director Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogans adaptation of their book/graphic novel plays like perfect summer popcorn fare, filtering the threat of marauding bloodsuckers through fears of global pandemic. At times the portentous dialogue can sound hokey, but for the most part, the slick pilot and three subsequent episodes set the tone for a series with enough of a hook to get under ones skin.
Whether you prefer your fear to be delivered as an extended psychological tease, or sudden gruesome bolts of old-fashioned lethal violence, The Strain gets the job done.
More reviews at the above link."The Strain," I must repeat, is not A Good Show. But it and enormously enjoyable one, and one I wanted more of the instant I finished watching. It's delicious, and I'm sorry.
It's gotten to the point for me where I instantly dismiss any review that states "this thing is awful and I love it". Either it works on some level or it doesn't. They're trying to make their critique seem nuanced when really they just come off as confused.
I can see where criticisms like that could be valid. Personally that quote describes the way I feel about The Following. It is an objectively terrible show but I have a blast watching it.
Is it like "The Room" tier? That's really the only situation I can imagine the comment being justified.
I've never seen that so I couldn't rightfully say.
Whatever the creatures of The Strain are, this is a great new FX television series, based on the trilogy by Guillermo del Toro and local writer Chuck Hogan. Both are aboard here as executive producers and, unlike the Coen Brothers with FXs Fargo, the EP titles are more than an honorific. Del Toro, the hyper-imaginative director of Pans Labyrinth and Hellboy, directed Sunday nights pilot episode, which seems to be the cinematic template for the rest of the series. Hogan, like del Toro behind the camera, is more impressive working for the screen than the page. The writing in the book is prosaic while his writing on the series, and that of other writers, is as stylish as TV writing gets.
Still, this is a creep-out show for the most part, not a gross-out one. The former relies more on atmospherics, and cinematography, as well as smart direction, writing and acting. The Strain has all of those ingredients in spades.
Is it like "The Room" tier? That's really the only situation I can imagine the comment being justified.
With three books to adapt over multiple seasons, there should be plenty of time to examine every weird, scary or funny burst of imagination from Del Toro and Hogan. I wasn't especially looking forward to another vampire drama, but I'm eager to see all the strange twists, turns and appendages of this one.
The Strain [is] an oozy, disgusting vampire drama that is just as ridiculous as it should be.
Yeah, Del Toro doesn't even sell it that way in interviews.Anyone worried about this show being a "vampire drama" really have nothing to worry about.
That's a lot of material to cram into one episode...
The pilot episode covers the first half of the first book, and then you have 150 pages to make 12 episodes of television.
That's a lot of material to cram into one episode...
If nothing else, The Strain looks great. Guillermo Del Torowho co-wrote the script with Chuck Hogan based on their trilogy of Strain novelsdirects the pilot, and his gift for visuals runs through the first four episodes. The shot compositions are only occasionally inspired, but the effects work runs the gamut, from squirm-inducing to majestically creepy. Most impressive are the colors. The Strain pops, each location lit to bring out a vivid, striking variety of luscious blues, golden browns, andas fitting for a thriller about a new variation of vampiresbloody reds. The hues are both lurid and surprisingly warm, suggesting a world simultaneously overflowing with vitality and horror, flush with life, and achingly vulnerable.
Its a pity that nothing else is quite so memorable. As a novel, The Strain isnt a classic; competently paced, and with the occasional clever twist on vampiric lore, its bogged down with flat, clichéd characters and a blandly forgettable prose style. In theory, a television adaptation of the material has the potential to transcend these problems. Putting actors in roles that seemed two-dimensional on the page could give them a chance to breathe, and a visual version of the narrative wouldnt have to worry about sentences overloaded with clunky phrases and superfluous, unnecessary adjectives.
Its a spectacle only del Toro could have pulled off. It had me holding my stomach and covering my eyes, stuck halfway between a laugh and a retch. Now that I think of it, much of The Strain left me teetering between those extremes.
The Strain, Guillermo Del Toros New Vampire TV Show, Is Perfect Summer Schlock
Something dangerous lurks in the forest. See the thrilling, animated prequel of The Strain. He Is Here this Sunday on FX.
I hope this is great and action packed. Penny Dreadful had a great 1st episodes, slowed to a crawl, then turned into one of those annoying possession/exorcism style films. So much wasted potential.
I hope this is great and action packed. Penny Dreadful had a great 1st episodes, slowed to a crawl, then turned into one of those annoying possession/exorcism style films. So much wasted potential.
Hope they can make vampire scary again after the shitfest that was Twatlight.
Hope they can make vampire scary again after the shitfest that was Twatlight.
I'm very interested to see how they diverge from the books. I mean,Quinlan is in the trailers.
They're definitely pulling out Eichorst a bit early, I noticed.Really? Could you point out where and which trailer? I haven't seen him.
Penny dreadful was better than this likely will be tbh