Tag Archives: The Strain

‘The Strain’ a gooey mess, but fun

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the strain david bradley

“The Strain” is an odd bird. Even besides the whole “vampires projecting fleshy six-foot-long stingers out of their mouths” thing.

It’s odd because it’s a TV series drawn from a series of three books that began life as a TV project.

Published in 2009, “The Strain” was written by movie director Guillermo del Toro and top-notch crime drama writer Chuck Hogan, who wrote “Prince of Thieves,” the hard-bitten Boston thriller made into the Ben Affleck movie “The Town.”

The two based “The Strain” and its two sequels, “The Fall” and “The Night Eternal,” on a TV series they wanted to develop.

The first book – and this is the plot familiar to viewers of the FX series, which is five episodes into a 13-episode first (?) season – follows the efforts of a small group of people – a couple of Centers for Disease Control scientists, an exterminator and a sword-wielding survivor of a World War II death camp – to convince authorities that New York City is the breeding ground for a deadly type of virus, It’s a disease that turns people into grotesque vampires, spreads rapidly – and has been deliberately released into the population after most of the passengers and crew of an airliner turn up dead on the runway at JFK.

“The Strain” is also odd in that, having read the books, I can’t quite imagine how the show can play out like Hogan and del Toro’s series of novels.

I won’t get into spoilers here, but suffice it to say that it would be an odd series indeed that starts as a medical thriller with supernatural overtones and morphs into … well, something else entirely.

“The Strain” is not what it seems. I’m not sure at what pace the plot will play out – and I’m pretty sure the series will be more faithful to the books than the adaptation of Stephen King’s “Under the Dome” has been – but it’ll be very interesting to see what happens by the end of this season. Or next, if there is one.

And those stingers. Sheesh.

‘The Strain’ coming to TV

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This is not surprising news: “The Strain,” the end-of-the-world-through-vampires trilogy of books written by Chuck Hogan and Guillermo Del Toro, is being turned into a TV series for FX.

It’s not surprising because “The Strain” trilogy – “The Strain,” “The Fall” and “The Night Eternal” – was originally conceived as a television series. And as a filmmaker and the guy who was tasked with bringing The Hulk to TV, Del Toro thinks and writes in a TV-friendly style.

But the news is interesting and could be good news for fans of the books. Or, at least, fans of the first book and elements of the second and third.

When “The Strain” came out in 2009, I thought it was one of the freshest and grimmest takes on vampire storytelling in years. The story plays out like a contagion thriller, with a scientist from the Centers for Disease Control, a World War II concentration camp survivor and an exterminator – yes, an exterminator – taking on a secretive vampire infestation of New York City.

The book’s plot is fun and the characters enjoyable, but the best part was the variation on vampire lore: The monsters were not sparkly dreamboats but pale, scary creatures with bloodsucking stingers that shot out several feet to snare victims. The heroes used some standard vampire-slaying tools but also used high-tech stuff like ultraviolet flashlights.

As good as the first book was, though, the succeeding volumes missed the mark with me. Maybe it was how dark they were. Maybe it was that it seemed Hogan and Del Toro painted themselves into a corner by going way, way too far too quickly.

At any rate, I’ll be interested to see what kind of show Del Toro and showrunner Carlton Cuse of “Lost” put on.

Here’s hoping they don’t go too far too fast.

Writers to read: Chuck Hogan

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Chuck Hogan is one of those writers whose fame is slowly growing but whose name might draw a blank stare even from avid readers of crime novels and thrillers.

Chuck who?

Hogan co-wrote, with Guillermo Del Toro, the trilogy of end-of-the-world books that began with “The Strain.”

He also wrote the gritty thriller “Prince of Thieves,” the story the Ben Affleck/Jeremy Renner thriller “The Town” was based on.

Oh, that Chuck Hogan.

I’ve been making my way through Hogan’s novels, in no particular order. As proof of that, I’ve just finished his first book, “The Standoff,” published in 1994.

The downbeat story of a deeply troubled FBI hostage negotiator, the sheriff of a small Montana county and a black federal agent, all of whom are thrown into a dangerous situation thanks to a standoff with a white supremacist holed up, along with family members, in a small mountain cabin.

When a local judge mistakenly orders an eviction notice be served on the mountain man — who has a good supply of guns to back up his racist, government-hating paranoia — dominos begin falling. Shots are fired, reinforcements are called in and the people of a nearby town start taking sides. Unfortunately, they take the side of the racist cabin-dweller.

Hogan throws a few twists into the story, but the book is a straightforward and ultimately dark thriller.

The story is interesting in part because of the time in which it was published. The federal standoffs at Waco and Ruby Ridge had occurred but the Oklahoma City bombing had not. Mention of the World Trade Center — the scene of an earlier, traumatic hostage situation that left troubled agent John Banish literally and figuratively scarred — seem eerie.

Hogan isn’t a showy writer. The “Strain” trilogy with its end-of-the-world theatrics isn’t typical of his work.

With that series complete, I’m hoping that Hogan gets back to the mean streets and meaner protagonists of his best thrillers.

 

It’s not the end of the world

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I’ve been on an “end of the world” kick lately, mostly subconsciously.

Not just looking forward to the return of “The Walking Dead” on Feb. 12, but enjoying “The Fades,” the new series on BBC America, and anticipating the movie version of “World War Z” this fall. Anticipation mixed with dread, actually, considering all the changes they’ve apparently made to the great Max Brooks episodic novel.

I didn’t get into the latest end-of-the-world opus I tried, however. I stopped reading David Moody’s “Autumn,” the first in a multi-book series, after I realized the glacial pace its end-of-the-world-through-the-flu-with-zombies story. Checking out the fourth book online, I noticed it said it took place something like 40 days into the story. No thanks. I’ve had enough of the glacial pace of “The Walking Dead” to do me for a while.

I was also a little disappointed in “The Night Eternal,” the third book in “The Strain” trilogy by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. The series started strong with the original 2009 book about a plague of vampires threatening the world and the second book, “The Fall,” was pretty good if dire. By the time of the third book, things were pretty bleak and it’s no surprise that bad things happen to some characters you liked pretty well.

So I’ll happily make do with the return of “The Walking Dead” and the occasional glimpse of History’s “Life after People.” That series, which looks at the deterioration of the world’s landmarks after the end of humanity, is fascinating and forlorn.

And there’s always another reading of “The Stand.”