Hey, it's renewal day for summer cable dramas! A few hours after Sundance announced a third season order for “Rectify,” FX has ordered a second season of its new vampire thriller “The Strain.”
Season 2 of the series – based on the novels by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, in which a trio of CDC disease experts (Corey Stoll, Sean Astin and Mia Maestro), a vampire-hunting Holocaust survivor (David Bradley) and a hulking exterminator (Kevin Durand) find themselves in the middle of a vampire epidemic in New York – will debut next summer.
Six episodes have aired so far this season, with seven more to go between now and October.
“I am thrilled! Another season to spread the virus!” del Toro said in a statement. “Working with Carlton (Cuse), Chuck and FX has been immensely rewarding and we have such sights to unveil in the upcoming episodes-the blood hits the fan on this one, mankind becomes an endangered species.”
I liked the show when it debuted, and have seen through the eighth episode. It's pokey in spots – particularly anything involving Stoll's personal life – but picks up steam as it goes, and Bradley, Durand and Richard Sammel (as the ex-Nazi face of the vampire invasion) are all a lot of fun to watch.
Since I haven't been doing weekly reviews of this one, I'm curious how people feel so far. The ratings have been good for FX, especially factoring in DVRs, Video On-Demand, etc., but are you enjoying it?