So Guillermo Del Toro's The Strain started this Sunday and since I finished the first book and almost finished the second I thought it was probably okay to start watching without having to worry about spoilers.
The book started life as a tv series pitch by Del Toro but after being denied by studios he turned it into a book, written by Chuck Hogan. You can tell it was meant to be a series in how it was written, it's all very detailed so you have a very clear image of how the characters are and what they look like, which I feared would make me enjoy the series less.
However, it's only one episode in and I already can't wait for the next one. It felt a little cramped as they had to introduce a whole bunch of characters and set the mood for the rest of the show in one hour but I'd say they pulled it off quite nicely. It's worth noting that the pilot was directed by Del Toro himself in his familiar neon soaked fantasy style which will probably shift a bit as the series progresses and other directors come in. In Del Toro's own words:
Guillermo Del Toro wrote: "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 was really fond of how vampires in the book are reduced to what they actually are; virus-carrying monsters, which is how I always saw them and was then disappointed when most fiction took it in the extreme other direction.
Here's a trailer:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_42rx8Dm6OQ[/media]