Though its first season was a gripping, terrifying and compelling bit of television, full of supernatural thrills and tons of gory, violent action, The Strain has since gone nowhere but downhill. It’s far from a bad show, of course, but FX has never really been able to recapture the magic of that initial outing and thankfully, the creators have realized this too, as the series will be calling it quits after its fourth and final season – which airs this July.
“After finishing the writing on Season 3, Guillermo, Chuck and I looked at our remaining story and felt the best version could be told in one more season,” Carlton Cuse said. “We have a fantastic plan for an exciting and climatic season 4. We are deeply grateful to FX for supporting our vision and for allowing us to end the show on our own timetable.”
Picking up nine months after the events of the third season, the world has now fallen into darkness and the strigoi have gained control, with the Master establishing a totalitarian regime. Things certainly don’t seem like they’re going too well for Eph and co. then, and the plot summary below gives a better idea of what you can expect when The Strain returns to television.
As the fourth and final season begins, nine months have passed. The world has fallen into darkness, and the strigoi are in control. The explosion at the end of season three triggered a global nuclear apocalypse. The resulting nuclear winter liberated the strigoi, allowing them to move about during daytime, and allowing the Master to establish a totalitarian regime. Preying on the fears of the populace, the Master and his minions have created an unsettling alliance in “The Partnership.”
The majority of humans are now working for the strigoi, operating with a single understanding — collaborate or die. With the world in disarray and our heroes disbanded, each of them will have to overcome personal hardship and defy death for even the smallest chance at fighting back… All the while, the Master reigns supreme, furthering his scheme for the end of the world as we know it.
Beyond that, we don’t know too much about what FX has planned for us with the last season of The Strain, but now that a premiere date has been locked in, the network’s begun teasing the upcoming batch of episodes and that continues today with the tense new promos down below.
Though brief, they both give us a tantalizing peek into what’s to come and from the looks of it, the show will be descending even further into darkness while also living up to the kinetic action and Del Toro-style body horror that’s made The Strain a hit amongst genre fans thus far. Admittedly, things have gone a bit downhill in recent years, but we’re hopeful that the series will go out on a high note and remind us just why we fell in love with it in the first place.