FX has set a summer premiere date for the final season of The Strain. In the last decade, TV has become very fond of depicting the apocalypse, and the remaining vestiges of humanity's reaction to it. Sometimes it's done for laughs - such as in Syfy's Z Nation or Fox's The Last Man on Earth - while other times the end of the world is portrayed in a deadly serious fashion, with AMC's ratings juggernaut The Walking Dead as arguably the best example of the latter.
While never quite as popular as a show like TWD, FX's The Strain has managed to carve out its own niche in the world of basic cable apocalypses, depicting a world where a vampire plague has decimated a good chunk of Earth's human population in a matter of mere months. Standing in the way of what increasingly seems to be an unstoppable scourge is former CDC bigwig Dr. Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll), aging vampire hunter Abraham Setrakian (David Bradley), and the rest of their ragtag group of resistance fighters.
Over the course of The Strain's three previous seasons, Eph and company have repeatedly attempted to put to end the spread of The Master's bloodsucking horde, only to near invariably end up in an even worse position than the one they started in. For example, season 3 saw them get so close to defeating The Master, only to not only lose their chance but also fail to prevent the nuking of New York City at the hands of Eph's scorned son Zach. Is there any hope of saving humanity at this point? Fans will soon get to find out, as Deadline reports that FX has assigned a Sunday, July 16 premiere date to The Strain's fourth and final season.
Like season 3 - and unlike seasons 1 and 2 - The Strain season 4 will consist of a slightly shortened 10 episodes, although this isn't necessarily a bad thing, as some fans were of the opinion that cutting season 3 down from 13 to 10 episodes resulted in less filler and a more tightly plotted season overall. Still, there will likely be some Strain devotees who wish that producers were given a longer time to wrap up what has become a rather complex story.
Season 4 will begin nine months after the events of season 3, with Zach's nuking of NYC having led to a global catastrophe. The resulting nuclear winter has allowed The Master and his brood to emerge from the shadows, setting up a new ruling class over the Earth. Most of the remaining humans now find themselves working for the strigoi, under threat of death if they don't comply. To think, if only Eph had allowed Zach to get eaten seasons ago, this hell could have been avoided.
The Strain season 4 premieres Sunday, July 16 on FX.
Source: Deadline