FX has issued a second season to The Strain, its drama about how dealing with government bureaucracies, divorce and custody issues, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, putting your parents in a nursing home, making ends meet as an ex-con with a drug addict brother, and grappling with your memories of the Holocaust can put a real strain on your day-to-day—one that’s only intensified when vampires show up.
The show, FX’s first foray into the totally bereft Sunday night schedule, has been a solid ratings performer for the network, particularly when factoring in plays from DVR, On Demand, and online. In fact, FX claims it’s the year’s highest-rated new cable series among viewers 18 to 49. The renewal is for 13 episodes set to air next summer, continuing a story that producers Guillermo del Toro, Carlton Cuse, and Chuck Hogan have suggested will run between three to five seasons and deviate slightly from the books they’re based on. So maybe that means Ephraim Goodweather will be turned into a vampire soon, so Corey Stoll can finally lose that silly wig.