The latest FX series, The Strain, has premiered Sunday and will bring the latest horde of brutal, hungry vampires on television with a little help from science.

Centered on Guillermo del Toro's The Strain trilogy, these bloodsuckers have been intended to be much more gruesome and violent than the moody characters from Twilight or del Toro's mediocre monsters on Blade II.

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Executive Producer Carlton Cuse, who also worked on Lost, asserted that The Strain is a unique take on vampires, including their parasitic history and the mythology that underlies their nature. All of these will be unfolded in the first season.

Unlike clumsy creatures in other shows such as The Walking Dead, del Toro's bloodsuckers on The Strain are capable of thinking, planning, and communicating well with humans.

The show starts out as more of a medical obscurity rather than a horror show, although the vibes quickly change.

It is centered on Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, played by Corey Stoll, who is tasked to look into an airliner that has made a mysterious landing at JFK, full of bloodless corpses.

A distinct feature of the show is its emphasis on epidemiology as much as on vampires.

The first part of the story will focus on a group of epidemiologists attempting to put a stop to an unexplained disease as it spreads to humans, turning them into parasitic creatures.

The story has been set in New York City and various scenes will be carried out in areas detailed onscreen. These include Avenue D in Alphabet City, Red Hook in Brooklyn, Woodside in Queens, and E. 115^th Street in Spanish Harlem.

According to Cuse, the locations are essential to the story as it implies relevant information about the characters themselves and where things are going.  

Cuse further stated that TV shows nowadays are often compared to popular films or things they see on HBO, hence great expectations.

He said he prefers to consider the show as "a thriller with horror elements".

TagsFX, Guillermo del Toro, Carlton Cuse, Corey Stoll, The Strain, vampires