This mini-series actually improves on the original 1969 Michael Crichton sci-fi non-thriller, which spent too much time in a fab lab in the desert and not enough inside the icky green virus—or outside, where the government was covering up its biological-warfare experiments. The heroic scientists called on to stop an alien plague in southern Utah include Benjamin Bratt, Christa Miller, Daniel Dae Kim, Viola Davis, and Ricky Schroder. Andre Braugher is the Army general in charge. Eric McCormack is a coke-addled TV reporter. The part of the Strain is played by a throbbing pile of Day-Glo intestines. (Kidding.) There are also many people with ulterior motives and hidden agendas not telling the president what he needs to know. By the fourth hour, you’ll have learned lots about blood sugar, “messenger theory,” wormholes, sulfur-based life forms, oceanic strip-mining, and Ricky Schroder’s sexuality (“If you don’t ask, I won’t tell”).

A&E
Monday, May 26, and Tuesday, May 27, 9 P.M.

Related:

• Articles by John Leonard
• Table of Contents: May 26, 2008 issue of New York | Subscribe!