John Strange

John Strange is the titular protagonist of the dark fantasy TV show Strange which aired in 2003-2004. He was played by famous actor Richard Coyle.

Origins
John Strange was just a normal priest, in a London church. He had a girlfriend named Helen and may have been about to marry her. Like everyone else, he thought demons were just a metaphor for human evil and didn't take the supernatural seriously. However, this changed when his girlfriend Helen was brutally murdered by the Demon That All Demons Fear, Asmoth. Asmoth had returned to power after six hundred years and he was feeding on humans. It is implied that Asmoth devoured Helen before Strange, and left Strange with a long scar on his back when Strange fought back.

Now forced to accept that demons are real, Strange did plenty of research. He hired a researcher named Toby, and a man with Down's syndrome named Kevin, who was a psychic and used his condition as a way of picking up supernatural activity - although he was susceptible to errors and often realized too late when something bad was happening. John Strange lived in a dingy flat in London and he was a gloomy individual, although with a graveyard sense of humour.

In the show
John Strange appears in all the first (and only) season, played by Richard Coyle. He first meets his assistant Jude in the first episode, and from then they begin to hunt demons.

Jude was a young female nurse married to Rich (played by Alastair Mackenzie) and had a young son named Joey. John Strange was drawn to demonic activity when the priests at his old church began to get burned badly by a demon. John became even more suspicious when one of the surviving priests was burned to death at Jude's hospital where he'd been recovering. Jude was drawn to John after the deceased priest said "Strange" and she assumed he just meant the situation was strange. After the priest gave her a clue "Azal" just before he was murdered, Strange knew that Azal was a demon, and that it was a demonic murder.

Strange met Jude in the park and she worked out his name was "Strange" and that it was him the priest was talking about. So, they got to know each other, but Jude obviously thought Strange mad after hearing his talks about demons in human form. However, Jude found out that he was telling the truth, after learning about electricity and lightning conductors, and reasoned Azal came in through the lightning. So, she turned her lights off, but found Joey was down at the church. Then she found, to her shock, her husband Rich was Azal, in human form. He said he was going to kill Strange and left.

John Strange was ambushed by Rich in an elevator at the hospital where he'd arranged to meet him, but John had worked out that Rich was in fact John Faraday's assistant who found electricity for him in the day. John realized Jude had no electrical devices in her home, because Rich was terrified she would see the picture of Faraday and the lab assistant, and realize her husband was the same man. So, Rich said he was Azal and tried to kill Strange, but Jude earthed him, and he was banished.

First demons
Jude became Strange's new assistant, and she found that people were ageing prematurely. She called Strange, suspecting that her son was a cambion, because of his demon father. But Strange said not to worry. Strange ended up saving Jude from the demon Zoxim, who was the one ageing people to feed on their souls, and had taken human form as Strange's reverend's wife. Joey gave Strange the idea to hunt down the night bus and tackle Zoxim while she was on board.

Strange noticed that young boys were being murdered after visiting a tattoo parlour in town. It turned out the owner, a shady character, had been poisoning the boys with the ink to kill them and steal their body parts, and that the manager was the demon servant of Kaa-Jin, a Japanese demon. John Strange saved Jude from being sliced open as Kaa-Jin's next victim, and knocked out the store manager. However, Kaa-Jin resurrected, albeit disfigured and Undead, and Strange dealt with him before tricking his servant into stabbing him and destroying them both.

A while later, an ancient Irish plague began to resurface, threatening to kill off humanity and take their souls to Hell. John Strange was helped by an Irish taxi driver who knew of the Banshee - an ancient hideous demon who called on the Death Coach, the Costa Burra, to send the souls to Hell. However, Strange tricked the Banshee into stepping on the coach herself, and she ended her own life.

Too Much for Strange?
When teenage girls began to turn up mauled after receiving surgical implants, Strange was contacted by Jude who suspected a demon, and asked if demons could be active in the day time. Strange realized this demon was exceptionally powerful, as it blocked Kevin's psychic state, enabling Strange to think everything was fine. However, a friend of Strange's was attacked in her kitchen by minuscule terrors. Strange worked out it was in fact the Milan Incubi - a group of reptilian, bloodthirsty demons who plagued Milan city in the Middle Ages. But who was behind it this time? Jude found out it was the same demon from before, who now worked in a hospital, and almost fed Jude to his offspring before she cut him and threw him into the pack, which ate him before being consumed in his death explosion.

A group of Herzegovianian refugees come to London fleeing the Dybbuk, Strange realizes the demon has eventually set up its home in town using the carpenter's corpse as its host. Strange goes to visit the demon, after seeing that all its victims had bought house wood from his store. So, Strange goes to see the man, finding his corpse on the stairs, and realizes its a demon. He then finds to his horror that the Dybbuk took on Helen's form - it was mocking his past. However, he is almost seduced by "Helen" and is about to reunite with her, until Jude runs in and saves him from having his blood sucked out by the giant tree-demon before him. They wound the Dybbuk with an axe and set fire to it, causing it to disintegrate.

Strange is left traumatized by the event, and seeing his dead girlfriend was too much for him.

Asmoth
Strange told Jude about losing Helen to Asmoth, the King of all Demons, and that he awakes each six hundred years to feed on humans. Jude suspected "Thomas", a drug dealer, of being the real Asmoth, because of the anagram in his name. But Thomas was really just an insane young man. Joey realized his mother was kidnapped by Thomas and rushed to save her with Kevin, using his demon powers to kill Thomas and free Jude.

However, Strange was in a darker situation - the real Asmoth had told him mockingly he was now winning again. Strange, however, had been imprisoned, framed for murders he didn't commit, as the police thought he was Asmoth (they didn't believe in demons, they just thought a mad cannibal was on the loose). So, Strange yelled at the policemen to listen to him that the real Asmoth was out there - but was beaten almost to death. John Strange was taken to the hospital and left to slowly recover. Jude and Toby discussed Asmoth still being out in the world and how to stop him.