Continuing my coverage of my recent obsession with BBC America, I’m going to talk about one of my favorite television shows (though it appears as if the recently aired Series Three finale may have been it’s last episode), Primeval. See, Primeval is the cause of my recent BBC America obsession. When the show premiered a while back, there was a ton of advertising, even in movie theaters, to promote it.
The premise of Primeval is that rifts in time (their cause unknown) have allowed creatures from both the past and future to come into our time. Primarily, the first season focused on dinosaurs, but you also see prehistoric bugs, bat creatures from the future (that remind me of Resident Evil’s Lickers), wooly mammoths, and a ton more. Even the velociraptor pops up in season two.
I watched the first episode and thought it was okay, but figured it probably wasn’t good enough to stick with, as I was already trying to cut down on the amount of TV I watched.
Well, apparently I was wrong.
More after the jump!
Nick Cutter’s wife has been missing for eight years, presumed dead. Still, he’s never stopped searching for her in one way or another. When one of his students, Connor, shows him and his assistant Stephen a newspaper clipping of a reported dinosaur sighting, they go to investigate and meet with reptile specialist Abby, who’s investigating a lizard named Rex found by a young boy in the same area. It’s here where they discover the rifts in time, and the full-grown scutosaurus and gorgonopsid that have come through it. After much destruction, the dinosaurs are eventually taken back through the rift to their own time, but it’s soon found out that this rift isn’t the only one. In fact, all over the world, rifts have started to appear, without a known rhyme or reason as to their location or reason, and creatures from both past and present are coming through. And just as Cutter is upon the scientific revelation of a lifetime, he starts seeing his wife in the shadows – is she alive? What’s she been doing for eight years?
The initial team in season one consists of Abby Maitland (Hannah Spearritt), Nick Cutter (Douglas Henshall), Stephen Hart (James Murray), and Connor Temple (Andrew Lee-Potts), and there’s not a weak link in the cast. All four bring something different to the team, and all four are excellent actors. It won’t take long for you to get attached to this team (and with only 6 episodes in season one, that’s a good thing). In addition, the team is supported by government liaisons Claudia Brown (Lucy Brown) and James Lester (Ben Miller), and a group of special forces that, basically, carry the guns.
Like I mentioned earlier,the pilot was nothing that blew my mind, but as I continued with the series, I found that it gets better with each passing episode. The special effects get better each season (including some great stuff in season two), the characters do grow and change, which is nice. More growth happens in 6 episodes of season one than typically does in most full 22-episode American TV seasons. And season one ends and season two begins with a huge change to the status quo that doesn’t feel forced and really does change the way the show runs going forward. Great stuff.
If you like dinos, and love seeing them tear sh*t up in present-day, Primeval is definitely the show for you. It’s also great for fans of smart, but fun science fiction and just good TV in general. All three seasons are available on DVD currently, but keep an eye out on IoM for a special contest announcement in the next week!
Next up … Torchwood!
