I’ve missed Primeval. Sure, it’s not like I got into the show from the very beginning…heck, I didn’t really even get into the show until the start of the third season, but I had read about it before then, and was extremely intrigued.  While most shows promise status quo changes that are usually undone a couple of episodes into each season, Primeval has had a major status quo with each season.

While I won’t go too deep into spoilers until the jump, I will say that each season brought about universe altering changes and character deaths that have stuck with the show.  I got so used to American television that I was really imagining that the changes would be undone within a matter of episodes, but they never were.

After cancellation, fans and the BBC rallied around the show, bringing it back for not just one, but two more seasons, the first of which premiered on January 1st. 

Spoilers on from here on out.

So, at the end of season 1, something happened in the past to change the present entirely, and Nick Cutter (the lead of the show) returned to a different universe, where the woman he loved no longer existed.  At the end of season two, a lead character, who had betrayed the team, sacrificed his life to save them.  Then, in season three, Cutter himself died, leaving the team without a leader, and new team members joined.

At the end of Season three, the remaining members of the team were stuck out of time, and things looked dire.  Season 4 begins with the new ARC Team, featuring Matt Anderson, Jess Parker, and Captain Becker.  Abby Maitland and Connor Temple are still stuck in prehistoric times, and have pretty much resigned themselves to never being able to get back.

Of course, as any peek at a preview image for Season 4 will tell you, Connor and Abby find a way to get back, and the world is different.  The ARC is run by new leadership, and they’re not welcome as part of the new team.

As a reintroduction to the show (the last episode aired a year and a half ago), the season 4 premiere of Primeval works significantly well.  We get to the meet the new team, find out that one is already hiding something, get some returning characters and answers (and more questions) as to what happened to those who aren’t returning … all in all, the show features the same standard of quality we’ve come to expect from it, despite the changes.  As for the new additions to the team, the jury is still out.  Matt Anderson seems a little generic, but I do like computer tech Jess Parker.  Alexander Siddig plays Philip Burton, an intriguing new aspect to the show – though we’ve seen his type of character before, he certainly is an interesting new character.

If you’ve never seen Primeval (and I just spoiled the show for you), it’s definitely worth seeking out, and the fourth season premiere may lose you in a couple of places where it references old characters, but you certainly should be able to jump in and enjoy.