Okay, so my wife's young cousins just got us into Primeval on Netflix. I'd heard about it before, and thought that one day I might try it out. We just finished Series 3 last night. Here are my thoughts on the show.
While watching the first episode, I was struck by how much I was reminded of shows that I watched as a kid, including the Land of the Lost revival. The cheap FX, the dialogue, the pacing and the insane gaps in logic left me thinking that this show would have been considered the greatest show of its time had it aired in 1993. Felt just a little dated.
I also got the feeling that it was like a non-pervy version of Torchwood. One that my family would actually watch.
I liked the action, and the FX get much better later on. The arcs actually (to my mind) hold up much better than anything that has been seen on NuWho (especially Moffatt's version), but the individual stories require a lot of suspension of disbelief. There are so many times where I was left saying "That makes no sense," or "Why don't the just..." or "That wouldn't work because..."
An example of this would be in a late episode of Series 2 (the finale?) a rampaging mammoth is herded into a semi trailer. The thing just stops once inside. It does not attempt to escape, does not tip over the trailer or anything.
Some story arcs are aborted. This happens because actors leave the show all the time; apparently it is not fun to work on Primeval, according to departed actors. The writers then decide to kill them off and leave their stories unresolved, or in some cases kill them off after massively rewriting the character's personality and motives.
Nevertheless, the show is great fun because it scratches an itch for fun action that (usually) the whole family can watch. If you try it out, you'll likely be hooked on the teaser of Episode 1.3 or the battle between a "Future Predator" and a gorgonopsid in 1.6.
While watching the first episode, I was struck by how much I was reminded of shows that I watched as a kid, including the Land of the Lost revival. The cheap FX, the dialogue, the pacing and the insane gaps in logic left me thinking that this show would have been considered the greatest show of its time had it aired in 1993. Felt just a little dated.
I also got the feeling that it was like a non-pervy version of Torchwood. One that my family would actually watch.
I liked the action, and the FX get much better later on. The arcs actually (to my mind) hold up much better than anything that has been seen on NuWho (especially Moffatt's version), but the individual stories require a lot of suspension of disbelief. There are so many times where I was left saying "That makes no sense," or "Why don't the just..." or "That wouldn't work because..."
An example of this would be in a late episode of Series 2 (the finale?) a rampaging mammoth is herded into a semi trailer. The thing just stops once inside. It does not attempt to escape, does not tip over the trailer or anything.
Some story arcs are aborted. This happens because actors leave the show all the time; apparently it is not fun to work on Primeval, according to departed actors. The writers then decide to kill them off and leave their stories unresolved, or in some cases kill them off after massively rewriting the character's personality and motives.
Nevertheless, the show is great fun because it scratches an itch for fun action that (usually) the whole family can watch. If you try it out, you'll likely be hooked on the teaser of Episode 1.3 or the battle between a "Future Predator" and a gorgonopsid in 1.6.
