Primeval – 2007-2011

Primeval is in short about the discovery of these anomalies that occur here and there in Britain. They connect time and space between the present and the distant past. And when I say distant past, I mean just that. It’s millions of years and there are all kinds of creatures on the other side. Mostly what we would call dinosaurs. I’m not sure it the visualisation of them is truly accurate all the time but they look good and realistic most of the time. Maybe that’s something moviemakers out there should take a hint of, This TV series, with far fewer resources than the average blockbuster film, made the dinosaurs realistic, why can’t you?

I’m exaggerating of course. Movies has a tendency to become better and better in that department since CGI becomes better and better each day. But the general rule is – don’t try so hard! Less is most often more when it comes to creature design. Anyway, these anomalies open up at random, or so it seems, and more often than not a creature from the distant past threatens the present-day life. A government team is formed to keep everything in place.

Did you think it was that simple? It’s not. There’s also individuals that want to end humanity and stop at nothing to do so. There are people developing technology to control the anomalies and there’s always the risk of contaminating the timeline. We all know about the butterfly effect, don’t we? One small change in the timeline can have an enormous effect, wipe out civilizations, and render a species extinct. It’s a train of consequences. One thing leads to another and another and another…

The casting in Primeval is great. Most of the core team lasted for the entire durability of the show. There are some new additions and some people that fall out, but the main characters, the ones that we care the most about remain. At least the ones I cared about. It’s quite enjoyable seeing the characters evolve over time from nerdy loners to full-fledged responsible team players. The episodes are kind of standalone but with a clear thread between them. There are some things I wish were better explained but as a whole, I’m rather satisfied with the series. Even the ending of it makes sense. There could have been a more conclusive end maybe but it’s fair enough.

The show also spawned a spin-off series. A British-Canadian series Primeval: New World