The Series:
When I was a kid, back in those pre-cable days of only three TV channels,
children's programming was limited to Saturday mornings. One of the
most exciting programs to premier in that time slot, at least to my 10-year-old
mind, was Land of the Lost. A live action show about dinosaurs,
how cool is that? It lasted three seasons, and while it may have
gotten a little silly at the end, the concept of humans vs. dinosaurs was
great. While there have been a few non-documentary dinosaur shows,
it's a little surprising that there haven't been more, especially with
the cost of CGI being so reasonable. Enter Tim Haines, the creator
of Walking with Dinosaurs and its multiple spin-offs. He,
along with partner Adrian Hodges, came up with an adventure/drama series
about a group of people who are fighting incursions of dinosaurs into out
time, Primeval. The first two seasons (or series as they are
referred to in Britain) have now arrived on DVD. While there are
only 13 episodes in both seasons, the show is pretty exciting and surprisingly
engrossing.
The world has changed, only most people don't know it. All of
a sudden, without explanation, "anomalies" have started to appear throughout
England. Looking like a shiny moving circle of broken crystals, these
anomalies are actually doorways into the past. Two-way doorways which
allow dinosaurs and prehistoric monsters to enter our world with often
deadly results.
The first of these anomalies is discovered by Nick Cutter (Douglas Henshall),
a biologist, his assistant and all around tough guy Stephen Hart (James
Murray), and one of Cutter's students, the geeky but intelligent Connor
Temple (Andrew Lee Potts). Soon a local zoo worker, Abby Maitland
(Hannah Spearritt), also stumbles upon the anomaly while investigating
a supposedly extinct lizard a boy had found, as well as Claudia Brown (Lucy
Brown), a low-level government official who was sent out to investigate
the strange reportings.
Cutter is especially interested in the anomaly since his wife, Helen
(Juliet Aubrey), had disappeared in the area eight years ago investigating
some odd sightings. Her body was never found, but maybe this is the
answer to what happened to her.
As it turns out, yes she did find an anomaly and has been living in
the distant past all these years. She's been studying the dinosaurs
and the gateways and now knows much, much, more than anyone else about
them. She's not willing to share however, and seems to have a plan
of her own.
Each episode Cutter and his makeshift team discover another dinosaur
incursion into our time and have to track, capture, and return the creature
to its own time before the temporary anomaly closes. Oh yeah, and
they have to make sure that no one else notices either. Their work
is top secret since the government doesn't want a panic. From Arthropleura
to Scutosaurus and everything in between (including Saber Tooth Tigers,
Pteranodons and the ever-popular Raptors) they encounter every type of
creature imaginable, and some that aren't, like a carnivorous, intelligent,
predator from the future.
This is a fun and exciting show that is whizzes by much too quickly.
The characters and situations that they find themselves in are so enjoyable
it's easy to overlook the fact that much of the show is a bunch of hokum.
There are a lot of plot holes if you stop to think about it, and the group
doesn't always think things through (why wasn't everyone armed when they
were fighting the raptors?) Some of the events are down right stupid
(why did they give a criminal a 6 inch knife and a back pack full of supplies
when they went they were afraid that she'd try to escape?) But if
you can overlook these events you'll find a great program.
One of the reasons that the show works so well is that it's not just
a 'monster of the week' type program. Though there is a new prehistoric
antagonist each episode, the program is largely character driven for the
most part. Like Stargate SG-1, seeing the team work together and
solve the latest problem is the show's driving force.
There's also a lot of mystery in the show. Not only is the nature
of the anomalies something that is pondered, but just how Helen manages
to navigate through the various ages is a big conundrum. Helen certainly
knows more than she's letting on, having been studying this effect and
how to use it for the past eight years, and it's not clear whose side she's
on.
The show isn't afraid to shake things up unexpectedly either.
The end of the first season contains a big shock, and what's more surprising
is the way they deal with it. The show also adds new characters and
writes other ones out on a fairly regular basis, so things always seem
new and fresh.
A show like this succeeds or fails in a large part due to the special
effects. Created by the same group that did the "Walk with..." series
of dinosaur documentaries, the CGI creatures generally look pretty good.
Sometimes the CGI doesn't mesh perfectly with the surrounding, and dinosaurs
'feel' a little bit superimposed rather than part of the set itself, but
the effects work more than they don't and especially in the exterior scenes
it's easy to suspend your disbelief.
The one exception to this is the saber-tooth tiger. This creature
looks fairly horrid due to its coat. Hair is hard to model on a computer
(it takes A LOT of time to do it right... ask anyone that worked on Monsters
Inc.) and in this case the results are lacking. The animal's
fur looks like a skin more than exterior hair. It's shiny and smooth
and individual fibers weren't modeled so you can't pick them out.
They should have stuck with reptiles.
The DVD:
The 13 episodes that make up seasons one and two come on four DVDs that
are housed in a fold out book. This comes in a nice slipcase.
The one thing they forgot to include anywhere on the packaging is a list
of episodes. It's rather irritating when you're not sure which disc
to pop in to find the episode that comes after the last one you watched.
Audio:
The stereo audio track first the show well, thought it would have been
enhanced by a 5.1 mix. The show is centers the dialog on the screen,
but I couldn't help imagining how much more intense some of the dinosaur
scenes would have been with a full surround mix. The voices are clean
and clear, though there are one or two times when it's hard to understand
every word from a rapidly delivered speech due to the accents. Luckily
there are optional subtitles.
Video:
The 1.78:1 anamorphic image isn't as crisp and tight as I would have
liked, though it does pretty good. Being a recent show I was hoping
the colors would have been a bit brighter and the blacks just a tad darker,
but these are more nit-picky problems that any real flaw with the picture
quality. There is some digital noise in a couple of scenes where
the sky is predominant in the framing, and a little aliasing, but again,
these are minor problems. When all is said and done this is a solid
looking TV show on DVD. Just not reference quality.
Extras:
There are two video extras included with the set. First off is
Primeval: Behind the Scenes a 45-minute long look at season
one. They talk to the cast and crew, show copious clips from the
series, and go into how the special effects are created. It was more
than a typical EPK piece and was pretty entertaining. Through
the Anomaly is the corresponding piece for the second season, and it's
the better of the two. There's a good deal of info contained in both
featurettes.
There's also an audio commentary for episode 10 with co-creators Tim
Haines and Adrian Hodges as well as director Jamie Payne. It was
a pretty dry commentary, with the trio commenting on how long it took to
film certain shots, and how great all the actors were. They did comment
on how luck American TV shows are since they can film exterior scenes in
and around LA where the weather is always so nice.
Final Thoughts:
It would be easy to point out a list of plot holes and nonsensical actions
by the cast of this show, but that would be missing the point. There
are dinosaurs fighting humans! Watching this it's easy to regress
to a 10 year old and just marvel at what's going on. With an interesting
cast of characters and some decent CGI, this is a very fun show to watch.
As long as you don't think about it too much. Recommended.
Buy: