TV: Primeval

Primeval is a British show about time travel—and dinosaurs. Well, actually, it is usually the dinosaurs who are doing the time travel. I’ve watched the first three seasons, and will, inexplicably, watch the rest. The Brits do like monster shows and time travel. So a whole series, lasting several seasons is so very British TV. I am viewing it on Amazon Prime video.

Now, make no mistake this is not Dinosaurs on a Spaceship with the Eleventh Doctor, and Nefertiti, and Rory’s dad—who is Ron Weasley’s dad. It’s not that. But it’s good, a little more grounded. Scientists and government officials try to contain leaks, which they call anomalies, in the time-space continuum.

The bureaucrats want to keep a lid on things, not panic the public; which becomes increasingly more difficult as the show goes on. One incident, a few people, deep in the woods, ok fine. A saber tooth tiger at an amusement park on a crowded day… a little more challenging. The man in charge, James Lester, is a little tetchy, because, you know, time travel, dinosaurs roaming about Britain. Randomly appearing in different places without warning. A raptor at the mall. This is a PR problem.

For the scientist investigating, it’s about how is this happening? Why? If we destroy animals from the past, how will it impact the now? The future? There is a plot twist. Said scientist is not the first to discover these anomalies, his wife disappeared eight years previously in the place the first anomaly is discovered. She’s been missing, and presumed dead.

For the record, by the end of season 1, this storyline makes no sense and is beginning to unravel. The anomalies have been happening for eight years and no one noticed? They have been increasing in frequency and no one noticed the dinosaur, or mammoth, in the neighborhood? So, any notion of real science goes out the window and it becomes an adventure show.

The scientist and his supporting cast are off to save the world with the help of and interference from the government. The supporting characters are… a sort of flunkie college student who has never had a date and spends his time playing D&D and watching Star Trek. A serious nerd type. Then we have the lizard specialist girl who wanders about, scantily clad in many cases… But she is a reptile specialist as a Podunk zoo. The final member of the team is a tracker, which makes sense, except he does very little tracking. Which also makes sense, because if you cannot track an elephant sized spider through modern England, that’s a problem. Look for the devastated landscape and panic-stricken people.

Game over.

But I continue to watch. I don’t know why. The CG isn’t all that great, the writing—meh. But it is entertaining on some weird level. The idea of traveling in time has appeal. The show has masculine and feminine eye candy, comedy—dry British comedy, and complex intelligent characters doing stupid things. Periodically, an amazingly stupid character does something brilliant.

I don’t know, watch at your own risk, I guess. I will, in all likelihood, finish the series; I’m not sure how I feel about it though. We’ll see.