Primeval Anytime I Want
I spent last Saturday evening mourning the loss of my weekly Primeval fix. It was a terrible blow to me. No more dinosaurs running amuck in London. No more Stephen and Nick fighting over skanky Helen. No more sweet Rex with his cute little face and lizard wings. It was a sad day, indeed but then a wondrous thing happened! Primeval was released on DVD here in the United States.
Primeval: Volume One contains the first two “series” as the Brits say, which means the first 13 episodes to us Yanks. It also contains enough special features to keep me from moaning about my loss until at least after Christmas.
For those of you who don’t have BBC America on your cable, let me fill you in.
Primeval is Jurassic Park with an urban twist. Time anomalies are breaking out all over the city and every time one opens, something from the past, or the future, crawls through and makes trouble. It’s up to Professor Nick Cutter (Douglas Henshall) and his team to capture the creature and send it back from whence it came. Not too tough when it’s a pack of dim-witted dodos, but a mite harder when it comes to a hungry saber-tooth tiger or a woolly mammoth trouncing cars on the motorway.
The team is made up of Cutter’s top student and right-hand man, Stephen (James Murray), computer geek Connor (Andrew Lee Potts) and zookeeper Abby (Hannah Spearritt). In the first six episodes they’re working as an adjunct to the government coming in when called. During the second season (episodes 7-13) things change and they’re upgraded to professional troubleshooters with their own science center known as the ARC, a full complement of support personal and some really cool toys.
And hey, they spend an entire episode chasing dinosaurs around an empty mall - it doesn’t get better than that.
Wait, actually. . . it does!
The DVD comes with several episode commentaries by creators Tim Haines and Adrian Hodges and director Jamie Payne. The good kind of commentaries where they actually comment on what you’re seeing on screen! There’s nothing I hate more than commentaries where the people sit around chatting in tangents — these guys are all about the production and I love that.
I also gained all new respect for how the series is made after watching the two featurettes, “The Making of Primeval” and “Through the Anomaly.” BBCAmerica did air clips from The Making during the show but they were so chopped up and so quick you didn’t really get a good sense of what was going on behind the scenes. Much better on the DVD.
My favorite feature is “Through the Anomaly” because it’s hosted by the wacky Andrew Lee Potts. His enthusiasm for the series is infectious.
Since I began watching the show, I’ve seen a number of reviewers complain about the CGI. I don’t know what they’re going on about. With the except of the saber-tooth tiger who never looked quite right, all of the creatures in the show look fantastic. And we’re not talking about a quick glimpse of a raptor head as it dodges behind a building, no indeed. The creatures on Primeval take front and center and they’re as frightening and /or creepy as the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. What’s amazing is how these guys do it for the small screen week after week. It’s a sight to behold.
For those of you who don’t have BBC America on your cable box, this DVD set is your chance to catch up on what you’ve been missing. If you’re already a fan, then buying this DVD is a no-brainer since this is a show you’ll enjoy even more the second time around.
Primeval: Volume One is available in stores right now.
0 opinions for Primeval Anytime I Want
No one has left a comment yet. You know what this means, right? You could be first!
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: