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After two excellent series and a middling third, Primeval was axed by ITV, only for the decision to be reversed and two more series to be commissioned. However, it didn’t roar its way back onto screens on New Year’s Day as the promotional material was only too keen to suggest…
In the first of this weekend’s two episodes, we were introduced to a couple of new characters. Ciarán McMenamin (what a surname!) is the new bland leading man Matt Anderson, taking over from Jason Flemyng and, before him, Douglas Henshall. Also new was Jess (Ruth Kearney), who is as believable a technical nerd as Denise Richards was a nuclear scientist, and Ben Mansfield has been given an increased role as Becker. Established cast members Abby (Hannah Spearritt), Connor (Andrew-Lee Potts) and Lester (Ben Miller) also returned.
There was much to dislike about the first episode, with the only plot being Abby and Connor’s inevitable return to the present day after having been trapped in the past. Otherwise, it was a repetitive affair of monster chasing. Similarly, the second episode, while considerably better than the first with some tense and entertaining scenes, had only one function: to reinstate Abby and Connor in their old jobs (along with more monster chasing of course). Unfortunately, chasing monsters just isn’t good enough for a show in its fourth series, the direction of the first two seemingly having been consumed by an anomaly.
There were some merits: the special effects were excellent, which is a comment that could not have been bestowed upon previous series, and Spearritt and Potts added an extra dimension to the show. In the (almost) believable scenes when they were trapped in the past, Spearitt managed to show her character’s longing for the present very well.
However, the parts of the episode with McMenamin, Kearney and Mansfield were awful. Their scenes together were reminiscent of the gathering of the Ents in The Lord of the Rings: if Pinocchio and Thunderbirds’ Lady Penelope had children, they would probably be less wooden than this. The forced chemistry between them was dreadful, and totally unbelievable; it’s a shame that the most interesting characters are all long since gone, along with the superior plot lines.
Take, for instance, the disappearance of Claudia Brown and replacement with Jenny Lewis: this was a fascinating storyline that was never explored to its full potential, and the failure to provide a resolution suggests that the writers couldn’t think of one satisfying enough. Similarly, while Henshall didn’t exactly give an Oscar-worthy performance as Professor Cutter, without him, the show really suffers, as he was the only character who even seemed remotely interested in why the anomalies were appearing, and he was the only character that could convince that he was intelligent enough to study the anomalies.
Despite a shaky start, Primeval is still worth watching, with the second episode in particular providing good fun. Hopefully, the overall story arc (see what I did there?) will be developed and answers will be provided because, at the moment, there seems to be as much chance of this as there is the chance of anomalies in time opening and allowing dinosaurs to visit the present day. Hang on…
The third episode of Primeval airs on ITV1 at 7pm next Saturday.
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