LATE TO THE PARTY: PRIMEVAL

[Tiplodocus]

I picked the first season of PRIMEVAL up in Woollies yesterday for a tenner.

Me and Tiny Tips are 4 episodes in and, it must be said, it's got a lot going for it.

Attractive and likeable leads (Hannah and her dancing pants may be the Dadnip of the program but Claudia is fairly tasty as well), an interesting "arc"; I'm genuinely curious to know what his missus is up to, fun story lines and some amusing supporting characters and some nice interplay between the characters who seem to share a warmth.  Professor Cutter is the right side of troubled - not too broody or angsty but not too goody goody either.  There have been some nice emotional bits as well - without it being rammed down your throat or feeling too much like manipulation.

There are some minus points; definite lack of logic in some episodes, the Lab Assistant/Hunter character (Stephen) looks like he's stepped from a Gillette/Boss advert (he's just tooo attractive).  The geek stuff is sometimes overplayed and the special effects don't always match their ambition. And while Ben Miller's character is GREAT, I'm not entirely sure Ben Miller is doing the best with it (I can imagine someone like Stephen Fry knocking his lines out of the park!)

As good as, if not better than New Who.  And a whole herd of sauropods better than Torchwood.

I'd suggest putting away any "It's ITV" prejudice like I did and giving it a try.


Well, I THINK so, anyway.  Of course, it is just an opinion.

[TordelBack]

Agree on all points, Tips - wonderful silly stuff.  Looking forward mightily to the next season in the Nu-Year.

[pauljholden]

You've some cracking episodes coming up - and a fantastic twist.

But I've said too much....

(Also: Paul Cornell is on board for writing some of the next series, and there's some cool things to come...)

-pj

[Buddy]

For next season I think they should cut down on the dino stuff - thuss reducing the programme cost and have more of Hannah's pants in each episode instead.

'Look. A dino thing'....

'But wait, my shorts have fallen down!'...

That sort of thing.

[TordelBack]

Tut tut, Ump, I think you're missing the point entirely.

Strictly speaking, there hasn't been a dinosaur in it yet, so the pants:dino ratio is in fact already effectively infinite.  Hurrah, I say!

[Buddy]

I use the term 'dino' as a reference to any prehistoric animal that has appeared in the series, but I get your point.

Still, more pants please!

Hurrah indeed!

[Steve Green]

Totally agree.

When I first heard about it, I was thinking shoddy Who rip-off, but I thought it was pretty good and really found it's feet (and pants) later on.

- Steve

[Floyd-the-k]

I've never seen this show, but it sounds like an exciting new direction in pants

[The Amstor Computer]

Anticipating the second series of this far more than the fourth of Who. It's not absolutely fantastic telly, but it's entertaining, reasonably intelligent and isn't as offensively bad as the worst of New Who (prime example: that ridiculous line at the end of the trailer for the Xmas special...)

[Tiplodocus]

prime example: that ridiculous line at the end of the trailer for the Xmas special...

That may have been taken out of context though. I recall ridiculing the line in the PRIMEVAL trailer which went "This is conclusive proof that the past exists"  which sounds silly but not quite so daft when you see the full line which adds "...as a foruth dimension that we can measure and interact with" (or something).

I appreciated the way they made a vague plot point out of the pants; it wasn't just gratuitous. No. Not in any way at all.  Quick - to the Underwear thread...

[The Amstor Computer]

That may have been taken out of context though

Quite possibly, but I can't imagine a context that would make is sound any less boastful, preening or annoying. Sorry for the derail - I've just grown really sick of that particular change to the Doctorâ??s character (more so in the wake of the terrible Dobby Doctor/SuperDoctor conclusion of series 3)

[Bico]

The series 3 finale was a rip-off of the ending to Power Rangers: Mystic Force, apparantly.  It's good to aim high, I suppose.

Primeval is fantastic pants telly.  The babboon/vampire/future-dino is a mental piece of tosh that works great when he's thundering across the desert under the influence of the red mist near the end, coming to rearrange the poop of the main characters - you just *know* someone's going to get knackered.

[Proudhuff]

Rewatched this recently with  a sickly son, as I was convinced I'd missed a couple of episodes at the end when it was on the telly, nope I had saw them all, and it was the big big cliffhanger that had confused me.

This does well from viewing in one go, some of the comment from the cast are funny: Prof's wife about her clevage etc, light fluffy telly for Saturday tea time with a high VPL (visible panty look)

Glad to hear its coming back, any idea when?

Deek-Huff

[COMMANDO FORCES]

The Dinosaurs are in the second series for definate!

[Tiplodocus]

Well those last two episodes were absolutely fantastic stuff.

The one with the birds where *everybody* finds an excuse to strip off was pretty good but the season finale was brilliant.

Outstandingly good twists that were both logical yet suprising and managed to turn around the entire concept of what you were watching.




The figuring out "Oh my God - it was our camp!" was pretty good - though I'd got an inkling this was on the way.

Genuinely suprised to see the Special Forces Captain Ryan cop it.  He'd made it through all six episodes so far and had even managed a couple of lines so I'd started thinking of him a bit like O'Brien in Star Trek: TNG. You know, a bit of the furniture.

Then some great revelations (though there had been clues) about Steven and Helen and our great Wooden Hunter actually did a bit of very good acting when she asked her to join him.

And then to top that with the cliffhanger erasing of Claudia was brilliant.  

I spent a good half hour explaining timelines and "killing your own grandparents" paradoxes to Tiny Tips and that was pretty good fun too.



Genuinely can not wait for the next season to start - and with Mr Cornell on board, it can only get better.