Primeval

Okay, so I just finished watching the premiere episode of Primeval, and I have to say I'm pretty impressed.

Here's my recap (spoilers abound):

We start out with a lady being chased through a grocery store parking lot by a dinosaur and then we flash to "eight years later" where we meet a professor of paleontology trying to brush off one of his fanatic students who is convinced that there is some kind of beasty running around in the Forest of Dean that the professor should investigate. Of course, as soon as he mentions that particular location, the prof's ears perk up. Turns out that lady we saw at the beginning was his wife, and she disappeared eight years ago after investigating something near the Forest of Dean. Hmm...

Next we meet a zoo keeper, specialty lizards, who has just been laid off. On her way out, she sees a letter to the zoo complete with picture of a boy with an exotic looking lizard and decides to go check it out. Guess where the boy lives? You got it, right next to the Forest of Dean. So Abby (the lizard lady) goes to meet Ben (the boy) and his flying lizard, Rex. Abby gets very excited and tells Ben she thinks he may have stumbled across a new species. She asks Ben to take her to the place in the forest where he found Rex, and off we go.

Meanwhile the professor (Cutter) and his assistant and student are checking out the claims of a "monster" attack near the forest. The cynical professor starts to believe some kind of predator may really be out there once all of the evidence starts to pile up. His crew is joined by Claudia, a rep from the Home Office sent to confirm that the monster sighting was actually a hoax.

In the forest, both groups stumble upon some dead cows that have been flung up into the branches of some trees, and they all are more than a little concerned by this. Ben freaks out and runs for home when he and Abby come across the dead cows (with their tongues hanging out of their mouths, I love it). Abby quickly loses him in the forest.

On his way home Ben stumbles across some glowy lights and promptly sticks his face inside them. Ahh, the impetuousness of youth. In the lights he sees a different world, complete with a whole flock of lizards just like Rex. He is startled by some noises in the brush when he comes back to the forest and continues running on home, managing to cut his hand on a thorn just as he is leaving the forest.

Abby meanwhile has realized there is something large in the forest and that Rex is able to sense it and run from it. While avoiding the big scary, she encounters a not-quite-Triceratops as well as Professor Cutter's group. While they're all oohing and ahhing over the dinosaur they've found (and while Claudia is getting the government involved), the other dinosaur (a cross between a Tyrannosaur and a saber-tooth tiger) tracks Ben's blood and tries to snatch him right out of his bedroom. Ben manages to keep out of the dino's claws. Despite all of the noise and the huge mess, Ben's parents are inclined to believe that it's all Abby's fault that he trashed his room and is blaming it on a dinosaur. Now that the government is involved, Cutter and Abby can't admit that Ben is probably telling the truth, so they have to act like he's just imagining things. Poor kid.

Ben does mention that while in the forest he "saw into the past," leading Cutter and his group to discover the light show in the forest. They actually end up chasing the Triceratops back through the lights and quickly determine that they are in fact a portal to the past, to the Permian era, to be exact. The good old government is inclined to think that since they chased the dino back through the portal, as long as they keep it contained there is no more problem. The scientists of course disagree. Clearly the dino they chased back was a herbivore, and herbivores don't exactly go around attacking semis or tossing cows into trees (or attacking little boys in their bedrooms). General consensus is that there's another dinosaur on the loose, and a dangerous one at that.

Here our party splits up again. Cutter, Abby, and Claudia head back to Home Office with Rex to discuss the situation and see what they can find about the prehistoric lizard. Cutter's assistant (I think his name is Steven, but don't hold me to that) and student (I totally never caught his name) remain in the forest to try to track the other dino. After finding a footprint they are able to figure out what they're dealing with, thanks to the student's comprehensive dino database that he has compiled with his lack of life leading up to the show. Steven manages to track the creature, who has been continuing to hunt poor Ben while managing not to be seen by anyone but the poor kid. So Ben's in detention for telling lies and a dinosaur comes to get him, and of course the teacher doesn't believe him, until the dinosaur makes his attack, that is. Steven is able to distract the creature, saving Ben and his teacher, but gets himself knocked out in the process and our big bad runs off again.

Back at Home Office, Abby and Cutter have managed to convince the government agents that they don't know how to deal with Rex (with some help from the lizard himself). Cutter also has come to believe that the portal has everything to do with the disappearance of his wife eight years ago and says he's going in, no matter what. So they agree to let him go through and take Rex back to where he belongs.

On the other side, Cutter finds his missing wife's camera along with evidence that other humans have been through the portal--and have, in fact, been camping there, though the pile of human remains show that they weren't terribly successful at that part. The remains are all male, so Cutter knows they're not his wife's and has hope that she may still be alive. He is resolved to stay in the past until he finds her but the very practical soldier they sent along convinces him to go back through, especially once they realize the portal is starting to disappear. They make it back through just in time for the portal to disappear. Of course right at that moment, the big bad comes racing through the forest trying to attack everyone--and Steven comes roaring in and hits it with an SUV. We also learn that Rex came back through the portal on his own, so he is stranded in our time now.

The show wraps up with Cutter stating that even though the portal has closed, there is evidence that there may have been other portals and they need to find out what is causing them to happen. He doesn't think it's over. And he's right. Back in his office, someone stealthily creeps in to leave him some creature in a shell. He gives chase and catches a fleeting glimpse of a woman who looks eerily like his wife before she disappears into the darkness.

My initial reaction is one of enjoyment. The first episode had an excellent balance of action, humor, effects, and science. If it can keep that up, then there is real potential. The formula is pretty basic--looks like we've got a monster of the week type scenario, along with an over-arching conspiracy/mystery story line. But there's nothing wrong with a basic formula if the story itself is original and entertaining enough, and this one looks like it just may be. They have set the stage for some pretty decent character interaction and development. I am quite curious to see where this goes.

I do hope they keep Ben around, he certainly earned it with all of the crap he put up with in the episode. But I kind of get the feeling he may have just been the victim of the week, so to speak. Also, I see some dangerous creature-hunting ahead, so I am not too sure what there would be for him to actually do. Sigh.

My favorite moment of the episode:
While Rex is loose in the Home Office, he ducks into an elevator to avoid recapture and during the ride he is just sitting there bobbing his head along with the muzak. Priceless.

Primeval airs on BBC America on Saturdays at 8 p.m. (Central Time). If you missed the first episode, they are airing it again before the new episode this coming Saturday, so just tune in an hour earlier.

Until next time, keep watching, and take care,
C