Sunday, May 17, 2009

Primeval is back!

Last night the first episode of the third season of Primeval aired on BBC America.  This show is back just in time, as all of my regular shows have just wrapped up (except for a straggler or two finishing this week).  

We pick up with our anomaly-hunting friends sometime after the events of the season two finale (i.e., the death of team member Stephen).  Cutter is bummed because his wife got his best friend killed by prehistoric (and a few futuristic) critters.  It isn't bad enough that she, you know, slept with the guy, but then she turned him against Cutter, and then got him killed trying to make up for it.  Helen is a bitch.  I'm just saying--that's something anyone who is going to watch this show needs to realize.  There are no redeeming qualities about this woman--none.  But anyway, so Cutter is bummed.  He knows it's not his fault his friend is dead but he still feels like he should have been able to stop it from happening.  In comes Jenny Lewis to remind him that he can't change the past--and he has a wonderful response to that, coming from her--and ask if he wants to grab some food.  Cue the anomaly alarm.

This week's anomaly has appeared in an exhibit at the British Museum.  Yay, Egyptology!  We get a big crocodile monster from 55 million years ago that kills the curator and threatens a scholar before running off into London to generally terrorize the poplulation around the Thames.  With the help of the Egyptologist, who swears that the creature is an ancient Egyptian goddess, and with a new military commander (replacing the guy who got killed in the anomaly in the penultimate episode last season), our team of scientists manages to get the critter back home just in time for the anomaly to close (of course).  

Some cool things were set up for the rest of the season in this episode.  First off, when I say the anomaly was in the exhibit, I mean it was actually trapped inside the exhibit.  Made of a highly magnetic metal, the artifact was apparently created to trap the anomaly--move the artifact and the anomaly moves with it.  In addition, Connor accidentally electrocuted the anomaly, causing it to harden in a way--still active but nothing could get in or out for a brief period.  This gives the team all sorts of interesting new avenues of research to follow when they're not out chasing critters.  Now we know anomalies can be contained and maybe even rendered harmless while they're open.  Ooh...interesting.

Also, we get two new team members--the new military guy, Beckett, I think, as well as the Egyptologist, Sarah Page.  Her insistence that the croc-monster was what the ancient Egyptians believed to be one of their gods leads Cutter to think that perhaps all of the fantastical creatures throughout history (the chimera, pegasus, the krakken, etc.) might be critters that slipped through anomalies.  He thinks if they can track down the origins of these myths, they might be able to better detect a pattern on anomaly appearances, so that's what Dr. Page's job will be.  

Then there's a new government higher up trying to take over the ARC and get on Lester's nerves.  We learn right off the bat that she's got some hidden agenda tracking down some artifact that her whole special ops team got wasted by the future bat-monsters trying to recover.  

And not to be left out, Helen is back, and hey, she managed to get the artifact after the special ops team got wasted.  She and her army of look-alike goons are setting up in a warehouse with some as yet unrevealed nefarious purpose.

So, all in all, it was a pretty eventful episode.  I really enjoyed it, with the exception of all of the completely unnecessary destruction of ancient artifacts while the creature was loose in the museum.  That made the archaeologist in me want to cry.  There was of course plenty of wonderful Connor-based humor.  I had two favorite bits.

First was when Connor almost got dragged through the anomaly by one of the croc-monsters (only one got loose but a few tried to get through while the team was guarding the anomaly).  Sarah reached for something to whack the monster with and realized she had picked up an ancient Egyptian kitty artifact, so she hesitated, not wanting to hurt it, and instead ended up grabbing a two-by-four (probably a better choice anyway, really).  

Second was the whole "curse" that Sarah made up.  Connor picked up a piece of the anomaly containment artifact that broke off when a wrench got sucked in by the magnetism, and Sarah told him that the artifact was cursed and anyone who touched it would be plagued for the rest of his life.  She later reveals to Abby that she made that up but they both agree there's no reason to tell Connor that fact.  I love it.  This has potential to be a wonderful running joke this season, and I hope that the writers don't pass up the opportunity they left themselves here.  Also, totally makes me approve of the new addition to the team.

Good stuff all in all.  I am really excited for this season.  Apparently there's an American movie version of this series in progress, and I am not to sure what to think about that.  Also, there are new rumors that there's also an American television series in the works too.  Gah.  I am a bit nervous about that--though I did see the phrases "spinoff" and "expanded operation out of the UK"  in connection with the American series, so I have some hope.  If it's actually another team set in America, tracking anomalies on this side of the pond (which makes sense that they'd be all over the world), then I could get behind that.  Especially if the events of the mother series were acknowledged and the potential for crossovers was in place.  Can you imagine Cutter having to deal with an American scientist?  That might be beautiful.  

For anyone who has missed out on the first two seasons of this wonderful series, SciFi Channel is airing them on Friday nights at the moment, so you can probably get all caught up pretty quickly if you're interested.

Hope everyone has a great week!  I think I'm off to watch Titan A.E.--I discovered yesterday that Joss Whedon is one of the writers (I loved this movie before I fell in love with Whedon), so that's got me kind of wanting to watch it again.  

Ciao bellas!

No comments: