Primeval Series 2 [2008]

Amazon.co.uk review

Primeval may be a little daft, and it may be ITV trying to capture some of the success that the BBC has enjoyed with Doctor Who, but for brainless Saturday night entertainment, it's quite a blast.

Picking up from where the series before it left off, it finds Professor Nick Cutter and his team once again dealing with creatures quite literally out of their time. But this time, Primeval has a few more tricks up its sleeve. Because while the convention for much of series one was that the creatures that faced Cutter and his crew were arriving from the past, this time round there are monsters from the future to worry about too. Cue the likes of a woolly mammoth on the motorway, and a raptor-esque chase around a shopping centre.

Primeval then blends in some twisty narratives surrounding the characters themselves, which - while not particularly intricate or surprising - do keep the fun jollying along. And backed up with special effects that range from the very good to the slightly creaky, it does its best to throw as much at the screen as it can.

Superior to the season that preceded it, but still with some way to go to be regarded as any kind of classic, Primeval is nonetheless undoubtedly still very good fun, and the seven episodes here are suitable for family viewing too. Enjoyable, and worth checking out. --Jon Foster

Customer Reviews:

I'm completely absorbed!.......2008-03-03

I really hate it when people compare this to Doctor Who! Doctor Who is completely different and i cannot believe anyone would compare the two if they saw both shows. Sadly, for some reason, Doctor Who has more success, but Primeval has a great cast, great effects and most importantly an absorbing story! I first thought it would be a show with a very loose continuation running through it. However, I have been completely suprised, it has a vastly more intense and clever story line than i could have expected! Drawing in audiences that are interested in what happens to the characters aswell as seeing monsters every week! Making me very, very hopeful for the future of british television. Its not as high a standard as 'alias' or 'buffy' but its trying its hardest and its become one of my most favourite series on TV. Excellent, well worth buying, cus i could watch it again and again!

I would like better special features, namely out-takes, cus there always good and a larger amount of episodes too! 6-7 episodes a series isn't particularly impressive. When you start getting into it, its over.

Keep Going ITV!!!!!! Your on a winner here!!!Thank You!!!

trying too hard to out-do Who: CONTAINS SPOILERS.......2008-02-29

The basic premise for ITV's prime contender for Dr Who's crown is that anomalies in time start appearing that connect our time with prehistoric or future. The Government seeks the help of paelentologist Prof Nick Cutter and his team (hunky lab assistant Stephen, zookeeper Abby and nerdy student Connor) to tackle the dinosaurs and dangerous predators from the future that blunder into our world when anomalies open, as the Home Office is keen to keep this knowledge under wraps and minimise the damage caused. Working against Cutter (Douglas Henshell) is his estranged wife Helen, also a Professor and dino expert, who had gone missing (presumably exploring anomalies) eight years before anyone else was aware of them.

The first Primeval series was great fun, with a nice twist at the end as future predators escape back into earth's distant past. We saw Cutter's new love-interest Claudia Brown having dizzy turns and then disappearing from the time-line altogether in the final episode, and as she was such a great character, I was eagerly awaiting the new series. Well, at the start of Series 2 we get some codswallop "scientific" explanation that Claudia has never existed in the new time-line because Helen has gone back in time and changed evolution. Sorry, but evolutionary pressure works on whole species, not individuals! Cutter returned from his trip into the past to find a world not only lacking Claudia but subtely altered from the one he left, with the Anomaly Research Centre (ARC) replacing the Home Office, and its boss James Lester, now supported by a slimy side-kick called Oliver Leek. This new series sees Cutter attempting not only to get to grips with this altered world and maintain his position as leader of the anomaly-hunting team, but also having to deal with the arrival of a PR expert called Jenny Lewis who looks exactly like Claudia Brown! What disappoints me is that unless the writers are planning a far-reaching arc to explain Claudia's disappearance, the whole cliffhanger scenario at the end of series one is just dropped here in favour of some cheap thrills, cheap CGI and some sub-X Files shennanigins. Yes, kids will love the monsters - good to see the brilliant future predator back as well as a scary future walrus, a sabre-tooth cat and a magnificent mammoth that runs amok on the M25 - but it looks like a souped-up ITV kids teatime serial rather than a serious rival to Russel T Davies' Dr. Who. There's a serious effort to make Cutter into some kind of action hero, which Henshall doesn't seem too comfortable with, belly-flopping into the Thames one moment, sliding uneasily down a rope at a theme park to escape a sabre-tooth cat the next, or chasing velociraptors round an underground car park on a moped. The linking sub-plots for this series are the creation of an anomaly-detecting device by Connor and the machinations of the crafty Leek (a suitably weedy but not nearly evil enough Karl Theobald), who has teamed up with the marvellous pantomime villainess that is Helen Cutter (Juliet Aubrey) to capture animals from the future and past in order to build some kind of army to take over the world. Throw in a bit of human cloning and it's obvious that Helen is blithely visiting the future for not only animals, but also new technologies (perhaps even controlling anomalies?), despite Connor having built the anomaly detector! Not sure why future humans arn't coming back through the anomalies as well then, but perhaps the budget doesn't stretch to that. Am I being picky? Of course, but good SF writing engages us emotionally and and there are many superior time-travel stories out there (just look at the Star Trek's "City of the Edge of Forever" where Captain Kirk's love-interest has to die to prevent the Nazis winning World War 2 and going on to conquer space, or that brilliant Dr Who episode BLINK). Series 1 of Primeval ended on an empotional high, but in this series the writers give the impression of making it up as they go along, oblivious to plot-line defects or inconsistencies, or audience loyalties to characters. I hope they pull some serious cats, sabre-tooth or otherwise, out of the bag for the next series: this one has been a serious disappointment for this viewer.

Prime Saturday night entertainment........2008-02-27

I was a little unfair on the first series of Primeval when i reviewed it on Amazon. I only realised that when it sunk in how much i was looking forward to the second series. Dr Who apart it's far and away the best thing on TV on Saturday nights.
The second series not too surprisingly picks up where the second series left off with Cutter (Douglas Henshall) knowing he is back in a parallel version of his old life , and everything seems to be the same except that Claudia (Lucy Brown) has disappeared and no one can ever remember her existing. Never mind because she soon re-appears except she is now called Jenny Lewis and is an aggressive PR representative for the powers that be , charged with ensuring that the existence of the shimmering anomalies stays secret. I would suggest that this storyline isn't explored to the degree it should have been but then again it can be in later series so maybe the writers will explore it then.
There is also an on-going plot involving Cutters (ex) wife Helen (Juliet Aubrey) ,which is also implicated in with shadowy blokes popping up at anomaly sites and the right hand man of the amusingly sardonic Lester (Ben Miller)- Oliver Leek(Karl Theobold) who looks shiftier than a weasel at the Tory party conference .Meanwhile Abby(Hannah Spearitt) and Connor(Andrew Lee Potts) continue their fractious but inevitable coming together though Connor is side-tracked for awhile by the romantic attentions of Caroline (Naomi Bentley) who is in the pay of the bad guys. Stephen Hart( James Murray) is clashing with Cutter and being manipulated by Helen. And of course there is the usual menagerie of prehistoric beasties to deal with including a mammoth on a major road, a sabre toothed tiger in a theme park , velociraptors in a shopping centre, and strange mist dwelling worm creatures in an office block. There are also some bizarre aquatic seal like creatures from a possible future , giant scorpions plus the return of Primevals best creation- the future predators(The one time the CGI is really up to scratch) from series one.
Its all cracking pacy fun .Complete nonsense of course and it's best not to think too deeply about it or the numerous plot holes will have you questioning every thing that occurs and therefore ruin your enjoyment . The acting isn't anything special but is good enough and the scripts are fairly sharp .In fact the only thing that really lets the series down are the special effects which are frankly lousy. Compare them to regular CGI heavy series like Dr Who or Enterprise and it's like comparing Inter Milans defence to Derby County's.
The DVD has an extensive making of feature called "Through the anomaly" though like most of those they are not actually all that interesting but if you like that sort of thing there is plenty to keep you occupied here. Commentaries are also available. The great thing about Primeval though is that it's an imaginative entertaining slice of hokum that you can watch with the kids on a Saturday night and gives you an alternative from interminable celebrity reality drivel and dull quiz shows. More programmes like Primeval and the recently acquired Dexter and ITV1 might start gaining a reputation as a half decent channel again.

whats that coming over the hill is it a monster.......2008-02-24

better than series 1. this time round the monsters look better the stories are more inventive and it's massivley enjoyable.

Primeval!!!!!!Series 2!! : ).......2008-02-24

Primeval is amazing!

Episode guide (no spoilers!)

Episode 1: Great opening for series good reference from series one so starters wount be confused. Great dinosaur!! 9/10

Episode 2: The scariest episode of the series, great suspence! Realistic monster!! 10/10

Episode 3: The poorest episode of BOTH series! Enjoyed it when i first watched it but the second it ended i felt a wave of disapointment! The sabre-tooth looked realy fake!! 3/10

Episode 4: There is nothing really to say about this episode, just AMAZING!!! If i say anymore it might spoil it!! 10/10

Episode 5: A bit of a disapointment, don't get to see the monsters alot. OK!! 7/10

Episode 6: The first of a two part season finale!!!!! It's all good stuff. The beginning is a bit pointless but still good!! 9/10

Episode 7: Like episode 4 it's hard to say anything without spoiling it!! Great season finale. Amazing monsters!! Sad end! Great cliffhanger for next series!! 10/10

All in all I gave it 4 stars because of the awful Episode 3!!!

DVD:

DVD List

DVD