Caught Up With "Primeval"? [SPOILERS]

[Themightytom]

I always liked it for its "exotic" (To me) settings, since the locations are refreshingly unamerican. jamie's apartment is itnriguing, the mall in whicch they chased around a T-rex was kind of funny, they had a giant apartment complex in one of the early episodes I thought was kind of awesome. I suppose its bad that a like a TV show for what is an unintended aspect of prduction but it was a nice change from what seems to be formulaic settings.

[TheMuffinKing]

I always liked it for its "exotic" (To me) settings, since the locations are refreshingly unamerican. jamie's apartment is itnriguing, the mall in whicch they chased around a T-rex was kind of funny, they had a giant apartment complex in one of the early episodes I thought was kind of awesome. I suppose its bad that a like a TV show for what is an unintended aspect of prduction but it was a nice change from what seems to be formulaic settings.

I also like the settings though probably for a different reason. I like how they show areas that are (seemingly) anywhere an average U.K. citizen would live, work, and play. I think the creators of the show did this deliberately to hammer home a sense of urgency, realism, whatever.

[Big Orange]

Fuck off.

Throughout the entire first season, the Torchwood Short Bus spent their time actually causing the problem in all but one episode. The Primeval people aren't anything like that dumb - it's a whole other world of stupid.

Wow, easy tiger, S1 Torchwood is like a quarter of a decade ago so it all rather hazy, but judging from one of the worst hours of scripted drama ever, "Cyberwoman", just that example alone would've prompted UNIT to shut the idiots down. It is pretty embarrassing that The Sarah Jane Adventures, a show mostly for pre-teens, is more witty, better developed, and coherent than the 15 rated Torchwood (but then again most horror movies are badly scripted and acted).

The ARC team are considerably better, but not great either, considering that their facility was compromised at the highest level through all of S2 with Mr. Leek with his fortress-zoo (but with yet unquantifiable outside help) and the ex-military guys in black are just redshirts. Then you have Temple waddle off to get Slush Puppy when there were Utah Raptors stomping about and Abby Maitland can't shoot for shit a couple of episodes ago. But at least we have Sir James Lester and Danny Quinn, people who are shown to be pretty competent and snarky.

I don't think Primeval has drastically declined in quality and while it lost its way a bit in S2 with the story arc involving Mr. Leek working in cahoots with Helen Cutter, the story arc in this season seems to have more legs and has really kicked off in episode 3.

[Big Orange]

The plot is thickening with rivalry between the ARC and another rival government team, the ARC has a run in with a deadly fungal infection that reanimates bodies into killing machines, and judging in the previews we will finally know what that strange steel rod from the future does.

Primeval has also run a "design a monster" competition. I agree the recent spate of sci-fi/fantasy set in Britain is jarring, when in the last twenty years we're all so used to North America and Australia as background settings (but the Star Wars trilogy and first two Alien movies were filmed at Pinewood Studios).

[NecronLord]

Spoiler

I'm pretty sure the rivals are going to take over, and will be the ARC bio-weaponeers that Helen Cutter learnt of in the future.

[andrewgpaul]

Spoiler

I would prefer if the two agencies remain separate. That way, Helen Cutter managed to fuck up her plan to save the world, by hamstringing the people who should be on her side, and causing the rise to prominence of the actual culprits.

Glad the journalists died, though - that guy bugged me, ever since he was in This Life.

[Big Orange]

Oh well, it seems like Christine Johnson's attempt at taking over the ARC for her own dubious purposes has fallen through (for now anyway) and we're already a good way through this season with not a peep from Helen Cutter nor anything about Johnson's own attempts at taming the Future Predators. Next week our gang will run into a knight in shining armour and a dinosaur (or closely related bipedal lizard) that bears a striking resemblance to a dragon.

[Batman]

So much for me being a week ahead of everybody else because the last I got was the zombie fungus

[The Yosemite Bear]

It's on Sci-Fi now....

this is not making me feel good.

[Big Orange]

I always liked Ben Millar as Sir James Lester - Lester is a very important but understated kingpin character much like General Hammond (RIP Davis) from SG-1, Chief Miles O'Brien from TNG/DS9, Dr. "Ducky" Mullard from NCIS, Captain Jim Brass from CSI, and the EMH from Voyager (well, the early to mid seasons anyway).

[Batman]

It's on Sci-Fi now....
this is not making me feel good.

I dunno, I find it intriguing. It reminds me of early B5 where you were always wondering what the hell was going on yet it all made perfect sense on hindsight. A second ARC that wants to take over the first but despite claiming to be government authorized AND having an allegedly legal mandate to take over relies on armed force and surprise to do so, doesn't REALLY want the government to know what they're doing, and HAS its authorization pulled the moment the government DOES find out what they're doing (or at least finds out how they THINK about the government finding out what they're doing.)
That IS, of course, assuming things actually WILL make sense on hindsight. But the current situation being confusing as hell and making no sense whatsoever is not NECESSARILY a bad sign.

And yes, Sir James Lester is awesome. He's at the same time a complete dick and someone you can't help but admire.

[The Yosemite Bear]

true, it's just that Sci-fi can't help but fuck things all to hell....

[Lord Woodlouse]

true, it's just that Sci-fi can't help but fuck things all to hell....

Sci-Fi are just buying the right to show it, they don't have any influence over it's production. That's done by ITV, in the UK.

This show makes Zaia and me shout at the tv screen more than Torchwood ever did. TW is at least run by a bunch of rogues outside of direct government control. Five of them. A scooby doo gang with guns. This is a large organisation, with full government control, and they all act like young teens having a lark.

But we still keep watching.

[Lost Soal]

true, it's just that Sci-fi can't help but fuck things all to hell....

Sci-Fi are just buying the right to show it, they don't have any influence over it's production. That's done by ITV, in the UK.

This show makes Zaia and me shout at the tv screen more than Torchwood ever did. TW is at least run by a bunch of rogues outside of direct government control. Five of them. A scooby doo gang with guns. This is a large organisation, with full government control, and they all act like young teens having a lark.

But we still keep watching.

To be fair, Lester addressed this in the first episode of this series when he called them a bunch of rank amateurs who just happen to be brilliant at what they do. Torchwood on the other hand are supposed to be professionals.

[Batman]

'Supposed' to be. So far, I'd say the ARC team did a better job than Torchwood did. Torchwood: a member keeps a Cyberwomen alive because she used to be his girlfriend, another member allows a former member that used to be dead AND a multiple murderer to get off the premises, and that's just off the top of my mind.
ARC: Allows two of its members to keep an apparently harmless flying lizard and a pair of apparently equally harmless groundbound lizards.

[Big Orange]

Harmless? Although not on principle dangerous and rather lovable, one of the mamal/reptile hybrid groundhog thingies kept chewing on wires and the ARC sensors were briefly compromised, making the team slower to respond to the fungus infection. Also they've been infiltrated again if a ARC repair guy was on Queen Bitch's payroll and helped to install the spy cameras.

I think most of these fictional police/spy organizations suffer from CTUitus to cynically make more plot.

[Batman]

Harmless? Although not on principle dangerous and rather lovable, one of the mamal/reptile hybrid groundhog thingies kept chewing on wires and the ARC sensors were briefly compromised, making the team slower to respond to the fungus infection.

Like there isn't a double dozen bare bones minimum real world pets who would have done the same given the opportunity The problem was they GOT AWAY to do it in the first place.

[Lord Woodlouse]

true, it's just that Sci-fi can't help but fuck things all to hell....

Sci-Fi are just buying the right to show it, they don't have any influence over it's production. That's done by ITV, in the UK.

This show makes Zaia and me shout at the tv screen more than Torchwood ever did. TW is at least run by a bunch of rogues outside of direct government control. Five of them. A scooby doo gang with guns. This is a large organisation, with full government control, and they all act like young teens having a lark.

But we still keep watching.

To be fair, Lester addressed this in the first episode of this series when he called them a bunch of rank amateurs who just happen to be brilliant at what they do. Torchwood on the other hand are supposed to be professionals.

But they're not brilliant at what they do. They succeed (much as Torchwood does) simply through dictation of the plot. Given the methods they use so far they, by rights, should have been eaten alive many times over by now. In this last episode they were on the run from a heavily armed government organisation and decided to play dress up once they reached a safe house.

[[R_H]]

How bulletproof would one of those giant centipedes/millipedes (Arthropleura) from season one be?

[Bedlam]

How bulletproof would one of those giant centipedes/millipedes (Arthropleura) from season one be?

Not very.

If I remember they banned guns in that episode becasue the higher oxygen atmosphere was leaking through the annomily increasing the chance a shot would set off a fire.

[[R_H]]

Overgrown bat vs Gorgonopsia was cool (first season's finale), was awesome. I thought the first time it bashed the crap out of the bat, it had hurt it badly (fragile bones), but apparently not.

[Big Orange]

The team are not so amateurish when they solve the majority of problems by themselves by the skin of their teeth, even if Connor Temple is a class-A tit head, and Sarah Page was more than just window dressing in yesterday's episode where she helped a Medeval knight back into his own timeline.

[Big Orange]

Ok, that was a pretty good episode but the Future Predators were getting somewhat nerfed (a seemingly inevitable outcome after reusing popular antagonists), but those giant ants nightmared up by a teen competition winner had a good showing. I have a feeling it was humanity's research into the Anomalies that fucked the Earth, wrecking the landscape with gigantic portal storms, bringing all those creatures from the far future to feast on the survivors. A mysterious woman from that near future time period (some kind of scientist) had been kidnapped by Christine Johnson's organization, not doubt for dubious purposes, but luckily Danny Quinn & pals are finally taking the fight to Johnson (while also contending with prehistoric jumbo rhinos).

[Lord Woodlouse]

I still get highly annoyed by the notion that the Giant Bats are in any way shape or form an Earth shattering threat to civilization. They're dangerous, yes, but we've already seen that a guy who's handy with a gun can take on a bunch of them. How about a whole army of people handy with guns? It's not like they have exponential growth or anything, they're massive creatures which would almost certainly take years to fully develop.

[Big Orange]

I agree and they seemed incidental to the post apocalyptic Earth anyway, with the Anomolies themselves doing the vast majority of the damage like demolish the cities and dramatically change the geography, killing billions (with the Future Preds and giant bugs killing most of the surviving vulnerable millions). I think a future humanoid creature also evolved from bats who are genuinely intelligent and be sophisticated tool users like present day humans would be a more credible threat (and they could also be the yet unseen sponsor of Helen Cutter).