Writers: Richard Kurti & Bev Doyle
Director: Jamie PayneCast: Douglas Henshall (Professor Nick Cutter), Hannah Spearritt (Abby Maitland), James Murray (Stephen Hart), Andrew-Lee Potts (Connor Temple), Karl Theobald (Oliver Leek), Naomi Bentley (Caroline Steel), Lucy Brown (Jenny Lewis) & Gillian Kearney (Valerie)
After a paintballer is attacked at a theme park, the team investigate the appearance of a large cat in the area…"Listen; you do the creatures, I'll do the people. Deal?"
-- Jenny Lewis (Lucy Brown)
It's here that Primeval's formula began to grate on me in season 2, with another variation on the "ancient beast in an unusual place" gambit. While the previous two episodes managed to balance things out with fresh subplots, a Sound Of Thunder-style alteration to the timeline, and a some new faces, episode 3 is content to be a bland throwback to the tedious first season…
This week, a sabre-tooth cat is prowling Blue Sky theme park, having already attacked an irritating paintballer called Warren. It's a premise that sounds more fun than it actually is, as the plot once again tend to just involve people creeping around in surrounding forests.
Connor (Andrew-Lee Potts) is a little upset that his new Anomaly Detection Device (ADD) didn't predict the appearance of the cat's anomaly, but even more annoyed his work means he can't spend time with sexy girlfriend Caroline (Naomi Bentley). As I assumed last week, Caroline is quickly revealed to be a "mole", although quite what she's after is still vague – particularly once her handler's identity is revealed in the final scene...
Robert Kurti and Bev Doyle's storyline isn't too shabby, although it doesn’t take full advantage of the theme park setting – as the imagined carnage and chaos of a massive cat on the loose never arrives. After spending most of the episode stuck in an increasingly laborious cat-and-mouse chase beyond the park itself, the story does eventually reveal a tied-in back-story for deputy park manager Valerie (Gillian Kearney), but by then I'd past caring...
I started to grow restless when idiot Connor thought it was good idea to run through a crowded theme park brandishing a massive rifle, and then proceed to shoot the only theme park manager in the country who likes to dress up as a lion mascot! From there, the simple story is padded out with a pointless diversion to a local barn, where a farmer is breeding dogs for fighting... and PR expert Jenny (Lucy Brown) decides to flirt with anyone (including stereotypical trainspotters) who might blow their cover...
The problem with Primeval episodes is that they're tweaked variations on one plot template. Individual writers do they best they can to keep things interesting; which generally means predictable bluffs (the lion mascot), a few close calls with death (a zip-wire escape), and well-intentioned yet laughable action beats (digger versus cat!), before straining to pull everything together in the last act...
This episode works fine within those limitations -- and the revelation surrounding Valerie's role in events was quite interesting (if you accept she could domesticate a sabre-toothed cat!) -- but it was still underwhelming and predictable.
At the moment, season 2 has only improved on season 1 by virtue of the new elements it introduced in the opener: the timeline change and the undercurrent of spies in their midst. This episode is more interesting when it's dealing with the latter, as everything else is just another extended chase with a CGI beast. And there were no particularly inventive chase sequences, any genuine thrills, or even an interesting/amusing way to eliminate the threat.
If you happened to enjoy season 1's emphasis on people running around, ducking out the way of a computer-generated critter, inbetween walking through woods and making po-faced declarations of doom -- chances are, you'll like this. But if not, this is a backwards step that reminds you why season 1 became so boring, so very quickly...
26 January 2008
ITV1, 7.30 pm
