[SPOILERS] The finale of Primeval's revamped but inconsistent third year tries to distract viewers from its lack of imagination and duff storytelling with foreign location shooting and the usual fallback: plentiful digital beasties.Not helped by the fortnight wait for this episode, we pick up where we left off in episode 9; Helen (Juliet Aubrey) has returned to steal the Artifact from the ARC, before taking Christine hostage and vanishing through her anomaly. Danny (Jason Flemyng), Connor (Andrew-Lee Potts) and Abby (Hannah Spearritt) follow her through their own anomaly into the decimated future-world, to avoid Future Predators once again. Meanwhile, Becker (Ben Mansfield) and Sarah (Laila Rouass) head to Christine's for a largely pointless tussel with more of those "flying ants" (apparently called Mega-Optera).
The more I think about this finale, the less I like it. A big problem was how it felt extremely repetitive, with a large chunk of the action taking place in that dystopian future already visited mid-season (with its obvious greenscreen backdrops), and the fact most of the creatures being fought were making encore appearances. And as much as I like the design of those CGI bat-like Future Predators (and the flying insects aren't too bad, either) they've overstayed their welcome now.
Eventually, Danny's team find Helen in a future version of the ARC (kidnapped Christine just vanishes from the storyline1), and realize that she's using the Artifact to locate anomalies and time-hop to Pliocene Africa –- intending to kill the first early ancestor of mankind (Australopithecus) and thus wipeout humanity. See, Helen's convinced that humans are ecologically more trouble than they're worth, so it's best to just erase us from history to give other species a chance. Yeah, that old chestnut. At least they address the idea that Helen herself will cease to exist if her plan succeeds... but they don't tackle the paradox that she won't exist to threaten humanity in the first place, sadly.
I had hoped that Helen's motives would be more complex than this. It would have been interesting if she had sympathetic intentions to prevent the downfall of civilization, but instead the writers just made her into a genocidal nutjob. The previous episode hinted that simply killing Christine would change history to prevent Future Predators pouring through her anomaly and laying waste to the world2, but that was entirely forgotten about here. It isn't plausible that Helen would prefer to pursue temporal extinction as a "benevolent" way of sparing us a grizzly end.
Admittedly, for a brief moment in the middle, the finale was entertaining hokum -– with Connor finding a way to track and follow Helen when she vanishes through time, then finding themselves stuck in the Cretaceous with three hungry raptors on their tails. After Danny is forced to leave them to chase Helen to early Africa, we're also treated to some nice CGI "homonids", but then it all falls apart when Helen is unceremoniously knocked off a cliff by a rogue raptor and squashed on the ground below. It was a stupidly adrupt, emotionless demise for a character that's been the series' primary villain from the very beginning. Such a waste.
We end the season on a double-pronged cliffhanger, with an injured Connor and Abby stuck up a tree in the Cretaceous (don't worry, we all saw Helen drop her anomaly-gizmo...), and Danny trapped in ancient Africa with no way to get back. Maybe he'll get friendly with the CGI man-apes and become the Mitocondrial Adam? Heh.
Overall, this finale was brainless fun for a spurt in the middle, but it ultimately felt like reheated leftovers, while Helen's diabolical scheme was drivel. The sad fact is that Primeval often stumbles onto some cool ideas, but never follows them through creatively to surprise the audience. A storyline about someone trying to erase humanity from history should have been five times as exciting as this, and provoke a real edge-of-your-seat response... but it was just another flat, tedious chase with some CGI to ogle along the way. Still, at least it's the last we've seen of Helen -- a character who was only interesting because her motivation and gameplan was kept cloaked in mystery. Only now we know why: that "mystery" just meant the writers had no logical answers.
The fact it ended on a cliffhanger that anyone with half a brain can guess the resolution to, only added to the feeling of deflation. I know Primeval has its fans and it's fundamentally a frivolous series aimed at kids who own the Panini sticker album, but in the age of the regenerated Doctor Who... we have every right to expect more.
6 June 2009
ITV1, 7.30pm
written by: Steve Bailie directed by: Matthew Thompson starring: Jason Flemyng (Danny), Andrew-Lee Potts (Connor), Hannah Spearritt (Abby), Juliet Aubrey (Helen), Ben Mansfield (Becker) & Laila Rouass (Sarah)
1. She was apparently eaten by a Future Predator last week, which begs the question: why did Helen even bother dragging her through that anomaly? She wasn't required to fulfil her plan! Incidentally, did the show just totally forget about Lester (Ben Miller)?
2. Speaking of which, if Helen is in the future-ARC, why aren't any of the surroundings recognizable? This future vista doesn't look anything like where the ARC is built! And I'm still confused about why that derelict area of the city is atop a cliff.
