The third volume of Primeval contains the thirteen episodes of the show’s fourth and fifth series/season, and the first for the new incarnation of ARC – but not to worry, if you haven’t watched the show’s first three seasons, there’s a quick saga sell/previously on that brings you completely up to date. And it’s definitely worth jumping on board here because this is one smart, exciting show.
ARC is the Anomaly Research Center and its mission is locate and shut down anomalies – which, in this case, are portals to other times through which all sorts of creatures might cross. Usually, they are creatures from the past – dinosaurs and prehistoric mammals like mastodons.
ARC has been around for a few years, but when three of ARC’s best and brightest went through an anomaly into the past and didn’t return, the government decided to change things. As a result, multibillionaire philanthropist Philip Burton [Alexander Siddig] came aboard as both provider of greatly increased funding and upgraded tech – and ARC personnel must now have military backgrounds.
There’s also a new team – Jess Parker [Ruth Kearny], communications and field coordinator; Matt Anderson [Ciaran McMenamin], field team leader; Captain Becker [Ben Mansfield], weapons and security, while James Lester [Ben Miller] remains head of operations.
In the fourth season premiere, two of the missing original team, Connor Temple [Andrew Lee Potts] and Abby Maitland [Hannah Spearitt] find their way back to the present and, thanks to the new regulations, are hard pressed to return to active duty.
Over the course of the fourth and fifth seasons, the ARC team deals with all sorts of creatures – most vividly and chillingly rendered in CG for a good deal less than their cousins on Mr. Spielberg’s Terra Nova. These dinos are deadly and people die, making Primeval somewhat gritty and surprising [in the second episode, one of the deaths is the most unexpected and lets us know that no one and nothing is sacred].
Unfortunately for the ARC team, the dinos and even a psychotic time traveler with a connection to one of the original team are not the world’s biggest threats. As the aphorism notes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Primeval takes that notion in a genuinely unexpected direction – one that harkens back to the show’s first two seasons [and builds on background information that we get in the opening moments of the first ep of season four – and reaches a climax that is actually expected by one of the new team, who has an entirely different perspective than any other character on the show.
The two seasons/series collected on Primeval, Volume Three have the benefit of well developed characters; great looking CG; multiple well thought out plot arcs and a cast and crew that make them feel real. It is a mark of how entertaining this set is that I’m planning on acquiring Volumes One and Two in the near future!
Features: New Dawn – Making The New Primeval [a beatter than average featurette in two parts, dealing with each of the two seasons/series on Volume Three]; Prequel Webisodes [how the new ARC came to be].
Grade: Primeval: Seasons Four and Five – A
Grade: Features – B-
Final Grade: B+