Aww. Cute liddle prehistoric baby hyenas.
This week's episode was much improved, I felt. Perhaps it was seeing an old member of the ARC team come back (albeit briefly) that helped? Or maybe it was those baby hyenas?
At the ARC, an anomaly alert indicates a possible incursion at a stately home. Matt, Abby, Connor, Emily - and some black-clad back-up for once! - head out to investigate, whilst Becker takes the job of hunting down the mysterious murderer Ethan. Whilst Becker and Jess check out police reports from over 100 years ago to see if they provide any clues, the rest of the gang track the anomaly down to the basement of the grand house. Why there were plastic sheets hanging from the ceiling in the basement, and not draped over the furniture to keep it clean, I don't know but it all helped add to the tension when Connor finally encounters one male Hyaenodon...
...and also Jenny Lewis (aka Claudia Brown in an alternate timeline), who is due to have her wedding ceremony in the building the next day.
Meanwhile, Becker tracks Ethan down to an old warehouse near to Matt's apartment and where he is keeping Emily. Unfortunately, Ethan has worked out that he's being followed and so sets up an elaborate (almost comicbooky) booby-trap in the warehouse to trap Becker. It's a good job Jess had brought Becker some Chinese food earlier, because she follows Becker and, in a tense moment involving pressure plates, tripwires, a metronome (?) and two red wires (eek!), manages to disarm the bomb with vocal assistance from Becker.
Back to the main gang who, believing that they've subdued the only prehistoric monster present, are invited to Jenny's wedding. But later that night, when Connor goes to talk to Abby about putting his foot in it earlier with his marriage comments, he spots another hyena. Tracking it down to the basement, he gets trapped down there with some hyena pups whilst the mother prowls around outside. It's amazing how a little bolt on a flimsy door can hold back a huge, monstrous hyena creature. Anyway, Connor ends up trapped down there all night.
Eventually, he does get out and decides to send the pups back to their own time. However, this means unlocking the anomaly, which allows a couple of other hyena monsters through. And they're just in time to disrupt the wedding ceremony that's going on upstairs!
There's a fight, the guest scatter, the wedding seems ruined but after Jenny hits a creature or two down the stairs, the day is saved and Lester presides over the marriage ceremony. Jenny then tells her husband all about what she used to do (with a nice little summary of the series) and everyone is happy.
Well, all except Matt, who we find out was trained for the ARC leadership all his life (in which case, why wasn't he on the team from the beginning?). We also discover Gideon is from an apocalyptic future and Matt's father just before the old man shuffles off this mortal coil. I had hoped that Gideon would actually be older Matt from the future who had come back in time to warn his past self but, alas, this was not to be.
There's also a little bit with Ethan who goes back to where he used to live and an neighbourly old woman appears to recognise him. I wonder if he's related to Danny - perhaps his lost brother from series 3?
Overall, a more exciting episode than the last couple of weeks with quite a few chuckles (Connor's non-marriage proposal, for example) and a couple of hints regarding what's to come in the final episode of this season next week.
Showing posts with label primeval. Show all posts
Showing posts with label primeval. Show all posts
Monday, January 31, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Primeval: Series 4 Episode 5
Another entertaining episode (though not quite as good as last weeks) with one or two plot holes and hints of interesting things to come. Again, just three of the main ARC crew (it's good to see Becker was given some time off after almost dying last week) head off to investigate an unstable anomaly in some seaside village. And again I have to ask why they didn't take along some military back-up?
BTW, considering this coastal village has a holiday caravan site nearby, why were the locals so rude and "Slaughtered Lamb"-like in the pub? Surely they see plenty of tourists in there and so should be used to newcomers?
Anyway, when the inevitable point comes and they have to split up, Abby is left to track and take down the (yet another) dino-croc - a Labyrithodont - on her own whilst Connor investigates the anomaly. Which is both near an old farm and, in the next moment, near the cliffs. I guess the anomaly detectors don't work in 3D as the anomaly is actually under the farm in a dark, damp cave. For a while, I did wonder whether they'd killed off Abby (noooo!) but, thankfully, she came back to save the day and send mummy and baby dino-croc back to their own time.
Philip, back at the ARC, eagerly learnt one or two new things about anomalies - specifically that they are weakened by acid. I wonder what the high-flying business mogul wants with these unstable time portals?
The most interesting part was Emily's kidnapping by Ethan. Matt went off to rescue her and we discovered there's more to this Ethan chap than originally thought. For one thing, if he's from Victorian times, how did he know how to drive a car? It seems that he may be from the present but has traveled to the future and to the past. Certainly Gideon, Matt's mysterious adviser, is very interested in him and believes this mysterious newcomer might be the big threat he's been predicting.
So, who is Ethan and where does he come from? What is Philip planning to do regarding the anomalies? What does Gideon know and how does he know it? And why is Matt so mysterious? It's these questions that elevate this average monster hunt episode up to a decent show.
Finally there was that single word mentioned in the post-credit teaser for next week's episode - "Jenny". Looks like Jenny Lewis is back!
BTW, considering this coastal village has a holiday caravan site nearby, why were the locals so rude and "Slaughtered Lamb"-like in the pub? Surely they see plenty of tourists in there and so should be used to newcomers?
Anyway, when the inevitable point comes and they have to split up, Abby is left to track and take down the (yet another) dino-croc - a Labyrithodont - on her own whilst Connor investigates the anomaly. Which is both near an old farm and, in the next moment, near the cliffs. I guess the anomaly detectors don't work in 3D as the anomaly is actually under the farm in a dark, damp cave. For a while, I did wonder whether they'd killed off Abby (noooo!) but, thankfully, she came back to save the day and send mummy and baby dino-croc back to their own time.
Philip, back at the ARC, eagerly learnt one or two new things about anomalies - specifically that they are weakened by acid. I wonder what the high-flying business mogul wants with these unstable time portals?
The most interesting part was Emily's kidnapping by Ethan. Matt went off to rescue her and we discovered there's more to this Ethan chap than originally thought. For one thing, if he's from Victorian times, how did he know how to drive a car? It seems that he may be from the present but has traveled to the future and to the past. Certainly Gideon, Matt's mysterious adviser, is very interested in him and believes this mysterious newcomer might be the big threat he's been predicting.
So, who is Ethan and where does he come from? What is Philip planning to do regarding the anomalies? What does Gideon know and how does he know it? And why is Matt so mysterious? It's these questions that elevate this average monster hunt episode up to a decent show.
Finally there was that single word mentioned in the post-credit teaser for next week's episode - "Jenny". Looks like Jenny Lewis is back!
Monday, January 17, 2011
Primeval: Series 4 Episode 4
This week's Primeval episode was much better than last week's and one full of tense, dark moments during which a few school kids have to survive against a small herd of venomous dino-dogs (therocephalians, apparently). Although you didn't actually see anything other than a severed arm from a distance, this episode was sort of gory and certainly very shocking for an early Saturday evening TV show. It was nearly as 'behind the sofa' scary as some episodes of Doctor Who.
An anomaly opens in a surprisingly high-tech school (even the locks on the doors are controlled by an unmanned computer system) where, because it is supposedly outside normal hours, there's only 3 kids stuck behind on detention overseen by just one teacher. Seems a little unlikely but still. A dino-dog emerges from the temporal gateway and quickly eats the teacher all before the title sequence - and the ARC team - turns up.
Well, I say ARC team - it just seemed to be Matt, Becker and Connor. Where were all the rifle-wielding, black-ops back-up soldiers? Were they on annual leave that day? Unfortunately, the three of them aren't quick enough to save the X-Factor-wannabe teenaged girl from becoming the second victim to these dinosaurs during a chilling encounter in the gym. Because of this death, Jess decides not to help Abby release all the other dinos - due for extermination after being deemed too dangerous to remain alive by Phillip - from the Menagerie at the ARC.
It seems a little late for the characters to suddenly get emotional and morose now after all the other public deaths we've seen on the show. For example, a number of homeless people and construction workmen were killed by a giant prehistoric alligator just two episodes ago but no one seemed bothered that much about them. Perhaps they were not pretty or young enough? Still, I guess it was about time they showed a more human side to these people.
Knowing what Abby has in mind, Lester has a friendly chat with Phillip and points out that once the existence of the time anomalies and dinosaurs get out, Phillip's legacy as the "dinosaur killer" might not sit well with him. This leads to a reprieve for the wooly mammoth, and the other creatures unseen due to budgetary constraints, but does raise another question.
It's often inferred that the government, via the ARC, is covering up the dinosaur attacks and that the public are therefore unaware of these incursions from the past (and future). And yet, right from the very first episode of the first series, Nick Cutter and Connor investigate the Forest of Dean because of a newspaper photograph of a dinosaur.
Since then, there have been various other high profile incidents - the afore-mentioned mammoth rampaging across the M25, a stegosaurus in the Houses of Parliament - plus all the other incidents where dinosaurs have run through the daytime city streets (such as the Spinosaurus in episode 1 of this series or the dino-croc in the first episode of series 3). Surely plenty of people have now seen these creatures and started asking questions?
Also, a lot of people have been killed, such as the teacher and the girl in this episode. Does no one outside the ARC crew investigate their cause of death or wonder where they are and what happened to them? What do they put down on their death certificates - eaten by an escaped tiger from the local zoo?
Anyway, in the end, the remaining kids are saved after Becker encounters a whole room full of these dino-dogs. He gets injected with venom but thankfully is saved by Matt, who somehow manages to wrestle a dino-dog into submission (is the guy superhuman or something?), and Connor, who concocts some handy smoke bombs in the chemistry lab. Even though just minutes before Matt said Becker had only 30 seconds to live before the venom killed him, everyone seems to pronounce him okay once they've knocked out the demon dogs and finally called for medical back-up (perhaps they should've done that earlier?). Connor must've included some miraculous cure in those smoke bombs.
Although there was very little of the ongoing storyline other than Emily, the Victorian woman from last week's episode, being abducted by Ethan, this was still a well-directed, thrilling episode. Yes, there were plenty of silly little things in the plot but, for me, these weren't enough to spoil it.
An anomaly opens in a surprisingly high-tech school (even the locks on the doors are controlled by an unmanned computer system) where, because it is supposedly outside normal hours, there's only 3 kids stuck behind on detention overseen by just one teacher. Seems a little unlikely but still. A dino-dog emerges from the temporal gateway and quickly eats the teacher all before the title sequence - and the ARC team - turns up.
Well, I say ARC team - it just seemed to be Matt, Becker and Connor. Where were all the rifle-wielding, black-ops back-up soldiers? Were they on annual leave that day? Unfortunately, the three of them aren't quick enough to save the X-Factor-wannabe teenaged girl from becoming the second victim to these dinosaurs during a chilling encounter in the gym. Because of this death, Jess decides not to help Abby release all the other dinos - due for extermination after being deemed too dangerous to remain alive by Phillip - from the Menagerie at the ARC.
It seems a little late for the characters to suddenly get emotional and morose now after all the other public deaths we've seen on the show. For example, a number of homeless people and construction workmen were killed by a giant prehistoric alligator just two episodes ago but no one seemed bothered that much about them. Perhaps they were not pretty or young enough? Still, I guess it was about time they showed a more human side to these people.
Knowing what Abby has in mind, Lester has a friendly chat with Phillip and points out that once the existence of the time anomalies and dinosaurs get out, Phillip's legacy as the "dinosaur killer" might not sit well with him. This leads to a reprieve for the wooly mammoth, and the other creatures unseen due to budgetary constraints, but does raise another question.
It's often inferred that the government, via the ARC, is covering up the dinosaur attacks and that the public are therefore unaware of these incursions from the past (and future). And yet, right from the very first episode of the first series, Nick Cutter and Connor investigate the Forest of Dean because of a newspaper photograph of a dinosaur.
Since then, there have been various other high profile incidents - the afore-mentioned mammoth rampaging across the M25, a stegosaurus in the Houses of Parliament - plus all the other incidents where dinosaurs have run through the daytime city streets (such as the Spinosaurus in episode 1 of this series or the dino-croc in the first episode of series 3). Surely plenty of people have now seen these creatures and started asking questions?
Also, a lot of people have been killed, such as the teacher and the girl in this episode. Does no one outside the ARC crew investigate their cause of death or wonder where they are and what happened to them? What do they put down on their death certificates - eaten by an escaped tiger from the local zoo?
Anyway, in the end, the remaining kids are saved after Becker encounters a whole room full of these dino-dogs. He gets injected with venom but thankfully is saved by Matt, who somehow manages to wrestle a dino-dog into submission (is the guy superhuman or something?), and Connor, who concocts some handy smoke bombs in the chemistry lab. Even though just minutes before Matt said Becker had only 30 seconds to live before the venom killed him, everyone seems to pronounce him okay once they've knocked out the demon dogs and finally called for medical back-up (perhaps they should've done that earlier?). Connor must've included some miraculous cure in those smoke bombs.
Although there was very little of the ongoing storyline other than Emily, the Victorian woman from last week's episode, being abducted by Ethan, this was still a well-directed, thrilling episode. Yes, there were plenty of silly little things in the plot but, for me, these weren't enough to spoil it.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Primeval: Series 4 Episode 3
Perhaps it was just the mood I was in when I watched this, but I found this week's Primeval episode to be a little rubbish. Okay, maybe that's a bit harsh - it wasn't that bad - but it did seem somewhat flawed. There were some interesting things dotted around but it was padded out with the obligatory monster chase sequence. Oh, and a daft ARC shutdown bit.
We start with an anomaly opening in a theatre somewhere. Not sure where this was supposed to be but, like nearly all the other anomalies, it seems to be within an hour or so of the ARC. Why are all the anomalies in the south of England, I wonder? Three people emerge from this anomaly, one of whom is ill (and promptly dies before they can get her to a hospital). A couple of lizard men also pop through. I have to say that the CG work on the lizard men (called Tree Creepers here) was generally excellent and one of the few highlights of this episode.
Matt arrives on the scene first - after chatting with the mysterious Gideon bloke, who it appears hasn't long to live, about potential traitors. He sees the woman from the anomaly return back through the shimmering portal and decides to follow her. After tracking her for a while she hits him on the head with a branch. I thought he was supposed to be ex-military? She was just standing there and he just ran into the branch she was wielding - there was no sneaking up behind him or anything!
Then the woman just stands there and lets a lizard men wrap its tail around her. You'd think she'd at least try and move out of the way. This leads to the rather pathetic fight between knife-wielding Matt and powerful, leaping, clawed lizard man. This wasn't helped by the fact that they didn't have enough budget to show a tree creeper and an actor in the same frame. So it kept cutting from Matt waving his puny knife to the creature snarling and hissing but doing very little and then back to Matt.
Anyway, eventually Matt takes the injured woman back through the anomaly to our time just in time to hunt down the two tree creepers in the theatre - one of which eventually makes its way outside. Cue the (slightly boring) monster hunt.
Meanwhile, new owner Philip Burton asks Connor to integrate and trial his new dino detector system installed in the ARC. Problem is, this new system detects Rex and initiates a complete lockdown of the ARC, trapping Philip in a room where the air is slowly being sucked out.
Now, why the supposedly super-intelligent Philip would attach the lockdown procedure to the initial trial run of his dino-detector system is somewhat suspect. Even worse is getting someone else to run it when only he can disable it. Plus, why can't people unlock the doors during the lockdown? It's only supposed to stop dinos from getting out (and, as we've seen in this episode, they're quite happy to just smash through doors and windows).
Anyway, it provided a convenient excuse for the folk hunting lizard men out in the field to lose comms with one another and for Philip to let slip something about a secret project called "New Dawn". I thought that was a bit heavy-handed.
In the end, the tree creeping lizard men are downed and we find out that the woman, called Emily, is originally from the Victorian era. Together with around 15 others, she got lost through an anomaly and is now managing to survive by traveling through random anomalies and eating grilled dino meat. Of course, this isn't the first time humans from earlier periods have come through one of the sparkly time-holes; the medieval knight from Series 3 galloped through one chasing a 'dragon', for instance. But it is interesting to see confirmation that these anomalies have been occurring throughout history (and into the future, of course!).
Unfortunately, we don't discover much more about Emily and the other time-lost humans in this episode. It seems this week was just a set up for future episodes, as she is now staying with Matt. We also have the companion of hers - he may or may not be Jack the Ripper (and if it is, then I did something very similar with a PBeM character of mine) - who also came through the anomaly and is now going around killing people for no particular reason. Again, more set up for future episodes.
So, some interesting titbits regarding a secret project at the ARC and time-lost Victorians plus some great lizardy tree creepers. Oh and a rather foxy looking Jess! But the rest was just okay and, sadly, a little embarrassing at times.
We start with an anomaly opening in a theatre somewhere. Not sure where this was supposed to be but, like nearly all the other anomalies, it seems to be within an hour or so of the ARC. Why are all the anomalies in the south of England, I wonder? Three people emerge from this anomaly, one of whom is ill (and promptly dies before they can get her to a hospital). A couple of lizard men also pop through. I have to say that the CG work on the lizard men (called Tree Creepers here) was generally excellent and one of the few highlights of this episode.
Matt arrives on the scene first - after chatting with the mysterious Gideon bloke, who it appears hasn't long to live, about potential traitors. He sees the woman from the anomaly return back through the shimmering portal and decides to follow her. After tracking her for a while she hits him on the head with a branch. I thought he was supposed to be ex-military? She was just standing there and he just ran into the branch she was wielding - there was no sneaking up behind him or anything!
Then the woman just stands there and lets a lizard men wrap its tail around her. You'd think she'd at least try and move out of the way. This leads to the rather pathetic fight between knife-wielding Matt and powerful, leaping, clawed lizard man. This wasn't helped by the fact that they didn't have enough budget to show a tree creeper and an actor in the same frame. So it kept cutting from Matt waving his puny knife to the creature snarling and hissing but doing very little and then back to Matt.
Anyway, eventually Matt takes the injured woman back through the anomaly to our time just in time to hunt down the two tree creepers in the theatre - one of which eventually makes its way outside. Cue the (slightly boring) monster hunt.
Meanwhile, new owner Philip Burton asks Connor to integrate and trial his new dino detector system installed in the ARC. Problem is, this new system detects Rex and initiates a complete lockdown of the ARC, trapping Philip in a room where the air is slowly being sucked out.
Now, why the supposedly super-intelligent Philip would attach the lockdown procedure to the initial trial run of his dino-detector system is somewhat suspect. Even worse is getting someone else to run it when only he can disable it. Plus, why can't people unlock the doors during the lockdown? It's only supposed to stop dinos from getting out (and, as we've seen in this episode, they're quite happy to just smash through doors and windows).
Anyway, it provided a convenient excuse for the folk hunting lizard men out in the field to lose comms with one another and for Philip to let slip something about a secret project called "New Dawn". I thought that was a bit heavy-handed.
In the end, the tree creeping lizard men are downed and we find out that the woman, called Emily, is originally from the Victorian era. Together with around 15 others, she got lost through an anomaly and is now managing to survive by traveling through random anomalies and eating grilled dino meat. Of course, this isn't the first time humans from earlier periods have come through one of the sparkly time-holes; the medieval knight from Series 3 galloped through one chasing a 'dragon', for instance. But it is interesting to see confirmation that these anomalies have been occurring throughout history (and into the future, of course!).
Unfortunately, we don't discover much more about Emily and the other time-lost humans in this episode. It seems this week was just a set up for future episodes, as she is now staying with Matt. We also have the companion of hers - he may or may not be Jack the Ripper (and if it is, then I did something very similar with a PBeM character of mine) - who also came through the anomaly and is now going around killing people for no particular reason. Again, more set up for future episodes.
So, some interesting titbits regarding a secret project at the ARC and time-lost Victorians plus some great lizardy tree creepers. Oh and a rather foxy looking Jess! But the rest was just okay and, sadly, a little embarrassing at times.
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Primeval: Series 4 Episode 2
Although this show is never going to win any prizes (except, perhaps, for its CGI effects), I felt that this second episode of the revived series of Primeval was a little better than the first. It felt more... focussed or straightforward or something. Whereas the first episode had to establish Connor and Abby back in the past, then somehow bring them back, set up a new ARC and some new characters and also have the obligatory dino-encounter, this second episode just concentrated on that dino-encounter whilst dealing a little with Connor and Abby's roles in the team.
Abby was accepted into the team as the keeper of the "bestiary", which meant they didn't compromise the ARC's new rule of allowing only (ex-)military personel to go out into the field to investigate anomalies. We only got to see a vague glimpse of this "bestiary"; I'm not entirely how it's supposed to work. Are the dinos left to wander around some large room or are they kept in cages? Why are they kept at the ARC and not some other, perhaps open-air, facility? These dinosaurs would be of great scientific interest so I can only assume they are being studied at length behind the scenes.
Meanwhile, Connor is kicked out. Despondently he uses Jess' computer (she seems far to friendly and accomodating to be true. Is she the enemy in the ranks that old man Gideon keeps going on about?) to try and find a place to stay but ends up discovering that his old mate Duncan is hunting 'monsters'. Tracking him down, they head to a building site where they find a half eaten body - and a dino-croc! Apparently, this dino came through anomaly as a baby five years ago and thus before the ARC and its anomaly-detecting apparatus were established. Since then it's been living in the sewers - just like the urban legend of giant alligators underneath New York.
Connor contacts Abby to get her help, Matt follows Abby after she sneaks away and soon the whole of the ARC team are involved in a dino hunt within a maze of large transport containers. Nameless extras are eaten (off camera), cowardly Duncan is left in a green container somewhere and eventually the dino is put down or stunned or whatever. The day is saved and Connor is brought onto the team because, well, he's in the titles so he has to be.
It's good to see that, although Primeval generally does the whole "dino of the week" thing, each episode progresses things from the weeks before. There's a feeling of continuation and evolution (hah!) rather than reset button pressing at the end of each episode. The new characters are also settling in quite quickly - I quite like Jess (she's certainly easy on the eye) but Matt sometimes seems a little too stilted and aloof. We also still haven't seen much of Dr Bashir - I mean, Philip Burton - which is a pity. Then there's the mystery of this enemy - or enemies - on the team that Gideon keeps talking to Matt about. The writing's far from brilliant but the show is interesting and entertaining and this ongoing mystery adds to that.
Next week sees some people from the future (?) coming through an anomaly. Sounds like fun and makes a change from a dino, although I'm sure they'll be one or two of those as well.
Abby was accepted into the team as the keeper of the "bestiary", which meant they didn't compromise the ARC's new rule of allowing only (ex-)military personel to go out into the field to investigate anomalies. We only got to see a vague glimpse of this "bestiary"; I'm not entirely how it's supposed to work. Are the dinos left to wander around some large room or are they kept in cages? Why are they kept at the ARC and not some other, perhaps open-air, facility? These dinosaurs would be of great scientific interest so I can only assume they are being studied at length behind the scenes.
Meanwhile, Connor is kicked out. Despondently he uses Jess' computer (she seems far to friendly and accomodating to be true. Is she the enemy in the ranks that old man Gideon keeps going on about?) to try and find a place to stay but ends up discovering that his old mate Duncan is hunting 'monsters'. Tracking him down, they head to a building site where they find a half eaten body - and a dino-croc! Apparently, this dino came through anomaly as a baby five years ago and thus before the ARC and its anomaly-detecting apparatus were established. Since then it's been living in the sewers - just like the urban legend of giant alligators underneath New York.
Connor contacts Abby to get her help, Matt follows Abby after she sneaks away and soon the whole of the ARC team are involved in a dino hunt within a maze of large transport containers. Nameless extras are eaten (off camera), cowardly Duncan is left in a green container somewhere and eventually the dino is put down or stunned or whatever. The day is saved and Connor is brought onto the team because, well, he's in the titles so he has to be.
It's good to see that, although Primeval generally does the whole "dino of the week" thing, each episode progresses things from the weeks before. There's a feeling of continuation and evolution (hah!) rather than reset button pressing at the end of each episode. The new characters are also settling in quite quickly - I quite like Jess (she's certainly easy on the eye) but Matt sometimes seems a little too stilted and aloof. We also still haven't seen much of Dr Bashir - I mean, Philip Burton - which is a pity. Then there's the mystery of this enemy - or enemies - on the team that Gideon keeps talking to Matt about. The writing's far from brilliant but the show is interesting and entertaining and this ongoing mystery adds to that.
Next week sees some people from the future (?) coming through an anomaly. Sounds like fun and makes a change from a dino, although I'm sure they'll be one or two of those as well.
Saturday, January 01, 2011
Primeval Series 4 Episode 1
Well, I'm glad I watched the short pre-episodes on the web before this first full episode of season 4 of the resurrected Primeval - ITVs dino sci-fi show. Because this episode started with the new ARC - and new characters - already in place. Those mini-eps certainly add something.
As per the end of the last series, Abby and Conner have been stuck in the Cretaceous period for a year now with, it seems, no hope of getting back. Until they happen across Helen's damaged anomaly-opening device. Unfortunately they have to get past a giant spinosaurus and a raptor first.
Meanwhile, back at the ARC, after dealing with a small dino breakout, a new anomaly is detected. The military-based team, armed with new electro guns, head out to investigate and meet up with two old friends - plus one large dino!
As always, the effects with the dinos and the anomalies are very good. The acting is great and the new characters seem pretty good. Matt Anderson (Ciaran McMenamin) is cool and seems to be secretly in league with a mysterious old man in a garden. Who is this and who are they looking out for? Jess Parker (Ruth Kearney) is perky and great fun - plus very geekily attractive. A pity we didn't see more of Philip Burton (Alexander Siddig), the private investor in the new ARC and something of an inventive genius according to Connor.
With some nice little humourous bits - like S Club 7 playing when Abby tries to distract the spinosaurus - and plenty of drama make for a great (re)start to this series. Although it seemed a little disjointed at times and over far too quickly. The surface of any kind of ongoing story line was barely scratched. Thankfully there's only a day to wait for the next episode.
As per the end of the last series, Abby and Conner have been stuck in the Cretaceous period for a year now with, it seems, no hope of getting back. Until they happen across Helen's damaged anomaly-opening device. Unfortunately they have to get past a giant spinosaurus and a raptor first.
Meanwhile, back at the ARC, after dealing with a small dino breakout, a new anomaly is detected. The military-based team, armed with new electro guns, head out to investigate and meet up with two old friends - plus one large dino!
As always, the effects with the dinos and the anomalies are very good. The acting is great and the new characters seem pretty good. Matt Anderson (Ciaran McMenamin) is cool and seems to be secretly in league with a mysterious old man in a garden. Who is this and who are they looking out for? Jess Parker (Ruth Kearney) is perky and great fun - plus very geekily attractive. A pity we didn't see more of Philip Burton (Alexander Siddig), the private investor in the new ARC and something of an inventive genius according to Connor.
With some nice little humourous bits - like S Club 7 playing when Abby tries to distract the spinosaurus - and plenty of drama make for a great (re)start to this series. Although it seemed a little disjointed at times and over far too quickly. The surface of any kind of ongoing story line was barely scratched. Thankfully there's only a day to wait for the next episode.
Monday, April 06, 2009
Primeval - Episode 2 (season 3)
They certainly know how to do spooky scary suspense, don't they? This episode of Primeval was full of it. Most of this episode was set in a spooky abandoned house containing a scary sprite-like monster which was always creeping up on people.
It all started with Cutter discovering, via a weird, wire-frame 3-D model (best line in the episode - "Couldn't you have done all this on a computer?"), that he could predict where anomalies would appear. But not when - which is kind of limiting considering they could appear at any point in time within millions of years. Of course, Helen Cutter must already have some way of predicting when/where anomalies appear or go to because she's able to use them so well.
Anyway, this model showed that an anomaly should appear in an old abandoned house so (some of) the team went off ghost hunting. I mean, dinosaur hunting. Except this week's creature was certainly not dinosaur-like. Must be a future monster (any ol' excuse to have a sneaky, chameleon, imp-like creature). There was also stuff about some kids going missing in the house years ago - obviously they went through an anomaly. So - y'know - the usual stuff.
This episode was creepy and scary but it did drag at times. The story could have been told in a half hour episode not 45 minutes. Lots of atmospheric shots and suspenseful score as folk crept around used as padding but not too much story. Still, the scariness was done well for an early evening TV show.
The main interesting bits were the introduction of Danny Quinn - hopefully, he'll be back (he left the police force in the end so he could join up) - and Helen Cutter getting her henchmen to steal her husband's DNA, setting up next week's clone episode. In fact, the preview of next week's episode looked pretty exciting. Again, another surprisingly good episode. Grade: Fine.
It all started with Cutter discovering, via a weird, wire-frame 3-D model (best line in the episode - "Couldn't you have done all this on a computer?"), that he could predict where anomalies would appear. But not when - which is kind of limiting considering they could appear at any point in time within millions of years. Of course, Helen Cutter must already have some way of predicting when/where anomalies appear or go to because she's able to use them so well.
Anyway, this model showed that an anomaly should appear in an old abandoned house so (some of) the team went off ghost hunting. I mean, dinosaur hunting. Except this week's creature was certainly not dinosaur-like. Must be a future monster (any ol' excuse to have a sneaky, chameleon, imp-like creature). There was also stuff about some kids going missing in the house years ago - obviously they went through an anomaly. So - y'know - the usual stuff.
This episode was creepy and scary but it did drag at times. The story could have been told in a half hour episode not 45 minutes. Lots of atmospheric shots and suspenseful score as folk crept around used as padding but not too much story. Still, the scariness was done well for an early evening TV show.
The main interesting bits were the introduction of Danny Quinn - hopefully, he'll be back (he left the police force in the end so he could join up) - and Helen Cutter getting her henchmen to steal her husband's DNA, setting up next week's clone episode. In fact, the preview of next week's episode looked pretty exciting. Again, another surprisingly good episode. Grade: Fine.
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Random TV Stuff
Sorry there have been no posts recently, but I've been busy with real life stuff and it's near the Easter holidays. Still, here's a brief run down of some of the TV stuff I've seen this week.
Primeval (s3 ep1)
Season 3 of this started with a “Walking with Dinosaurs meets Night In the Museum together with a little touch of Stargate” episode, where the team found an anomaly trapped in an Ancient Egyptian "Sun Cage" whilst fighting off a giant crocodile. And it was actually pretty good.
When Primeval started a few years ago, I remember watching about half the first series and then getting bored (it was all CG monster-of-the-week stuff). Then I caught the final episode of that first series and was fascinated by the whole time-travel paradox thing, where the team discovered that the camp and dead body they'd found in the first episode were due to their own actions in season one’s final episode. Also, due to their time-travelling hi-jinks, one team member now no longer existed. For some reason, I then missed the second series - I never even knew it was on! Although, since realising that season 3 was about to start, I have since managed to catch a couple of episodes repeated on one of the digital channels (ITV2?).
It's quite an interesting little show. Sure, there's still a monster-of-the-week element to it, but there's also an intriguing time-manipulating season-wide story running through the episodes. And the group dynamic between the characters is well played. Plus – bonus extra - we even got to see Hannah Spearritt in her pants again. Hurrah!
Smallville - Bulletproof (s8 ep12)
This week's episode wasn't as good as last week's (Legion) but it was still pretty entertaining. Other than that, I don't have much to say about it. Not knowing the Superman books that well, I wasn’t really aware of who Dan Turpin was. But the stuff with Lana actually seems to be getting more interesting.
Heroes - Shades of Gray (v4 ep6)
I was so busy that I didn't get to see Heroes this week. Perhaps I'll catch it on BBC's iPlayer or a repeat.
Doctor Who - Planet of the Dead
I have now seen the first trailer to the Easter Special episode of New Doctor Who (which will be shown on Saturday April 11th - my daughter's birthday). Looks marvellous! I wonder what the "planet of the dead" is all about? Can’t wait.
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