Fringe withdrawal? Try Primeval on Netflix.

The wife and I have been watching this British series from a couple of years ago (2005-2008, I think) called Primeval. It's really good. The premise is that portals in spacetime are opening up randomly (and amazingly, always around London!) with creatures from the past invading the present while a ragtag team of government agents, SWAT, and scientists who happened to be the ones that discovered the phenomena and thus were drafted into the troubleshooting team.

If that sounds a lot like Fringe, well, it plays a lot like Fringe also.

The characterization is excellent, the writing is mostly believable, there's a central mystery having to do with the lead scientist's missing wife, a couple of action heroes, the cute reptile expert who runs around in her underwear half the time (someone needs to suggest that to Jasika Nicole) and the comedy relief cutup who also happens to be accidentally a self-made expert on all things prehistoric. As you might guess, there's also a lot of sexual tension; enough that it sometimes starts to feel like Woodstock. heh.

Anyway, I give it a thumbs up. If you're looking for something to fill the gap in your life since Fringe went on hiatus, or you just want to try something new, give Primeval a look. The special effects in the first episode are the least convincing - they get better as the episodes continue, presumably because they had more money committed to the show as it went along.

Well it's standard British SciFi fair, reasonably well done. Only caught the first two seasons myself. However the only thing that really catches my eye is bleach blond with the pixie cut (first few seasons) running about in her knickers ( i <3 Abby ).

I had a thread on Primeval here at some point. I think it's definitely B-movie type fare, but they commit to it. Once you overlook the not-perfect special effects, it's really quite good. Also ballsy. When was the last time you saw a show willing to kill off main characters? Been a while for me.

Also, the nature of time travel being what it is, I was surprised when they started running into paradoxes... and KEEPING them! Unlike the typical "return to the status quo" thing we see with shows like Star Trek where one person will say, "This universe doesn't feel right, Captain," and then everyone runs around to try and change everything to suit that one person's belief.

Once I watched everything available on streaming, I liked it much better than when I started with the show. I stuck with it because I was housebound with health issues and I'm glad I did, because it's a fun little series. I'm anticipating DVD release of the next season.

Primeval is a good series but if you are going to get into it for the first time don't watch season 1. It really isn't very good and the production values are abysmal. If you have seen a couple other seasons then it's watchable just to see what it evolved from. But if you try to get hooked on it by watching the first season you would most likely give up.

Personally I found Primeval to be very poor.

Obviously good british sci-fi is hard to come by, so I gave it its fair dues, but I felt some of the casting choices were poor, and their weak acting skills in the early season, as well as a poor plot early on, turned me off it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VoodooGirl [*]Watching out for the Spinning Disco Portal of D00M!*

I love Primeval... but I haven't watched all of it... I need to finish the series and it's in my netflix but i haven't gotten around to it...