Two bitches, so little time. When Nick and Jenny respectively left the show, their names were immediately excised from the credits. And yet, week after week, there we saw Juliet Aubrey’s name. So we knew Helen Cutter was still out there.

Considering she’s been at the center of the anomalies since the beginning, I think we knew we weren’t done with her yet … at least until we’re done with her. My guess is next week’s finale, especially considering the fact that the show’s canceled in the UK after this third season. At least there’s hope of a film and/or spinoff. Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s see, first we added an Egyptologist into the team at the beginning of the season. Then we lost Cutter, the leading man of the series, and now tonight we lost someone else. Primeval has been all about change virtually since the beginning, even going so far as to change Lucy Brown’s character from Claudie to Jenny; and honestly the change wasn’t an improvement.

I guess the idea is to establish a brand new status quo for a new generation of Primeval. Cutter always seemed a bit out of place once we got into the ARC with the second season. He never seemed a good fit for that much bureaucracy. Connor and Abby didn’t look that much more comfortable, but they managed to make that work. I do miss Hannah Spearritt having to run around in her underwear virtually every episode, though.

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If that’s really the way they’re going to write Cutter out of the show, it’s pretty realistic. Dealing with the anomalies is dangerous work, and to have the main character so abruptly taken down in the line of duty is brilliant. In America, this would never happen. I don’t know if last week’s episode was hyped as game changing, but it certainly caught me by surprise when he died at the end.

Luckily, his apparent replacement is an absolute blast to watch. Jason Flemyng’s charisma comes through in the crazy character of Danny Quinn, who we first met in the second episode of this season with the weird house gremlin. He had a presence even then that you couldn’t take your eyes off of him.

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BBC America

(Series 2, Episode 7 – Season Finale!)

Primeval has been renewed for a third series across the pond and is expected to start filming said series in early 2009. I’m not sure if they knew that or not when they filmed this episode that they were getting renewed, so they worked hard to make sure that we hated Helen as much as humanly possible by the end of this.

So do any of you know what the hell happened to the character of Stephen this series? I guess after the timeline changes between the first and second series, he became a tool. And yet no one mentioned this particular personality change, what with being focused on Claudia/Jenny and all. Maybe Helen has some venereal disease that brings out the stupid in guys. Nick has been out long enough to have started recovering. Maybe there’s a Helen’s crotch brain rot therapy group out there.

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FHM

(Season 2, Episode 6)

Can you believe it’s almost the second series finale of Primeval. And no we won’t get to enjoy the third season premiere the following week. It won’t start until 2009 in the UK, and I’ve not found any specific word on when it might air on BBC America. If they can promise more Hannah Spearritt in her panties than in the first season, I’ll start a campaign right now to get it on the air as soon as possible. Apparently, the show gained some critical credibility and they decided they didn’t need near nudity to sell it anymore. How wrong they are!

That picture over there does not appear in this or any episode of Primeval … but it should. Near nudity always sells a television show. Chuck is a much better show when there’s an excuse to get Sarah in her knickers. Hot chicks always sell, just look at any random billboard. I mean sure, the dinosaurs are kind of cool and there is the threat of Leek and Helen and their cohorts. We do finally get some payoff as to what they’ve been up to all this year, as well as a helluva cliffhanger.

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BBC America

(Season 2, Episode 5)

Well, we’re closing in on the season finale in two weeks, and this time the premiere won’t be coming up a week later. We’re just about caught up to the UK production schedule. With the 10-episode third series tentatively scheduled to begin in January 2009 across the pond, hopefully BBC America will be a little quicker to pick it up and air it in the US than they were these first two seasons.

With the addition of the ongoing menace of Helen Cutter and her ruthless team of hooligans, there’s a whole new layer of suspense and intrigue beyond the “monster of the week.” This week’s addition to our roster of made-up prehistoric beasties initially looked inspired by Tremors. “Get on the rocks!” When Cutter and Stephen head across an anomaly to rescue a missing girl who disappeared through it, they may need rescuing of their own when the anomaly closes in on them.

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BBC America

(Series 2, Episode 4)

I’m just not warming up to Jenny. I miss Claudia and I don’t care that they look identical. I just had to put that out there.

The looming threat hanging over this second series of Primeval came to a little more light in this installment, and even though I didn’t see it coming, I think that was more me just being intellectually and speculatively lazy. In retrospect, there aren’t really any other reveals there could have been, are there? It does add an interesting wrinkle to things in regards to the altered time line, or Primeval 2.0, that we’re living in.

Connor and Abby’s relationship almost took a dramatic move forward, but that damned Caroline keeps getting in the way. In fact, with what she did in tonight’s episode, Connor is clearly not thinking with the right brain to have bought her stupid excuse. Oh, enough of this, let’s get past the jump so we can talk properly.

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