Primeval, Vol. 2 (Series 3) – DVD Review

By June L. Sep 22, 2009, 18:52 GMT

Monster hit "Primeval" roars back onto the screens for an extended third series. Still reeling from Stephen\'s death and with the depth of Helen\'s betrayal now revealed, Nick Cutter must fight to re-focus his embattled team. Cutter\'s crew are joined by some new recruits in the form of maverick policeman Danny Quinn, sparky Egyptologist Sarah Page, and the new leader of the ARC\'s security forces Captain Becker. But as the ...more

The British series that has ancient and future creatures coming through a time rift to terrorize modern Earth is back for a second volume of action.  There are big changes for the Team this season, and unfortunately the show has been cancelled without a complete resolution. 

Fans will want to own this last season to see how the Anomalies Research Center scientists deal with the current time rift problems, and there has been some talk of future films or even another series.

When Primeval first came to television, it seemed to be a show that dwelt more on science and the idea that a time anomaly could exist.  The team sought out the monsters and whenever possible returned them to their proper time line and focused on the knowledge or understanding the encounter had given them about Earth’s history. 

In this second volume, the action has been ramped up and the team appears to be more of a search and destroy venture still trying somewhat to return the creatures “home” but really not adverse to blowing them to smithereens. 

Viewers learned in the first two series of Primeval (DVD Primeval Volume One) that even minute changes along the time line can result in catastrophic changes in the future, or in the case of Claudia (Lucy Brown) the present day. 

So one has to wonder if turning a giant vulture/ostrich creature from the past into a giant pile of feathers will have a lasting effect on humanity

In keeping with more action, this season the team is younger, and more diverse. Abby (Hannah Spearritt) and Connor (Andrew-Lee Potts) are still part of it, but ARC has hired an unorthodox young archeologist Sarah Page (Laila Rouass) to examine the past for evidence of the creatures in Earth’s myths. 

The idea now, is that these creatures have been appearing throughout human history and can be associated with the mythologies in many cultures.  Also Stephen has been replaced by a military man Captain Becker (Ben Mansfield).  There is an attempt to take over ARC by a new foe in the government, and it appears that everything has been disbanded. 

Nick builds a structure that will predict the next anomaly location, and Helen makes another appearance to the detriment of ARC.  As a result of Helen’s actions, the team is soon led by non-Scientist policeman Danny Quinn (Jason Flemying) whose loss of his kid brother to a creature makes his governing and actions more of a SWAT team approach than information gathering.

The actors and actresses do a good job in their roles, and the action is certainly exciting. 

Primeval is presented on three discs with all of Season Three’s episodes.  The complete running time is 445 minutes.  There are some interesting specials, a featurette “Cutter’s Odyssey” has interviews and clips with actor Douglas Henshall who plays Nick Cutter, examining the character and his role in the series. 

“Genesis of a Creature” takes a look at the creation of the series monsters from concept to actual screen appearance.  This is a fascinating look at the processes involved in monster production.  Finally there are commentaries for several of the episodes. 

If you are a fan of the show you will want to have this DVD as a chapter in the evolution of the series, and we will wait to see what movies or new television spin offs produce.

Primeval, Vol. 2 (Series 3) is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for this version of the DVD in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.