Primeval 4.01
Jan. 10th, 2011 08:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
purplecatIt's generally acknowledged that the season opener in any genre series is a tough job. You need to introduce new characters, re-introduce the show in general and deliver enough short term whizz and bang to make viewers check back next week. Primeval, this time around, had also saddled itself with a number of loose plot threads that needed tying up.
Even so I was surprised by the extent to which nothing much was happening. At the halfway mark the ARC people were still in the ARC and Abby and Connor were still in the Creteceous. There had been a lot of scene setting but nothing that constituted even so much as a monster-of-the-week plot. We then crammed that into the final twenty minutes or so, complete with convenient disposal of Helen's anomaly opening device. Even making allowances for it's need to be the run-around season opener I thought this episode was uneven and patchy. That said I did prefer it to the season 3 opener which, structurally speaking, was more accomplished. Several people have suggested that the dialogue this season is much livelier than last which may account for it. Moreover the new characters at least have something that passes for a character (and Becker has found one someplace) where many of the characters in season three were just plot devices that spoke from time to time (of Danny, Becker and Sarah only Danny ultimately had any character to speak of though Sarah had a strong start which then fizzled).
Speaking of the new characters we have Matt Anderson, a man with a secret and who is quite buttoned down as a result. I've seen Ciaran McMenamin's acting written off as bland and uninteresting. I'll concede he's not adding much to the character beyond what's there on the page but he is competently conveying the fact that Matt wants to both like and trust his team but feels unable to open up to them which instantly makes him more interesting than Becker and Sarah were last season. I'd like to see how his character arc plays out before passing judgment. Jess, on the other hand, is all over the place. This isn't really Ruth Kearney's fault since she's asked to be ultra-competent one moment and an air-head the next and it would challenge a much better actress to pull of that kind of emotional switchback convincingly but the net result is an irritating character, one who appears to use bubbling girlishness to manipulate those around her when, I suspect, the powers that be were more interested in some kind of female version of Connor who mixed social incompetance with technical genius (with the added benefit of extremely short skirts). I'm being a little churlish here because I prefer the thought that has been put into Jess to the blanks that were season 3's Becker and Sarah but the net result, at the moment, is clumsy.
In summary I didn't think much of the story or pacing here, but I did find much to like in the episode and, in retrospect, it bodes far better for the rest of season 4, than the structurally more competent, but otherwise lacklustre introduction to season 3.
Even so I was surprised by the extent to which nothing much was happening. At the halfway mark the ARC people were still in the ARC and Abby and Connor were still in the Creteceous. There had been a lot of scene setting but nothing that constituted even so much as a monster-of-the-week plot. We then crammed that into the final twenty minutes or so, complete with convenient disposal of Helen's anomaly opening device. Even making allowances for it's need to be the run-around season opener I thought this episode was uneven and patchy. That said I did prefer it to the season 3 opener which, structurally speaking, was more accomplished. Several people have suggested that the dialogue this season is much livelier than last which may account for it. Moreover the new characters at least have something that passes for a character (and Becker has found one someplace) where many of the characters in season three were just plot devices that spoke from time to time (of Danny, Becker and Sarah only Danny ultimately had any character to speak of though Sarah had a strong start which then fizzled).
Speaking of the new characters we have Matt Anderson, a man with a secret and who is quite buttoned down as a result. I've seen Ciaran McMenamin's acting written off as bland and uninteresting. I'll concede he's not adding much to the character beyond what's there on the page but he is competently conveying the fact that Matt wants to both like and trust his team but feels unable to open up to them which instantly makes him more interesting than Becker and Sarah were last season. I'd like to see how his character arc plays out before passing judgment. Jess, on the other hand, is all over the place. This isn't really Ruth Kearney's fault since she's asked to be ultra-competent one moment and an air-head the next and it would challenge a much better actress to pull of that kind of emotional switchback convincingly but the net result is an irritating character, one who appears to use bubbling girlishness to manipulate those around her when, I suspect, the powers that be were more interested in some kind of female version of Connor who mixed social incompetance with technical genius (with the added benefit of extremely short skirts). I'm being a little churlish here because I prefer the thought that has been put into Jess to the blanks that were season 3's Becker and Sarah but the net result, at the moment, is clumsy.
In summary I didn't think much of the story or pacing here, but I did find much to like in the episode and, in retrospect, it bodes far better for the rest of season 4, than the structurally more competent, but otherwise lacklustre introduction to season 3.