I suppose it was only a matter of time before I started watching Canadian television, I guess I was just waiting for the right show and Sanctuary wasn't it. I knew that the Canadian channel Space was planning on a spin-off of the UK show Primeval but I hadn't realized it had come to fruition. What's more, I didn't realize Naill Matter who I loved on Eureka had been cast in the lead role. There were more than enough reasons to watch it and I just hoped for the best, that it could live up to its predecessor.
After watching the first eight episodes I have mixed feelings. I do have to give it props for being a spin-off of another country's show instead of just remaking it like they would and have in the US. The Canadians scored some major points on that score. This series is set in the same world as the UK show and Connor (Andrew Lee Potts) does a guest appearance in the first episode in a way handing the series off to his Vancouver counterpart. I think the show needed that but could have pushed it a bit more which they may do in future episodes to really cement the connection between the two shows. Without the connection to the original, the show seems more of a rehashing. In the UK series, anomalies where starting to occur everywhere and it seems a little odd that just now people are discovering them in Vancouver. We see Evan Cross working out how to alert them to an anomaly and how to find them but not at cleverly as the UK show did. It's almost as if Evan is suppose to be smarted than Connor which I don't quite believe.
Curiously, both series start off with the loss of the main character's wife which I suppose works as a good motivational tool to start the plot off. We eventually learn more about Evan Cross' first encounter in the eighth episode which also sheds light on quite a few mysteries that we had been leading up to until that point. Evan quickly gathers his team of an animal control chick and possible love interest, computer whiz, Indian-Brit security guard, annoying CFO and also possible love interest and a government spook who he doesn't quite like. With the team assemble let the dinosaur hunting begin!
Dinosaurs are a major part of anomaly infractions which is nice compared to the UK show which got more creative as the series progressed. Primeval: New World has had a bug episode and a basilisk episode but their creatures have mainly been dinosaurs. There are differences in the CGI work but surprisingly it isn't as distracting. The creatures still look amazing and the only real difference is the anomalies which look slightly different. The original anomalies look more like shards of glass compared to big balls of light with slight shard-like pieces towards the edges. This doesn't detract from the viewing pleasure as much as I would have thought.
What doesn't quite fit for me is the location. The show is set in Vancouver but we only get a mention of it once that I recall and we don't get any onscreen indication of where an anomaly is opening like we did in the UK show. The nondescript location might be working against the show because so many television shows and films are filmed there but set elsewhere. The show is missing a locality. Not that I would know of any of the places they could name it would give me a better sense of the world.
Primeval: New World lacks the charm of the original series. It is harder to fall in love with these characters than it was to fall for the original characters. You learn to like them but there's too much back and forth for me to really commit to these characters. I love Evan Cross but it might have more to do with the fact that I love Naill Matter. This role is similar to his role in Eureka. He's super smart and a bit of a bad boy but there is a vulnerability to him that I enjoy watching. He has some emotional scenes and isn't as snarky. The supporting cast is okay but lacks some heart. Leeds is a dark horse. This show is missing a Lester which Leeds cannot compete with. As more is discovered about the ARC I wonder if it will create an office in Vancouver in future episodes or if they'll continue down this project magnet road they have going with Leeds.
There also appears to be a subtle love triangle that begins and then ends, I don't know it's weird. Evan's wife dies so he's in mourning and has been for some time. He has his CFO Ange who is clearly interested in him. What is weird is because you know she likes him but you think that he's going to go with Dylan the animal control chick he recruits but then he starts up with Ange which goes against the expectations of the viewing audience. What's more is then the show takes a horrible turn to reinforce the relationship between Evan and Ange. It was like they thought the audience wasn't going to buy the relationship. They put Ange in skin tight workout pants and low top and send her on an anomaly chase with Dylan who is wearing a turtle neck. It was blatantly obvious who had the sex appeal in that episode especially since Dylan usually wears regular shirts.
I struggled to stay connected with the show throughout its first eight episodes because you would have one really great episode that would propel you into the next episode which would be a disappointment. Of course I was always comparing it to the original which didn't help because it could never quite reach the standard the UK show had set. This series is far more gory than the UK series. There are a lot more victims who are only half eaten and I miss the days where unsuspecting victims were swallowed whole.
Still I think the show has something and as mysteries start to unravel the show will come into its own.
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