Saturday, February 10, 2007

Prime Time Eval

Primeval. Like Torchwood but made by ITV. Which is not as damning as it sounds, but then again it doesn't elevate Torchwood in any way either. If we're gonna have kids rescuing cute CGInosaurs, I say bring back Surface damn it!

4 comments:

SK said...

They have a much better cast than Torchwood, though. And the missing-wife plot guy is more immediately interesting than immortal-Jack -- and, crucially, that plotline is more mature and adult than nearly anything Torchwood did.

So much so, in fact, that it sits rather uneasily alongside the kid-pleasing monster-chases and the 'no cliche overturned' shiny but incompetent government department. I'd have loved to see Primeval done Waking the Dead-style.

(Ben Miller does redeem the government department somewhat... 'when in doubt, cast up' really does work, apparantly.)

Surface was good but too slow, too repetitive and too padded. At times it felt like watching the worst of Pertwee -- this episode they escape from the last cliffhanger, run around a bit, find one clue, and then are find themselvs about to be captured/killed in another cliffhanger. They could have, and should have, told the same story in six episodes instead of 15 or whatever it took them.

SAF said...

Surface did, however, benefit from being on at around the same time as Invasion and thus appeared to run along at about Warp Factor Seven. ;)

Mark Michalowski said...

Yes, SURFACE was to INVASION what HEROES is to LOST.

Whatever happened to SURFACE, anyway? Was it cancelled? Or 'in hiatus' as they euphemistically say?

Mxx

SAF said...

AFAIK SURFACE was cancelled. On the plus side, INVASION was too, but I didn't feel they belonged in the same boat, as it were :)

Must see what HEROES is all about at some point. We're currently catching up on BSG though, which takes priority :)