Actors: Andrew Lee Potts, Hannah Spearritt
Number of discs: 4 DVDs, 2 Blu-rays
Studio: BBC
Release Date: January 10, 2012
Run Time: 500 minutes

Buy Primeval: Volume 3 at Amazon

When Doctor Who returned in a blaze of ratings and critical glory a couple of years ago, it set off a race to find the next big British genre series to help capitalize on that success.  We’ve had some winners come out of that race (Being Human, Torchwood: Children of Earth) and we’ve had some disappointments come out of that race (any season of Torchwood that isn’t Children of Earth).

Somewhere in the lower to middle half of that is Primeval, as series that isn’t quite as frustrating as Torchwood but one that rarely hits the creative peaks that Doctor Who or Being Human does.

The show famously left audiences on a cliffhanger in its third series and then was cancelled.  Thanks to a co-financing agreement between the U.S. and the U.K., the series was revived and fans were allowed to see how the Primeval crew got out of one sticky situation and then created several more over the course of two seasons.   Those two seasons are collected together for the third release of the series on DVD and Blu-Ray.

One of the things going for Primeval is that it really is trying to create some long term story and character arcs.   The series also doesn’t shy away from writing out characters from the show.

It’s just too bad that the acting is, at times, rather wooden.  It’s also a shame that the series has a tendency to write out the characters just as they’re becoming interesting.

Visually, the series is stunning and the effects work fairly well.   The copy provided for review was the Blu-Ray edition and the picture was sharp, clear and solid.   And unlike Terra Nova where the dinosaurs are only seen every once in a while, Primeval fully embraces that it’s a show about pre-historic beasts and offers them up early and often in episodes.

The DVD/Blu-Ray set offers a few extras, but they’re no where near as rich or compelling as other BBC box sets.   There are a couple of featurettes and an audio commentary or two.  However, my big issue with the commentaries is the same one I have with a lot of recently aired or produced shows and films–not enough time has passed to really give those involved with the project a chance to be truly objective about the final product.

But for most the real selling point is the episodes.  And while the two seasons collected here do have some nice moments, overall it feels like this series is losing a bit of steam.