NETWORK: BBC America
AIR DATE: August 9, 2008
STARRING: Douglas Henshall, Lucy Brown, Andrew Lee Potts, James Murray, Hannah Spearritt, Juliet Aubrey, and Ben Miller
CREATED BY: Tim Haines & Adrian Hodges

A dinosaur crosses a grocery store parking lot, chasing a poor girl, and the thought I can't shake is why didn't someone think of this earlier? Sure, The Sci-Fi Channel has had a number of horrible movies involving dinosaurs in modern times (the aptly-named Raptor Island springs to mind), but with the modern resurgence of TV sci-fi, especially on the BBC with the great Doctor Who and greater Torchwood, why hasn't there been a "dinos in modern times" show that took its production seriously? Enter Primeval, another solid hit for one of the more consistently interesting networks out there, BBC America. After a few rough spots in the premiere, Primeval settles into a nice groove and should be one of the more interesting shows in your DVR for the next few months.

"Darwin provides most of the answers. It's the pieces that don't fit that interest me." So says Professor Cutter (Douglas Henshall), a man interested in reports of unusual fossils and grainy pictures of never-before-seen creatures who finds himself in the middle of the story of the millennium when a rift opens up between time periods, allowing big, scaly baddies to roam the forest, try and eat children, and snack on bovine. Imagine a window between now and 20,000 years ago. Primeval actually plays it mostly straight with government involvement (a la the conspiracies at the heart of The X-Files) trying to cover up the discovery and life-and-death action scenes. How would people respond to such a discovery? Both people who know something about the period and average people whose awareness of dinos extends only to the work of Michael Crichton? Making matters more interesting is that Cutter's wife Helen disappeared near the rift years earlier and the Professor finds evidence that she survived for at least a while in prehistoric times and may actually still be alive.

Primeval doesn't quite stand up to the best of the BBC - Torchwood, Robin Hood, Doctor Who, Jekyll, Life on Mars - but it is significantly more interesting than the shows like it that silly Americans have tried to pull off. Why is BBC producing such interesting sci-fi programming and the best we can do is Eureka? We couldn't even keep The 4400 interesting, and don't get me started on Painkiller Jane, The Dresden Files, The Lost Room, or Flash Gordon. What Primeval does right (as does Torchwood and Robin Hood) is to find the right mix of the serious and the tongue-in-cheek. You couldn't make a show about giant prehistoric spiders on an underground train with a completely straight face. But it also doesn't need to be over-the-top cheese like the Sci-Fi Channel original movies. It's that balance that's so difficult to maintain that the Brits seem to get right more often than the Americans and it's that balance that Primeval totally nails. It's one of the more interestingly written new shows of the year.

Of course, it doesn't hurt to have a great actor in the lead role and Douglas Henshall completely rocks as Cutter. He sells the emotional beats of his missing wife perfectly and has just enough fascination in the unexplained to make him believable. I can't stand it when characters in sci-fi shows approach the unbelievable as if they see it every day. Henshall makes his character three-dimensional, which makes the "out there" elements of the show easier to swallow. The writers of Primeval even take the time to develop a love triangle between three of the members of Cutter's team that's pretty interesting and not the kind of thing that sci-fi shows usually take the time to include. The whole ensemble works with each character already starting to develop their own personality and quirks that should make them as interesting as the deadly creatures they discover. Andrew Lee Potts and the super-cute Hannah Spearritt do particularly good work in the second episode.

What holds Primeval back from classic status? (Besides the fact that I unexplainably still don't have BBC America in HD. Damn you, Direct TV!) I wish they had spent a little more on the dinosaur effects. Of course, no one expects Primeval to look like Jurassic Park IV, but when it's too clear that the big, scaly dude and the little kid are not sharing the same physical space at all, it kind of drains the tension from the show. The directors wisely shoot a lot of dino action in darkness, where the animated nature of the creatures aren't too blatant. And it's really a minor complaint. So many things about Primeval completely work that a few off special effects shots can be forgiven. BBC America continues to rank right up there with FX, HBO, and Showtime as a network that everyone should keep an eye on. Primeval is another fascinating and original hit.