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Technically any good? To be absolutely fair, the premise of this series is actually pretty cool--it's about these strange time portals that are showing up around the UK allowing creatures from other times to appear. Also, some of the actors try reeeally hard and my heart goes out to them (mainly Douglas Henshall, Andrew Lee Potts, and Lucy Brown who are really solid). Why does my heart go out to the actors? Because the execution of the stories and even the stories themselves are just RIDICULOUS!!
Rather than presenting us with interesting evolutionary mysteries from the past and future from the first episode, the series bores us with way too many episodes featuring cliched dinosaurs, giant alligators (in a community swimming pool!) and other been-done prehistoric creatures, including a saber-tooth tiger who appears in the show's funniest moment (if you don't mind spoilers, check out this clip). There's also an absurd storyline with the lead's ex-wife, which would be interesting if she wasn't so obviously eeeeeeevil.
The FX are also pretty bad. I don't fault the FX artists, I'm sure they'd do a better job if they had a better budget. However, the cinematography isn't smart enough to shoot around the weaknesses of the FX. As a result, you get to see the blatantly CG tiger in the same frame as the actor (who often looks "at" the CG tiger in the wrong place).
How did it leave me feeling? Entertained, but in a very bad way. It's annoying because, like I said, the premise is kind of interesting and some of the acting is perfectly reasonable. I even like the chemistry between Henshall and Brown's characters. It's just that everything is so poorly executed it's impossible to take the show seriously. I'm hoping that in series 3 the Sleestacks from Land of the Lost will show up. I mean, that's how bad this show is--sure there are no crappy chromakey FX, but there might as well be.
Final Rating? IIO - If It's On, it's perfect for background noise. It was created to compete with Doctor Who but doesn't come close--unless it was trying to compete with Doctor Who from the 1970s. Perhaps the show's creators fell through one of those time portals in their show from the Tom Baker era? :P
I'd love to see a remake of this taken seriously. I'd be a fan of that show. Not of this one, though.
Orignal From: PRIMEVAL (2007) (TV)
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