Primeval Season 4
Feb. 6th, 2011 10:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaznettiI find it very difficult to post about shows with a 6 to 8 episode season until the whole thing is done -- they have too much one-long-story, and too quick a payoff, for me to say anything while they're in progress.
I liked that. I didn't even mind the return of Danny, AKA Stupid Former Cop, because at some point in the last season I said that the writers ought to make Danny's brother the new Big Bad, now that Helen is gone, and they very nearly did! They remembered Danny's lost brother!
But I have remembered that the thing (ok, one of the things) that annoys me about Danny is his super-competence -- although that might just be a factor of the amazing incompeteonce of the military support given to this project. Really, do Becker and his men mostly exist just to be shot at and usually hit? I feel like the answer to the question I often have (i.e. shouldn't they have military backup in this situation) is probably, "why bother waiting? what diffference would it make?"
All this despite my intense enjoyment of the Becker-in-stupid-peril/plucky-Jess-saves-the-day (apparently through guesswork?) storyline of episode 6. I may be warming to Jess, although I still see no evidence that her feelings are reciprocated.
Aside from the Danny-Ethan thing, I felt that most of the big reveals were not all that revolutionary: Philip Burton is doing something that might destroy the world? you don't say! Matt and his father are from the future? No, really! Connor is, as ever, not a very good judge of other people. He should probably just accept that about himself and let Abby decide who to trust and who not to trust. (I feel that after his year away, Connor should have changed more than he seems to have done.) Although he does seem to have realized, from his expression at the very end, that he may have made a mistake.
(Not that I object to predictability about Primeval, really. I just sometimes think they could be more adventurous about the possibilities of time travel... It has occurred to me, for example, that given the events of season 1, "dead as a dodo" is not quite as reassuring a description of Helen's status as Lester seemed to think.)
I was a bit put off by the resolution to the Matt and Emily storyline -- I am not sure that "You must return to your own time or you will distract me from my very important mission!" is a very good argument, although it is presumably one which Emily was culturally inclined to accept. Whether he made the argument honestly or in that knowledge, I didn't feel much sympathy for him there.
Anyway, in light of Matt/Emily and Becker/Jess, I am not convincedthis season was very good at relationships (although the Matt/Becker at the start looked promising.) And there certainly ould have been more done with Connor and Abby on that front.
Oh dear -- these all seem like complaints! But really, I like my silly dinosaur show very much, and though that this was a good season -- much better than S3. I am looking forward to the next season (or continuation of this one, since it's coming so soon...)
I liked that. I didn't even mind the return of Danny, AKA Stupid Former Cop, because at some point in the last season I said that the writers ought to make Danny's brother the new Big Bad, now that Helen is gone, and they very nearly did! They remembered Danny's lost brother!
But I have remembered that the thing (ok, one of the things) that annoys me about Danny is his super-competence -- although that might just be a factor of the amazing incompeteonce of the military support given to this project. Really, do Becker and his men mostly exist just to be shot at and usually hit? I feel like the answer to the question I often have (i.e. shouldn't they have military backup in this situation) is probably, "why bother waiting? what diffference would it make?"
All this despite my intense enjoyment of the Becker-in-stupid-peril/plucky-Jess-saves-the-day (apparently through guesswork?) storyline of episode 6. I may be warming to Jess, although I still see no evidence that her feelings are reciprocated.
Aside from the Danny-Ethan thing, I felt that most of the big reveals were not all that revolutionary: Philip Burton is doing something that might destroy the world? you don't say! Matt and his father are from the future? No, really! Connor is, as ever, not a very good judge of other people. He should probably just accept that about himself and let Abby decide who to trust and who not to trust. (I feel that after his year away, Connor should have changed more than he seems to have done.) Although he does seem to have realized, from his expression at the very end, that he may have made a mistake.
(Not that I object to predictability about Primeval, really. I just sometimes think they could be more adventurous about the possibilities of time travel... It has occurred to me, for example, that given the events of season 1, "dead as a dodo" is not quite as reassuring a description of Helen's status as Lester seemed to think.)
I was a bit put off by the resolution to the Matt and Emily storyline -- I am not sure that "You must return to your own time or you will distract me from my very important mission!" is a very good argument, although it is presumably one which Emily was culturally inclined to accept. Whether he made the argument honestly or in that knowledge, I didn't feel much sympathy for him there.
Anyway, in light of Matt/Emily and Becker/Jess, I am not convincedthis season was very good at relationships (although the Matt/Becker at the start looked promising.) And there certainly ould have been more done with Connor and Abby on that front.
Oh dear -- these all seem like complaints! But really, I like my silly dinosaur show very much, and though that this was a good season -- much better than S3. I am looking forward to the next season (or continuation of this one, since it's coming so soon...)
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no subject
Date: 2011-02-07 06:55 am (UTC)That said, there were so many rampant stupidities in this particular episode it was hard to get past it to the meat. And such a waste of Siddig el Fadil, really.
I know I'm supposed to feel for Matt and Emily, but Matt has been so impenetrable I have no sympathy for him, they utterly failed to give Emily any kind of interior life, or flesh out her backstory beyond 2 dimensions.
I had such hope for Abby & Connor in the episode where they returned and kept watch for each other in London--and then everything they'd been through was ignored.
I also begin to think that Becker needs a new job, because he's not very good at being a military leader: he keeps making stupid tactical decisions and having his men killed/knocked out. He never brings enough backup, or shoots fast enough, and he has terrible gun safety protocols. That said, I rather like him, but they need to give him some competence. (And put Jess in less ridiculous clothes.)
When does it come back?
no subject
Date: 2011-02-07 05:37 pm (UTC)I tend to let the stupidities just wash over me with this show, although even I felt that Becker and his team were just not doing a very good job this time around. Although I think that the design flaw which nearly led to everyone in the ARC being killed during the total lockdown in episode 2 (3?) was the most stupid thing so far.
There were hints at the start that Connor and Abby had changed a bit, but those were soon dropped by the wayside, I agree -- in exchange for not much development in anyone else. Like you, I didn't feel much for Matt and Emily's predicament. (I think Jess has Abby's old wardrobe. But Abby never wore shoes like that.)
Oddly enough, I feel like there is quite a lot of room for fanfic in all the missing character development this season -- not that I have time to write anything, these days.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-07 05:39 pm (UTC)Oh, yes. I wish someone were writing the stuff that I want to see.
And I don't have time, either: too busy rewriting CS Lewis. *g*
no subject
Date: 2011-02-06 04:47 pm (UTC)The plots moved along fairly predictable lines - I was pleased that they remembered Danny's brother, and made him the red herring and Little Bad, at the very least, but the revelation didn't surprise me overmuch, because I knew that Jason Flemyng was due to come back for guest appearances. Matt being from the future was predictable from the first cryptic conversation between him and Gideon. And Philip Burton looked shifty from the outset, and he tried to kill Rex, which is a traditional Primeval sign of an arch villain. Never trust anyone who threatens the cute critters or the mammoth.
I don't think the show has ever been able to do romance well, apart from Cutter and Claudia in season one, where they soft pedalled it rather than hammered the point home, and the twisted relationships that both Cutter and Stephen had with Helen. I'm rather hoping that Jess's passion for Becker remains one sided, because that way it actually makes a certain kind of sense. And he never did answer her boyfriend/girlfriend question. If it weren't for Matt's rather unconvincing (too fast, no spark) passion for Emily, I'd really wonder about the two of them.
I do like that they've found the time to give the newcomers a little bit of personality this year, so that we know a little bit more about them than we did about Becker and Sarah by the end of last season. They've given Becker more of a personality this year too, which makes me happy as he's been my focus character since Stephen died. (Yes I am shallow and I like the pretty.) I just wish he didn't have to get shot in stupid circumstances quite so often, even if he's about 1000% more effective than any other member of their special forces team. Sigh. They really do need to dress them in red rather than black.
It strikes me that "dead as a Dodo" could actually be a very accurate description of Helen's current state. Yes, she's dead at that particular point in time, just like the dodos are "now". But she spent 8+ years time hopping, and our characters' future could intersect with her past at any time. Besides, since she had contacts with Philip Burton, she's still influencing affairs from beyond the grave. Ironically, it sounds like she may well have been a catalyst for the big destruction of everything that she was trying so hard to prevent.
The first season will always be the best. But I still find myself liking it in its evolved form, provided I don't think about it too hard and just sit back and embrace the dinosaurs, the pretty and the cracktastic plotting.