Primeval
Series 2
DVD box set cover art
Starring	Douglas Henshall James Murray Andrew-Lee Potts Lucy Brown Hannah Spearritt Juliet Aubrey Ben Miller Karl Theobald Naomi Bentley
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	7
Release
Original network	ITV
Original release	12 January (2008-01-12) – 23 February 2008 (2008-02-23)
Series chronology

The second series of the British science fiction programme Primeval began on 12 January 2008 and concluded on 23 February 2008 after airing seven episodes. Primeval follows a team of scientists tasked with investigating the appearance of temporal anomalies across the United Kingdom through which prehistoric and futuristic creatures enter the present. Most of the main cast from the first series returned for the second; the cast was also expanded with the additions of characters played by Karl Theobald and Naomi Bentley.

Following the success of the first series, the second series of Primeval was commissioned in March 2007, with storylines and scripts being worked on for three months before shooting began in June. The second series was envisioned as more ambitious than the first, with more creatures and more action sequences, and was also written to be rougher, with more people being killed by the various creatures. The second series also introduced the Anomaly Research Centre (ARC), created using a massive set in a building formerly for military use at Longcross Film Studios in Chertsey.

The second series replicated the success of the first in terms of ratings, being seen by over six million viewers in the United Kingdom. Reception was overall positive; critics enjoyed that it did not take itself too seriously and found the second series to be both entertaining and overall an improvement over the first in terms of its central story arc. The last two episodes of the series received particular praise as a hard-edged and surprisingly good series finale. The visual effects received a more mixed response than in the previous series; some critics found them to be an improvement whereas others considered them worse than in the first series.

Episodes

Cast

Production

Release

Broadcast and ratings

See also: Primeval (TV series) § Viewership

UK ratings for the episodes of the second series^[1]

The production of the second series was announced by ITV on 8 June 2007.^[2] The second series had a much larger pre-publicity campaign, both by ITV and by unaffilited TV magazines.^[13] The series consistently received more than six million viewers, roughly on par with the first series,^[1] and had an audience share of over 25 %.^[14] The least viewed episode was the second episode, with 6.05 million viewers, and the most viewed episode was the penultimate episode, with 6.44 million viewers.^[1]

Critical reception

Eamonn McCusker of The Digital Fix gave the second series of Primeval a cautiously positive review, finding some of the situations to require suspension of disbelief but overall finding the series to be enjoyable and its story arc to be an improvement over the first series. McCusker praised the final two episodes as an entertaining and satisfying conclusion to the series. McCusker felt that although Juliet Aubrey, Lucy Brown and Ben Miller all "[did] their part", it was Douglas Henshall who carried the series and that he was perhaps "too good for this material". McCusker was also positive towards the CGI of the series, finding most of it to be "slightly better" than the first series, in particular the Smilodon, but finding the Mer-creatures of the fourth episodes to be "the least well-realised" creatues of the series.^[19]

Robert McLaughlin of Den of Geek reviewed each episode individually; although he found the scripts to be "formulaic" and the CGI to be "average", looking cheaper and as if less time had been spent on them than in the previous series,^[20] he ultimately gave Primeval as a whole a positive review, noting that "it never pretends to be anything it isn't" and that it was "unashamedly entertaining".^[21] McLaughlin concluded that Primeval would never be able to compete with American science fiction series and that "it's not able to hold a candle to Doctor Who" but that it was also "infinitely better" than the contemporary Robin Hood TV series.^[20] McLaughlin especially praised the final two episodes, which he found to be "surprisingly good",^[22] but gave the third episode a negative review due to the CGI of the Smilodon, which he thought was "an embarrassment".^[23]

Paul Simpson of Sci-Fi Bulletin also reviewed each episode individually and praised the second series, giving all episodes a score of 8/10,^{[12][24][25][26][27][28]} except for the fourth episode, which he gave 9/10 as the "best of the show to date".^[29] Simpson found the script of the second series to be "as sharp" as in the first series^[12] and praised Primeval's ability to take "other genre ideas and give them its own spin", noticing homages to films such as Tremors^[24] and Jaws.^[25] Simpson also praised the character interactions and character development of the second series, finding many of the characters to have been more fleshed out and finding them to be "well played" by the actors.^[27][29]

Another episode-by-episode reviewer was Rob Buckley of The Medium is not Enough, who thought that Primeval overall "wasn't bad" and "far less up its own arse than most of the new [Doctor] Who has been" and "more mature than new Who and Torchwood".^[30] Buckley did not enjoy the second episode, although he felt it was "not a complete waste of an hour".^[31] After finding the first four episodes to be "threading water", Buckley thought the series improved with the fifth episode, which he found to be "very good",^[32] and he enjoyed the two-part finale, stating that it was "certainly a bit harder edged than your normal Primeval".^[33][34] Buckley criticised the CGI of the Smilodon in the third episode^[35] and also complained that Caroline Steel, Primeval's first non-white main character, turned out to be a spy and an antagonist.^[36]

References