The two things I want in a television show are good characters and a good story. I’ll stick with a show if it only has one or the other, but ideally I want a healthy mix of both. The reason I like a healthy mix is because it gives the writers of any particular show a little room to play around with the story. If they want to kill a character off to replace it later a halfway decent story can be enough to keep the shows floating. If the story is heading down a deep, dark rabbit hole of bad pacing and meandering plot elements a few good characters can keep things interesting long enough to get back on track.
The interesting thing is there isn’t often a show that can completely baffle me in this area. It’s almost always going to sink or swim depending on the show and cast. Then along comes a show like Primeval, which tosses my expectations out the window.
Due to the week off practically every show decided to take this past week I decided I needed something new to marathon, and landed on Primeval. I figured it’s British and has dinosaurs, so it must be alright. Sure enough, I started watching and got hooked. Right through to the end of the second season, and they killed off my favorite character.
Now, shows will kill off characters. Good shows can do it and have it leave a lasting impact. Star Trek: The Next Generation did it pretty well with Tasha Yar; continuing to show the psychological damage her death did to the rest of the crew time and again. Battlestar: Galactica did it a little differently, showcasing a total number of humans left alive, often showing that number dropping every few episodes.
So Primeval killed off my favorite character, and the aftermath of that lasted all of two additional episodes. And then, half a dozen episodes later they did it again. Except this time they killed off the main guy. And then five episodes after that they wrote off the main lady. In fact, the only two characters who appear to have remained constant are the guy who used to be the comic relief, and the girl who’s (somehow) amazingly good with dinosaurs.
Except, and this is sort of where my point is going to end up, playing the comic relief doesn’t feel right anymore because that character has evolved so much farther past that role. But they can’t let it go, because he doesn’t really fit as a leader. So the character feels like it’s stuck in this weird limbo, waiting for a supporting cast to show up to help balance things out.
And it almost happens and then, sure enough, those new supporting characters get written off. Also the main antagonist got axed. Somehow, this show is still going. Not only that, but it seems to be pulling a Torchwood and gaining a spin-off, set in North America and shot in Canada. It’s almost like somebody said, “Hey, let’s do a story and then eventually wrap it up… and then keep going indefinitely.”
In theory, that would almost sound appealing. Who doesn’t finish a good book and wonder what is going to happen next in that world? Hell, in theory a television show could make it work. Primeval, on the other hand, is a show about rips in time that let dinosaurs rampage around the present day. The whole reason you bought into it was because the original protagonist had a reason to be involved with these things.
Having said all that, I’m still watching. I’m going to continue watching right to the end because regardless of how absolutely pointless I think the story has gotten the characters are still entertaining enough that any individual episode is still enjoyable. I’m not watching for any kind of plot resolution at this point, it’s all about the surface level ‘I wonder what dinosaur they’re gonna fight this week’ factor.
So tell me, readers. Are there any shows out there you guys watch even though you could probably be spending your time better? Are there other aspects of a show that draw you in or turn you away? I’m sure the fact that my bit this week is as twisted up as a Family Circus comic shows how genuinely astonished at the direction this particular show took. Is there anything out there that got you as turned around?
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