HOLLYWOOD — There is something so comforting about seeing the letters “BBC” emerge from a stack of review DVDs, especially in August.
British television, or at least what makes it to the States, is always so literate, so well-acted compared with much of the homegrown, and its makers always handle fantasy and sci-fi so well, from “Robin Hood” to “Doctor Who.”
So imagine my surprise when halfway through the newly imported British sci-fi hit “Primeval” (BBC America, Saturdays) I realized I was bored. Stunningly, inarguably, reach-for-whatever-magazine-or-catalog-is-handy bored.
How could this be? Created by Adrian Hodges and Tim Haines, who gave us the marvelous “Walking With (Dinosaurs, Beasts, Monsters)” series, “Primeval” is populated with the requisite group of attractive U.K. citizens and their fabulous accents.
“Primeval” follows the adventures of a scientific team as it tracks down various prehistoric creatures who have stumbled into modern-day Britain through holes in the time-space continuum.
Rampaging dinosaurs, gigantic centipedes, yardlong parasites, adorable young scientists, not to mention a reptilian member of the home office — what more could a viewer possibly want? A less adrenal-gland-manipulative soundtrack would help, for a start. Huge music in a television show always makes me nervous because it’s invariably there to create the emotional narrative the plot failed to provide.
This isn’t a problem you would imagine “Primeval” would have. Its premise is simple: After the mysterious appearance of a monster in a local wood, evolutionary zoologist Nick Cutter (Henshall), his young assistant Stephen (James Murray), oddball student Connor (Andrew-Lee Potts) and lizard expert Abby (Hannah Spearritt) join forces and discover a sparkling portal through time.
Add to the mix the fact that Cutter’s wife, Helen (Juliet Aubrey), disappeared in Those Same Woods six years ago, and that home-office liaison Claudia (Lucy Brown) is on the case, and there is no reason the stories shouldn’t trot breathlessly along, providing a new and fabulous beastie each week, with the fate of Helen as a nice emotional through line and the government the overarching nemesis.
But almost from the get-go there’s far more galumphing than trotting going on, and not all of it done by prehistoric feet. Things pick up in the third episode, and there are dodos in the fourth, but it’s not enough, no, not nearly enough.
And although there are moments of cheeky British humor, they are few and far between, making “Primeval” strangely somber.
