Line #4 YMMV/Primeval


1	!!The Series:
2
3	* AlasPoorScrappy: Connor's friend Tom who, despite being an annoying character who was TooDumbToLive, got a shockingly sad death.
4	* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Helen Cutter: Incredible {{Jerkass}} and StrawNihilist, or WellIntentionedExtremist who [[GoMadFromTheRevelation went mad from the revelation]] that humanity wipes itself out and is caught in a nihilist HeroicBSOD?
5	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Let's see...
6	** The opening theme, a fast-paced orchestral piece complete with [[MeaningfulName primeval]] screams and echoes. Here's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeAGulu6ifk the extended version]].
7	** Nick and Stephen playing tag with a raptor on motorbikes to the tune of ''Ready to Go'' by Republica.
8	** More: the sad "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ymjRDkaYD4 Into the Late Permian]]", "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvtmIC1I7Pc The Mystery of the Anomalies]]" and the chilling "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKepBSP0Mt8 Infected]]". Then there's the music during the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT9e2xhu6as Series 4 cliffhanger]] (spoiler alert), and a theme for the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rztCqy4JcI future predators]].
9	** It's a shame "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6x26O237kP8 All Sparks]]" was used only for the first season end credits. The later seasons, as well as the [=DVDs=] (presumably for legal reasons), use the opening theme instead.
10	* BaseBreakingCharacter:
11	** Abby became a big one in Season 4, with many fans feeling she TookALevelInJerkass and there was a lot of forced conflict between her and Connor - most of which was her being antagonistic towards him. This was fixed in Season 5.
12	** Matt's [[CreatorsPet early smugness and shilling]] rubbed a lot of viewers the wrong way. His [[CharacterDevelopment character development]] during seasons 4 and 5 [[WinBackTheCrowd warmed most viewers up to him]] but for others it wasn't enough.
13	* BrokenBase: The fandom can ''never'' agree where the show supposedly had a case of GrowingTheBeard or SeasonalRot. It generally hinges on how someone feels about Cutter as the lead character or [[BaseBreakingCharacter Matt as team leader]].
14	* CompleteMonster: [[SmugSnake Oliver Leek]] is the ARC's treacherous second-in-command. Allying with Helen Cutter, Leek set about capturing dangerous predators from the anomalies and [[MindRape neural clamping]] them, intending to use them to TakeOverTheWorld. Amassing a secret army, Leek placed a dozen predators at locations across the UK, planning to release them and kill as many people as possible to cause chaos. Smuggling a future predator into the ARC, Leek massacred all of the staff present and then attempted to kill James Lester, toying with him the whole time to try and draw out his death as long as possible. As a demonstration of power, Leek then unleashed a deadly Silurian scorpion onto a crowded beach, killing numerous people. Abducting the team, Leek attempts to [[FedToTheBeast feed them alive]] to a Smilodon whilst forcing Professor Nick Cutter to [[ForcedToWatch watch the whole thing]]. His plans foiled, Leek then corners Cutter with his future predators and threatens to dismantle him joint by joint unless Lester calls off his men.
15	* CoolVsAwesome: Brits vs Dinosaurs!
16	* DamselScrappy: [[TeamPet Rex]]. Especially after Series 3. If he wasn't getting himself into trouble, he was ''causing'' trouble.
17	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
18	** Lester, due to him being a fountain of sarcasm and funny moments. His greater prominence and [[BadassBureaucrat sparing but impactful badass moments]] as the series went on only made people love him more.
19	** The Future Predators, at least before they got more prominence in later seasons.
20	** Sarah was also very well received for her wit and knowledge on mythology. There were numerous complaints about her [[spoiler: sudden offscreen death]] in Season 4.
21	* FriendlyFandoms: With ''Series/DoctorWho''. At first, there was some unease over the fact that the show was basically created to ride on that show's popularity, but it dissipated when people came to realize that ''Primeval'' was actually quite different, and told a respectable story of its own. Many people like both now.
22	* FanficFuel: Series 5 ends with the Convergence revealing the existence of the anomalies to the entire world. How other countries dealt with the anomalies, and how the ARC team proceeds going forward are rife with storytelling potential.
23	* {{Fanon}}: A surprising number of people believe that Jess is either Lester's daughter or his niece. This is due to her actress's young age (nineteen in Season 4!) and works as a HandWave to explain how she got employed at the ARC.
24	* FansPreferTheNewHer: Abby's look in the first two episodes of Season 4 - which was brought on by her being stuck in the Cretaceous Period - is very flattering on Hannah Spearritt. Admittedly she looks [[NubileSavage very good]] for someone camping in the wilderness for a year, with only mild UnkemptBeauty. Conor's beard was met with similar responses.
25	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The show is much, ''much'' better known in America than in its native Britain.
26	* HarsherInHindsight:
27	** Sarah complains about being left out of the action in Season 3, with her often trying to convince the others she belongs in the field. [[spoiler: It's this attitude that leads to her implied death when a predator savages her in between seasons]]. What's more is that Laila Rouass would be caught in the 2017 Barcelona terrorist attacks, hiding in a fridge to survive.
28	** A recurring arc across the series is Connor and Abby slowly falling in love, with [[spoiler: a proposal happening in the last season]]. It initially paralleled the real-life romance between their actors, but they split up in 2013. This adds more real life subtext to [[spoiler: Connor being the only one to appear in ''New World'']].
29	* HilariousInHindsight: In the final episode of Series 1, Abby is coaching Connor on how to talk to girls, and tells him that girls don't talk about comic books. A year after this episode aired, Film/IronMan came out, kick-starting the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, of which there's a sizable amount of female fans.
30	** Really this extends to most of the things that Connor is called a nerd for enjoying, as properties like Franchise/StarWars and ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' became more popular in mainstream media in the years after the show premiered.
31	* HoYay:
32	** Nick and Stephen are pretty well suited for this. Especially given that Stephen's fairly quiet and has known Cutter for roundabout 10 years and thus has an interesting tendency to communicate with him via long, meaningful gazes.
33	** Connor and Stephen in 1.3, lampshaded by the latter. In fact, Connor was just asking if Stephen really had a girlfriend, because he had a crush on Abby (who was interested in Stephen), but it ends up sounding like [[MistakenForGay something else]].
34	** And in Season 5 Abby's disapproval of Connor spending so much time around Philip is played a bit like a LoveTriangle.
35	* InferredHolocaust: The show has been incredibly consistent in its portrayal of TimeTravel, and {{Stable Time Loop}}s being the result of any action. This means that unless there is some major [[AssPull asspulling]], humanity is screwed and we are all going to get eaten by giant bats and mantids in the next hundred years or so. Well, they managed to change the present (by accident), so the future shouldn't be off-limits... a Meta-Stable Time Loop is more consistent with.
36	* JustHereForGodzilla: Some of Hannah Spearritt's pre-existing fan base from S Club 7 tuned in to see her in a different role (and possibly because of the shameless {{Fanservice}} she provides).
37	* MoralEventHorizon: For Helen, her MEH is either when [[spoiler:she kills Nick, after he ''came back to rescue her'' from a burning building or when she kills Christine which shows that while she's usually willing to murder many for her means before, but this was arguably the one point she clearly favored sadistic torture over just getting the job done quick, or her plan to wipe out humanity before it even starts]]
38	* MorePopularReplacement:
39	** Well even though she's played by the same actress, Jenny Lewis is better remembered than her predecessor Claudia Brown. As a PR person completely out of her depth, it lent itself to many funny moments and characterization beyond Cutter's love interest.
40	** Becker who showed up in Season 3 is more remembered than Captain Tom Ryan who was there in Season 1.
41	* {{Narm}}:
42	** The overuse of the Wilhelm scream gets pretty ridiculous after a while, especially when it's used in what's otherwise supposed to be a dramatic moment.
43	** The effects of the parasite from ''Series 1: Episode 4'' are terrifying, and fairly believable, as they cause Tom to act increasingly feverish and aggressive. Unfortunately they also briefly give him goofy glowing eyes and a deep Darth Vader-esque voice.
44	** In the fifth episode of Series 1, Claudia spends just a ''little'' too much time flailing around in a tiny puddle of blood she slipped in.
45	** Abby jump-kicking a Mer in the jaw.
46	** In the last episode, Matt says "Nothing can survive out there, except for those ugly freaks".
47	** Matt's knife fight with the Treecreeper in the Cretaceous was also pretty silly. Could be NarmCharm if you find the scene awesome.
48	** Hearing Nick Cutter shout can rub off as this, if only because we're so used to him being quiet and brooding.
49	** Abby's weird little argument with the knight in Season 3. "Oh yeah, I'm a demon alright".
50	* NarmCharm:
51	** Abby has to walk around without pants in Season 1 because Rex needs warmth and she has to have the heating up to the extreme. It's a rather laughable reason to provide {{Fanservice}} but it is part of the show's charm.
52	** How does Abby stop a dinosaur in the Season 4 premiere? By playing Music/SClub7 "Don't Stop Movin'" - which is equal parts ridiculous and awesome.
53	* NightmareFuel:
54	** Any and all appearances of the future predators. They've done a very good job of avoiding VillainDecay, despite the fact that they're clearly not impossible to kill.
55	** The dodo parasite from 1.4. For that matter, the fungus creature from 3.5.
56	** The Mer creatures, particularly their angelic singing. Cutter speculates them to be the descendants of humans.
57	** Pretty much any creature qualifies for either this or regular NightmareFuel for someone.
58	** Helen Cutter can be very unnerving, considering her evil plan is to [[spoiler: poison the ancestors of humans - meaning that the human race never even exists!]]
59	* RealismInducedHorror: In Season 2, Episode 3, Valerie housing a ''Smilodon'' she's raised since it was a cub and covering up its killings becomes even more disturbing once you realize that there are people in real life who will keep big cats as pets, naively thinking that simply raising these deadly predators since cubhood will make them tame and "love" their owner, and even when the animal inevitably snaps and mauls someone or even their owner, the latter will sometimes go into denial about the reality of the situation.
60	* RetroactiveRecognition:
61	** Ruth Bradley, who plays Emily in Season 4, would soon reach fame in Ireland for starring in ''Series/LoveHate'' and ''Rebellion'', as well as the Channel 4 sci-fi series ''{{Series/Humans}}''.
62	** Creator/JacobAnderson of ''{{Series/Game of Thrones}}'' and ''{{Series/Interview with the Vampire\|2022}}'' appears in Season 2 as Lucien, a boy attacked by a futuristic shark-like creature.
63	** The submarine episode has Officer Leonard played by Allen Leech - just as he got his breakout role in ''Series/DowntonAbbey''.
64	** Creator/JasonFlemyng had been working steadily in the industry for years before starring as Danny. However he soon started popping up in ''Film/ClashOfTheTitans2010'', ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', ''Jamestown'', ''{{Film/Hanna}}'' etc. In fact he couldn't return in Season 4 because he was so in demand in America.
65	* TheScrappy:
66	** Matt (with a side order of CreatorsPet), half an hour into the first episode of the {{Revival}} and he already is hated by some for being a smug git. Then again, his background is both false and was created specifically to appeal to the ARC recruiters, so he's ''supposed'' to seem like a CreatorsPet. [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap By the end of the series he's become a much more sympathetic character.]] We actually feel sorry for him when [[spoiler: his future self pops up ruining his happy ending.]]
67	** Jack, Abby's brother. He constantly stuck his nose in his sister's business and wound up getting himself trapped in the future. Even after Connor, Becker, Danny and Abby head into the future to save him, [[ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike he just complains about how long they took]]. Eventually he realizes all the trouble he's caused and is PutOnABus.
68	** April. Imagine a British version of Zoe from ''{{Series/Lost}}'' who's a BitchInSheepsClothing. [[spoiler:Her KarmicDeath]] is enough to make you cheer with joy.
69	* SeasonalRot: As noted above under BrokenBase, Season 3 is this for some with Season 4 being a return to form though others aren't fond of Season 4. Many see Season 5 as a large improvement over both but even then quite a few view 5 as the worst season.
70	* SpecialEffectsFailure: The first few episodes had relatively conspicuous CG creatures, particularly the Gorgonopsid. This disappears midway through the season, though, and the special effects quickly become SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome.
71	* SpiritualAdaptation: Creator/CharlieBrooker, while discussing the show on ''Series/{{Screenwipe}}'', felt that this was a better ''Series/DoctorWho''-esque series than ''Series/{{Torchwood}}''. [[http://www.eruditorumpress.com/blog/pop-between-realities-home-in-time-for-tea-70-primeval-robin-hood/ El Sandifer]] argued that it was an update of ''Series/{{Sliders}}''.
72	** An even more obvious one would be the original ''Literature/{{Carnosaur}}'' novel, which featured dinosaurs rampaging across England (whereas the InNameOnly Roger Corman [[Film/{{Carnosaur}} film]] was set in the US).
73	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Sarah was quite a fun character - with knowledge about various myths and legends, and how they related to the creatures from the anomalies. Unfortunately, she's only in Season 3. This is due to Laila Rouass not wanting to move to Ireland to film after production changed to the BBC (specifically she was a single mother, and it would have required ten months in Ireland). [[spoiler: So she's killed offscreen between seasons]].
74	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Caroline has a HeelFaceTurn at the end of Season 2, and is actually horrified when she discovers what Leek was actually doing. Given her fighting skills demonstrated against Abby, and her ability to play innocent, she could have possibly been an asset to the team. But she disappears between seasons.
75	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The issues of Cutter being attracted to Jenny as a ReplacementGoldfish don't get much of a chance to be explored, as both Douglas Henshall and Lucy Brown leave the show in Season 3.
76	* TrappedByMountainLions: Caroline's story. She's being paid an absurd amount of money by Leek to do... well it's never clear exactly what she's supposed to be doing. In one episode Leek says she's supposed to delay them from responding to the anomaly and sometimes she hints at taking pictures of Rex and busting Connor and Abby for keeping him. Yet all she seems to do is hang around their flat for no defined reason. Then her last episode shows that she had no idea what Leek was really up to and was horrified by it.
77	* UglyCute:
78	** The baby future critters at the end of S1.
79	** The gremlin in 3.2.
80	** The Diictodons in 3.3.
81	* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Conor blackmails Abby into kissing him to make him look good in front of his friends. Specifically, first he asks normally and she's revolted and responds "what kind of girl do you think I am?" - then he blackmails her about Rex. This is portrayed as cute rather than creepy.
82	* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome:
83	** The effects are by [[Series/WalkingWithDinosaurs Impossible Pictures]] (and Creator/{{Framestore}}). This is to be expected. The anomalies, in particular, look amazing.
84	** Hell, the ''title sequence''. Even moreso in Seasons 4-5.
85	** Seasons 4 and 5[[note]]Which replaced Framestore with acclaimed commercial effects firm Creator/TheMill[[/note]] got a bit of a visual touch-up with a more HD quality, in order
86	to regain audience attention.
87	* TheWoobie:
88	** Cutter is the most well-known example, having believed that his wife was dead for 8 years before meeting her again but finding that she'd become AxCrazy. Later he tries to get over it by forming a romance with Claudia Brown, but then she [[spoiler: gets erased from history]] and he spends the whole of season 2 trying in vain to find any trace of Claudia in [[spoiler: Jenny Lewis, her double]]. And if that wasn't bad enough, he loses [[spoiler: his best friend]] and finally [[spoiler: is killed by Helen in Season 3]].
89	** After losing Danny, Connor, Abby and then Sarah, whilst on a mission to rescue the former three, [[SurvivorGuilt Becker]] certainly qualifies for this. He's practically in ''tears'' in the first episode of the extras on ITV's website.
90	** Connor and Abby after their year in the Cretaceous.
91	----
92	!!The film
93	* CompleteMonster: [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters Harry]] is a low-level government functionary in Burundi who is actually "Little Gustave", a warlord in the brush who commits acts of horrific violence solely because he loves the power of [[AGodAmI being like God]] to the ones he terrorizes. Responsible for atrocities during the civil war, Harry fills up mass graves with his victims, killing those who speak out against him and sometimes throwing the corpses into the river to be fed upon by the mighty crocodile [[NeverSmileAtACrocodile Gustave]], his namesake. Harry later takes a shaman who spoke against him and kills the man with a machete before murdering his family as well, later trying to attack the journalist heroes and torture and murder them to obtain the footage of his crimes.

Context YMMV / Primeval