2x01 Sea of Despair

[9.6/10] Wow! I didn’t realized how much I missed Primal until I saw the series back in action like this. What a whirlwind of beautiful art, harrowing action, and abiding friendship expressed only through grunts and expressions and the human (and occasional dinosaur) condition.

The word I keep coming back to with Primal is “atmospheric”. It is an incredible environment and world to just sit in with Fang and Spear. That’s not to say there’s no story here. Spear’s quest to find Mira, his determination to make it possible to bring his friend along, and their tale of survival out on the high seas all drive the action of the story.

But at the same time, I’m often content just to watch them working together to build a raft, or sleeping underneath the night sky while glorious sea creatures swim beneath them, or gaze off on land and sea and see nothing but cloudy skies and empty waters around them. There is such a sense of place to everything the show does, and so much character infused into every action and gesture from Fang and Spear, that you can’t help but want to spend more time in this rich environment.

My only gripe is that it’s a little convenient that Spear is so adept at building and launching a raft. It seems slightly too advanced for him. But maybe there’s a history untold or that I’ve forgotten that helps explain it. I do appreciate that he has to lure a reluctant Fang to get on the raft using a pile of giant grubs just like Mira taught him to do.

And their adventures together are incredible. Again, just seeing them trying to get by in this survival situation, beating the heat and sating their hunger, is worth the price of admission. But I love their hunt for the sea turtle, made all the more desperate in light of their starvation, beautiful for the balletic moves of the turtle, and gruesome once Spear steers it toward Fang’s waiting jaws. It’s neat to see them be so resourceful (especially turning the shell into a shade from the sun), and the catharsis that doesn’t shy away from the brutality of nature when they’re able to fill their bellies.

But the piece de resistance is the confrontation with a massive storm, giant waves, and an even bigger shark come to threaten them. There’s a great sense of escalation, as little flying fish are gobbled by bigger ones, those bigger fish are scooped up by vulture like pterodactyls, and those flying lizards are eventually gobbled up by an utterly massive shark that threatens to wreak havoc on our heroes’ humble vessel.

The shark is terrifying. The animation is spectacular. Watching it burst through the waves and chomp at Spear and Fang leaves you both awed and at the edge of your sweat. This is unfamiliar territory for the usual duo, and it shows, from their first (arguably cute) efforts toward propelling the raft to their last desperate attempts to avoid being gobbled up by the shark. Fang dodging the bites, Spear getting trapped in the beast’s maw but jamming his way out, and the epic, climactic improvised spear to the eye are all marvelous, terrifying sequences.

Even in the aftermath, Fang rescuing Spear, the two of them facing an onslaught of gigantic waves, and eventually washing up on a beach apart, gives viewers no quarter. Again, our favorite pair are out of their element, and it shows in dramatic, wonderfully-realized terms.

Overall, this is a breath of fresh air. What an amazing set of visuals, storytelling, character, and of course atmosphere, to help show that television animation still has some juice and beauty left in it too.