Primal is an apt title. The show depicts primal violence, primal rage, primal grief. But what I was most surprised by was its display of primal empathy. Yes, the show is gorgeously and lavishly animated. There are shots that will take your breath away, and it knows when to rev up the engine and when to slow down and luxuriate in the stillness and beauty of the environment, much like Samurai Jack before it. Yes, it is a brutal and gory show- every hit has impact, and the fifth episode is bloody enough to make Mortal Kombat blush.
But the core theme running through the show is empathy. The animation pays just as much attention to the eyes as they do the action sequences, knowing that in a show without words, eyes are truly windows to the soul. A perfectly placed soft smile will melt your heart. And each episode returns to that theme of empathy. It'd be an easy excuse in a prehistoric story to say that at our primal core, humanity are monsters. But we're not- we're animals. Animals can be brutal, violent, ruthless. But they think and feel as well, and it is empathy that is the main characters' biggest strength.
It is empathy that leads them to bond and grieve together. It is empathy that leads Spear, the neanderthal, to help a pack of starving humans without second thought. It is empathy that diffuses a situation with woolly mammoths who did not want vengeance but simply the opportunity to mourn and honor their fallen. Spear and Fang the dinosaur's bond is what gives them strength, and the interconnectedness of life is reinforced even in its antagonists, whether in comparison like a group of bats and a spider working together to feed or in contrast like the group of apes that brutalize each other for the chance of brutalizing strong foes for glory. The protagonists even defeat the bats by leading them into the territory of a separate pack of beasts. Nothing is truly alone. The companionship of Spear and Fang is what sets them apart and strengthens them. Empathy is what keeps them alive. And it is that heart that elevates Primal from being not only something nice to look at, but an engaging work of art.
