All posts tagged: Primal

Saros review – you’ll strafe until your thumbs hurt in this primal alien shooter | Games

Saros review – you’ll strafe until your thumbs hurt in this primal alien shooter | Games

On the planet Carcosa, mangled, blackened trees and crimson flowers take root next to the ruins of some ancient alien civilisation, flanked by statues contorted in pain, tearing at their marble skin. There are metallic tunnels deep underground, chasms of impossible size snaked with cables, so you feel as though you’re exploring the intestines of some giant machine. There’s a House of Leaves quality to these spaces, which shift and change and clearly weren’t built for humans. You are Arjun Devraj (played by Rahul Kohli), a space security guy who’s on a mission to find missing colonists on an alien world before it all goes a bit Event Horizon and you become the next lost expedition. Classic. There’s some unethical space capitalism happening out here, and Devraj himself is a bit of a traumanaut who brought way too much mental carry-on luggage for this extremely long-haul flight. But it’s nothing that shooting some aliens won’t fix, right? Devraj isn’t just his trauma: he’s also a fast-moving spaceman who can shoot thousands of bullets per minute, …

“Primal” is a life-affirming zombie tale

“Primal” is a life-affirming zombie tale

Genndy Tartakovsky’s “Primal” continues his affinity for pitting his human-sized heroes against gargantuan foes. The historically anachronistic animated epic introduces its neanderthal champion, Spear, and his partner, a female Tyrannosaurus named Fang, as they find common cause in grief. Both lost their families to the same murderous pack of dinosaurs. Both realize that the only way they’ll survive the world’s savagery is to take care of each other. Throughout their adventures, Spear and Fang defeat or at least outwit enemies much larger than themselves, including a war-hungry Viking clan of enslavers and a tyrannical Egyptian conqueror. But in his third season return, Spear has been made into a version of the things he once fought. Now he’s the fearsome monster who can’t quite remember the man he used to be. Spear dies a hero at the second season’s close, only for a shaman to reanimate him in the third season premiere as a zombie. Adversaries impale him. Beasts try to shred him. But Spear is undead, impervious to pain and virtually unkillable, pushed to wander …

“Primal” may be the most unconventional love story on TV. Just not in the way you think

“Primal” may be the most unconventional love story on TV. Just not in the way you think

It’s strange to remember that “Primal” creator Genndy Tartakovsky broke into the animated mainstream more than two decades ago with “Dexter’s Laboratory.” Tartakovsky helmed several titles in the years between, including “Star Wars: Clone Wars,” “Sym-Bionic Titan” and “Samurai Jack,” but stylistically speaking “Dexter” and “Primal” are precise opposites. “Dexter” is family-friendly, bright, and revolves around a title character who talks a mile a minute. “Primal” is gory, brutal and drenched in a bloody earth-toned color palette. It ran for 10 episodes before its protagonist, Spear (Aaron LaPlante) uttered a single word. He and his partner Fang never needed speech to understand each other. Spear is a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal with a heart of gold, and Fang’s a Tyrannosaurus rex who cares about Spear enough to refrain from eating him. Adding another human to their traveling band, an escaped enslaved woman named Mira (Laëtitia Eïdo) brought language into their world, along with advancements like food preparation and a bow and arrow. Her entry also fundamentally changes the show from a visually stunning, wordless survival epic into …