2020 has given a mixed bag to fans of animation. Book 4 of The Dragon Prince didn’t make it to Netflix’s schedule but the Aegean anime, Blood of Zeus, did. We saw the return of FX’s Archer (Yay!) and the cancellation of Adult Swim stalwart, The Venture Bros (Boo!) But just as surprising was the continuation of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal on Cartoon Network. His longtime collaborators, Bryan Andrews and Darrick Bachman (Sym-Bionic Titan, Samurai Jack) are joined by Disney and Discovery Channel veteran (and go-to guy for all things dinosaur,) David Krentz, forming an all-star creator supergroup. Still, the first five episodes seemed so ambitious and yet so non-commercial that I couldn’t imagine it going much further.
Like his legendary creation, Samurai Jack, Tartakovsky takes us back to the past; to an anachronistic prehistory filled with thundering zombie dinosaurs, carnivorous ape-men, and dark magic. It’s against this backdrop that we follow an unlikely pair of former rivals bonded together by the harshest of tragedies. A primitive human (called “Spear” in the series’ bible) and a carnosaur (called “Fang” by the same) trek throughout the wilderness similar to the Route 66/Fugitive/Incredible Hulk formula that worked so well for Samurai Jack. The difference in tone, however, is what keeps Primal on after midnight.
A trigger warning to prospective viewers: Spear and Fang lose their families, including their young, in graphic fashion before the audience’s eyes and those moments are revisited in a later episode. As brutal as it is, it lets us know from the beginning that nothing is off-limits and no character is safe as even Spear contemplates ending our story atop a cliffside. Gruesome kills by predators (including Spear & Fang’s own) are rendered in a grisly-yet-beautiful Kubert-esque style. Spear is reminiscent of a brutish proto-Conan, less of a hero than he is a protagonist. Fang is a fairly intelligent animal but an animal nonetheless. Spear has empathy. Fang has loyalty. But that’s about where it ends. There is no noble quest for them to work towards (for now.) Their goal is simply to survive and that alone seems to be a daily war.
The truly remarkable thing about the series is that, within the characters and setting, there is no dialogue. Aaron LaPlante has voice credits for Spear but his vocalizations are almost entirely grunts, howls, and gibbering. The tone, volume, and speed are how we know if Spear is frustrated, sorrowful, or enraged. It puts so much more onto the shoulders of the animators and writers. When Spear sees an overwhelming enemy or foul sorcery, his eyes widen in fascination and fear. When he comes across a new culture or technology, his brow furrows with frustration and wariness. When Fang smells something rotten or strange, she moves to avoid it and encourages Spear to do the same with her body language.
Whereas the mid-season cliffhanger in 2019 kept us wondering if one of the characters (and the series) survived, the season ends with a glimpse into a much larger world than we might have expected and certainly more than Spear could have imagined. A second season has been announced and, while that is no guarantee in television, three Emmy wins for this savage Lassie story should make any Primal fans breathe a bit easier.
