The first episode of “Primal” aired on Cartoon network/Adult Swim last night. On one level, it’s grade-A ridiculousness: an animated caveman’s adventures with dinosaurs.. The science is therefore just *awful.* And yet… the show is so damn good that my willing suspension of disbelief happily expanded to fit.
Even though it’s an animated show, it’s not a kids show. It’s filled with violence and gore and blood and death… and surprising pathos among what would be on a normal show shocking brutality. The main character, dubbed “Spear,” is a caveman in the mold of Conan the barbarian… a giant chunk of muscle with apparently no ability to speak; instead, he just roars and kills things, no dialogue or narration to help the story along. He is, bluntly, *not* the Woke Man. I’m looking forward to reading the complaints about how there’s insufficient LGBTQ representation, how the show celebrates toxic masculinity
Here’s a measure of how entertaining the first episode was: when it ended, I went, “Huh, it’s only a fifteen-minute show.” And then I realized that it was in fact a 30-minute show. One explanation for this is likely contained in this interview with Genndy Tartakovsky, the shows creator. With the lack of dialogue, the viewer is kinda forced to pay attention to the screen. No checking the phone or the laptop.
“I never realized how much we don’t watch and we just listen,” Tartakovsky told The Times in a recent interview. With “Primal,” “You kind of just get drawn in and you forget. And if you turn away, you’re going to miss a whole bunch.
“With everybody used to multitasking on their phones and everything, it’ll be interesting to see the effect,” he added.
Interestingly, I vaguely recall reading – probably more than 20 years ago – J. Michael Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5, explain why a lot of really important scenes went on without dialogue. As memory serves, it went something like this: “If you can leave the room and still follow along with the plot, it’s radio, not television.”
Imagine this feller in a Pinky Puᛋᛋy Hat, or ordering a soy latte. Can’t do it, can ya.