Primal – The Power of “Show, Don’t Tell”

The most powerful element in entertainment is that it is the execution of its visual storytelling.

Roughly 60% of human communication is expressed through body language and facial expressions, not our words. Cartoon Network’s veteran animator Genndey Tartakovsky has made a career out of shows that emphasize this in their animation style. His crafted style is famous for featuring very little dialogue – instead relying on his characters’ expressions and actions to tell the story, most notably in Samurai Jack. Even with his more dialogue-heavy works, such as Dexter’s Lab and Powerpuff Girls, the scenery still took center stage. This formula was taken to the next level with his latest project Primal.

This series – starring a dinosaur and a caveman of limited vocabulary – is a perfect setup for this kind of storytelling: both are vicious and violent predators united through tragic circumstances.

Spear and Fang

You can’t really have a show or a story without characters. Both the caveman “Spear” and the T-Rex “Fang” lost their family to predators and learn to team up to survive against nature itself.

Like any good duo relationship, they don’t become a perfect team immediately, as they have different methods of hunting and feeding that conflict. In fact, they became quite hostile early on as one is more ravenous with food than the other.

Spear

Spear is shown to be an effective hunter, but in the first few episodes struggled to get past his prejudice toward predators. When he realizes that predators can be devoted to the family too, he sets aside his anger. Despite the clear instinctual differences, they clearly need each other to survive.

Fang

It is impossible not to discuss the T-Rex in the room as well.

Primal has done an excellent job giving Fang a distinct personality without making her fully anthapromorphasized (human traits) like other shows. Despite having a certain amount of empathy for Fang, it’s very clear that Fang is still an animal at her core – she doesn’t have the same sentient range as Spear and hunts mainly for food, and that’s it. She can’t process her environment the same way spear investigates his surroundings. What fang does possess is loyalty to her traveling companion and can take down prey that Spear can’t tackle single-handedly. While they do not think the same way they do have the same goal and that is what they need in order to survive.

The Violence: Brutal, or Gratuitous?

Since Primal is set on the Adult swim this has given Taratarkosfsky free rein with its action. Not a single episode passes by where there was someone or something being dismembered, crushed, or impaled.

Even by prehistoric standards, this was violence that’s going to stay in your mind because of how disturbing it can get. However, the violence is meant to show that nature can be cruel and unforgiving. That said, the violence thus far, despite being disturbing, are not to the point they were gratuitous.

Despite the brutality, there were moments of genuine lightheartedness such as the few brief scenes where our two predators come to a beach or lagoon they often just stop and take time to breathe. After many cases where they were just an inch from death, it is refreshing to see a spear just float in the water. When having this kind of dark vicious storytelling it needed moments that are lighthearted to give the story levity. If it’s just about animal violence 

Worldbuilding

If you are a hardcore dinosaur fan who cares for accuracy, this is absolutely not the show for you.

Accuracy was never the goal here – this is simply a fantasy tale about two hunters learning to survive in this hostile world – immersing you in a primeval world that gets more and more complex with each episode. Throughout season one the mysticism in this world builds on one another.

At first, the world looked to be a simple and primitive prehistoric landscape. However, things shifted halfway through the first season as Spear and Fang encounter a tribe of ape men who practice magic and sorcery.

Indeed he’s encountered a number of tribes that exhibit some level of advanced culture. The fact that magic exists in this world has elevated the series in a way other shows in pre-history don’t depict. By the time of the finale, it’s clear that there is a supernatural presence linking this series and it’s all leading up to the introduction of Mira.

The Power of One Word

In the finale of the first season, Spear and Fang encounter a shackled woman on the beach.

Her presence immediately raises questions about the world Spear lives in. Until this point, it was assumed that they lived exclusively in prehistoric times. Mira seems to have come from a more advanced Egyptian-like society that uses metal tools, uses bows, and organized religious concepts that are a mystery to Spear. Until the very last scene, Spear never speaks – perhaps because even with his family he lived a somewhat solitary life where human vocals weren’t required.

At the very end as Mira is recaptured and sailing away Spear utters her name. revealing much she makes an impact on him. Her exposure to a culture completely unknown to spear who also served as the audience surrogate compels you to watch more.

What Comes Next

Its clear that the current season is set on exploring the world across the ocean and is going to be revealing more and more civilization. This is perhaps the greatest strength of Primal it makes you want to see more from these characters and see where they go from there.

A caveman and a T-Rex going on adventures don’t sound like much on its own. However, with great writing, an expanding mystical world, and allowing the scenes to breathe makes Primal potentially one of the best-animated shows to come out this decade.