Genndy Tartakovskys dinosaur epic Primal turns compassion into a survival tool

In “Spear and Fang,” the first episode of the new animated Adult Swim show Primal, the caveman Spear (Aaron LaPlante) sees his mate and young children devoured by a pack of horned dinosaurs. Later in the episode, he winds up fighting that same pack alongside a Tyrannosaurus dubbed Fang, and he befriends her two young children. It’s a sweet redemptive moment, suggesting that Spear might be able to regain something of what he’s lost. Then the leader of the dino pack shows up and eats the babies.

Samurai Jack and Dexter’s Laboratory creator Genndy Tartakovsky designed Primal as a brutal show about survival in a fantastic version of prehistoric times, where early hominids, dinosaurs, ice age megafauna, and monstrous creatures that never...

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