The Ultimate Dinosaur TV Show

Netflix’s The Dinosaurs might be getting all the eyes right now, but it’s HBO Max’s Primal that’s the true king of the dinosaurs on TV. The Dinosaurs on Netflix is the latest stab at a Planet Earth-like Dinosaur documentary that Apple TV tried in 2022 with Prehistoric, but for my money, was perfected in 1999 with Walking with Dinosaurs.

Sometimes we have to take what we can get, though, when it comes to dinosaurs on television. There aren’t as many dino series as one might hope. It costs a lot of money to animate those creatures after all. The ones we do have are all worthwhile, though, but none more so than HBO Max’s Primal.

Primal Is The Greatest Dinosaur TV Show Ever

Primal is just about the greatest dinosaur TV show ever. The three-season series from legendary animator Genndy Tartakovsky is a beautifully drawn, incredibly animated show with almost no dialogue beyond the occasional grunt of a Neanderthal or the shriek of some prehistoric monster. The series follows Spear, a Neanderthal, who goes on bloody adventures with a Tyrannosaurus named Fang.

After losing his family to a dinosaur, Spear finds a friend in Fang and the pair slash and chomp their way through an anachronistic version of prehistory, where dinosaurs live alongside vikings, Atlantis-like empires, and monsters out of nightmares. It’s one of the most creative TV shows of this century, and every episode is like a mini-movie.

Nearly every single episode of Primal could be considered its best. It’s just so rich and full of interesting ideas, and nothing ever feels out of left field; it’s all logical within the universe. The series takes great pains to animate an assortment of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals that almost never get put on the screen.

There are woolly mammoths, Dryopithecines, Teratornis, Pentaceratops, and more extinct animals than you can shake a spear at. It’s a wild show, and even the pools of blood and viscera have a kind of beauty to them. You’re thrust into this chaotic prehistoric world, and you never want to leave.

Primal Season 3 Proves The Show Can Keep Going

The first two seasons of Primal tell a moving, action-packed, and brilliantly realized story that you don’t even know is developing before your eyes. For much of the first season, it’s unclear where the story is going, but then the plot kicks in, and we’re swept up in a shockingly emotional tale of revenge and love.

The end of season 2 looked like it would be the end of Spear and Fang’s adventures. Then, two years after that finale, it was announced that Primal season 3 was on its way. It was unclear what another season of Primal could possibly be about, considering the end of season 2, but fans were delighted all the same.

The decisions made in Primal season 3 haven’t just made another incredible installment of the show; they’ve proven that Tartakovsky can keep the show going for as long as he and HBO Max want. Primal is the best dinosaur show ever, and every new season just proves that point more.