Primal Season 3 Is the Best Season of the Adult Swim Show Yet (Review)

Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal is in an unenviable position heading into its third season. The first season was an absolute master class in animation, and the second season somehow was able to be a masterpiece in its own right. It was two absolutely massive seasons one after another, and both times it was hard to imagine how the show would even continue. That’s especially true for the second season as it killed off its main character in a highly emotional moment that seemingly brought the story to its ultimate conclusion. Yet, that wasn’t the end at all.

Videos by ComicBook.com

Primal Season 3 could have been a terrible metaphor for a much worse version of the show. It literally revives the show’s dead main character, Spear, and forces him to walk through his terrible world as an undead force cursed to constantly move forward. But rather this being indicative of Primal being “forced” to continue, instead this is a highly creative, entertaining, and heartbreaking way to deliver yet another story that needs to be told. It’s the best season of the Adult Swim show by far, and feels entirely natural to its events despite its supernatural hook at the center of it all.

Rating: 5 out of 5

PROS	CONS
Finds a creative way to continue Spear’s story	The first few episodes take their time to shape the course of the season
Incredible visuals that emphasize supernatural tone for the season
There’s humanity in its zombie main character

Primal Season 3 Makes You Love a Zombie

In the final episode of the second season, Spear sacrificed himself to save Fang and the others and lost his life in the process. Primal Season 3 indeed picks up after that final episode and sees Spear’s body brought back to life with a mysterious magic that turns him into an undead creature. There are initial hints that the old Spear might somehow be in there, but for all intents and purposes for this new season, fans are going to be following this undead being as he wanders throughout the same savage and brutal world that we have seen in action with the first two seasons.

Through Spear’s undead eyes, it puts the brutal world in a whole new kind of context. The first two seasons introduced fans to all kinds of fantastical and wild creatures with unique designs, and the third season is no different as there are still plenty of unique creatures and settings than seen before. Thanks to Spear’s undead self, he also interacts with this world in an entirely different kind of way. This makes watching the first few episodes of the new season a delicate balancing act as there is a true carrot on a stick to how it develops. Much like the first two seasons, there’s no dialogue or a true “direction” that’s immediately apparent to follow.

It can be a bit tougher to parse with this undead version of Spear as he interacts with the world in a different way. Because Spear isn’t the same as he was in the first two seasons, he doesn’t act the same in each episode either as there’s a risk that a viewer won’t connect to the new version of his journey. Spear and Fang were working together to survive and traverse the world, but Zombie Spear is just always moving forward thanks to a sense that there’s something he should be walking to. It’s something that is artfully done in the way there are brief teases to what that could be, but it’s never spelled outright and left for interpretation.

This is a very risky move in that it puts a lot of faith in the audience that has been with Primal all this time, and it’s something that can only be pulled off in a show like this. Fans have dedicated two seasons to Spear, and this third season asks them once again to invest in a version of the character without humanity. It’s a tightrope act that’s unbelievable to see in motion throughout the season, and it’s one that is incredibly satisfying once you see how it all pulls it off at the end. There’s just so much trust in every aspect of its presentation that it’s going to get its “real” narrative across. And it’s palpable in every frame.

Primal Season 3 Is a Work of Art

Much like the first two seasons, every single second of Primal Season 3 is a visual marvel. While it was always brutal, the third season matches the tone of its undead star with a much more intense visual identity. Newly introduced creatures are more intense, there are entire ecosystems thought into how some of them are designed and interact with the world, and Spear himself has a whole new kind of physicality. Yes, Spear can be more violent now that he doesn’t feel pain but there’s also a hilarious amount of humor mined from the way he removes in response to things.

You might think that there’s nothing but darkness to be found in this season thanks to his situation, but there’s a balance of levity right when the show knows you’ll need it. It’s not just one tone all the way through, and each episode is paced in a way that keeps you locked in throughout. After two seasons of mastering how to tell its story without dialogue moving things forward, this third season is the ultimate exploration of that idea as it follows a character without dialogue and without an inner humanity to immediately connect to.

The pacing really strikes hard this season as the episodes are steadily revealing the true goal of the journey, and there are multiple levels as to how it flows. It’s like the season is broken into phases for this new Zombie Spear, and each one is all the more intriguing. It’s an unexpected journey that still feels like it’s entirely different from everything that came from the first two seasons. At the same time, it’s also an evolution of familiar elements to build on things even further.

Primal Season 3 is an incredible work of art that somehow does the impossible. It’s in the position of needing to follow up with another masterpiece after two very successful seasons hit those high marks, and it absolutely nails that. It’s an incredible season of television that somehow makes you fall in love with a zombie, and trusts in you enough to go on that journey. It’s something that only can be accomplished through two seasons of work leading up to it. You’ve never seen anything like this. Primal Season 3 is truly next level.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!