Genndy Tartakovsky boasts one of the most eclectic and visually rich portfolios of any animation director working today. Dexter’s Laboratory (1996-2003) really brought his style to the forefront of audiences’ minds across the world, while Samurai Jack (2001-2017) stands tall as one of the most striking and unique children’s cartoons ever made. More recently, his older viewer-orientated creations like Unicorn: Warriors Eternal (2023) and the, erm, acquired taste of Fixed (2025) have continued his legacy. But Primal? It is a different beast. A hungry, bloodthirsty, and unforgiving animal of a show.
Nothing else that Tartakovsky and his long-time collaborators have ever made feels like such a culmination of everything he has done up until now. It is all there; the cheeky humour, the inviting style, and the breathtaking action, but laced with at times an unholy level of violence with more than a whiff of disgust. This legacy, carved so viciously well by seasons one and two, continues with season three. Following a now zombified Spear (Aaron LaPlante), Primal season three takes creative risks that are a jump even by its sensational standards. But it is a risk that pays off. Both visually and emotionally, Primal has kicked it up another gear yet again, embracing the supernatural like never before and asking big questions about humanity while barely uttering a single word.
The obvious anachronism of season two, which painted such a vivid story of human brutality and survival across eras, may not be quite as present here. But Primal still concerns itself squarely with the cost of survival and extreme violence. The action remains outstanding, generating real fear and uncertainty regarding the outcome – particularly in the jaw-dropping finale which sees Spear’s worst nightmares unfold before him. The world around Spear, at first, looks as dead as he is; lifeless voids of desert and savannah that give way to luscious jungles and torturous hellscapes as Spear’s humanity tries desperately to be heard from inside his corpse. The animation, having received the ‘dead and dying’ makeover special (including the title sequences), oozes from sickening and horrifying to comical and endearing with ease, juxtaposing comfort and carnage in an unforgiving world as some of Tartakovsky’s trademark visuals come to the fore.
Tyler Bates and Joanne Higginbottom’s score deserves praise also; a daunting, haunting medley that keeps pace with Spear’s now lumbering zombified state. One note is all it takes to make your hairs stand up on end, with a feeling of dread creeping into the bottom of your stomach. It is in many ways simple, but frighteningly effective.
What really marks out season three however is its human core, a return to the family-orientated heart that was so viciously devoured at the beginning of season one. It makes it all the more unbearable that this season toys with the divide (or lack of) between life and death like never before. It offers a double whammy of shocking violence and high emotional stakes that has always been there but feels taken up a notch in season three. And yet again, it comes down to how much this show can say without saying anything. Practically devoid of dialogue, communication is told through noise, eyes, and action to phenomenal effect. It hones your focus on the action and its consequences, ensuring that season three never comes off the gas across its relentless ten episodes. Even the calmest moments are underlaced with irresistible menace and fear.
If you can stomach the bone-breaking, brain-bashing violence – which, by season three, you most likely are – then Primal offers rewards in abundance. The fact that Tartakovsky has steered away from the previously touted anthology format for this season indicates one thing; an artist brimming with confidence and at the top of his game, resurrecting the past without it feeling cheap or desperate and still able to imagine new possibilities with the groundwork he laid previously. A variety of colours and sounds collide into one bloody kaleidoscope and fable, cementing Primal as Tartakovsky’s finest hour and one of the finest 2D animations you are ever likely to find.
Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal season three is currently airing weekly on Adult Swim.
