Kevin Cole

Wow, just wow, was this bad. I purposely wanted to watch something to get mad at, and this did just that PLUS some. I actually just wrote an extensively long, scathing review. But accidentally touched the edge of my phone and it was all lost in a flash 🙃 Basically, the plot and character tropes are super poorly written. Like legit a 6 year old wrote this or something. Also, the writers clearly never did any research on the tar pits, let alone ever tried to refer to researchers about anything. If they did, then they seriously need to receive more help, because this is essentially mocking and disrespecting the La Brea Tar pits instead of showing it as it's fascinating reality. (I'd also reject helping this show for research help if I were a researcher. Wouldn't want to be known for this abomination...) Like, why would some dire wolves suddenly attack and slaughter tons of people so randomly? And for the smilodon: literally why would it ever just be loud and obnoxious to it's prey?? If the writers knew anything about big cats, they'd know a predator wouldn't just GO OUT AND ROAR at it's prey?? Like c'mon seriously. I don't care about literally any of the characters, and they're all so linear, it's just so cringe. I legit facepalmed so often while watching this. Actually had to just peek through my fingers at scenes cuz it was so incredibly cringey lmao. Like I'm so sorry for the people who all have to work on this.

I understand this reboot is supposed to be for the younger generations. But they seriously could've kept the original diversity of characters or expanded on the diversity. Like, why white wash literally all the POC?? There are no longer any dark-skinned characters besides in the end scene of kids from around the world. But why lighten up Carlos, Kershaw and Tim, while also making Wanda look super white? Netflix, you don't need to white wash everyone, you should've kept the characters look, sound, and act more diverse, not let diverse. Now everyone sounds so white, and all too well-behaved like other viewers have mentioned. The kids seem like they're robots, the humor is so forced and cringey, and the lessons are sometimes so specific that it doesn't really give the viewer a context of what the show is trying to explain, or why the kid should even care. The animation is also very lazy, especially for 3D portions. I feel like they could seriously give more education, information, reflective thought processes, and more critical thinking in each episode, than they actually have in the show now. Takes 24 minutes to talk about how a very simple food chain works, or how school of fish work, or how fluids flowing work. It just gives tiny little specs of some information for the viewer to learn; but honestly there's so little information compared to filler (cringey filler at that) that it's hardly even worth it to watch the show because the viewers can't relate to the characters very much, and the topic they're exploring is so niche and doesn't really give a feel of context. Each trip is also so lackluster. The original had such fun, long and intense trips, while so far, this show has tiny 2 minute trips and the rest is just filler of boring stuff. I had high hopes of seeing what they will teach with the modern technology we have today. Especially after seeing the thumbnail with a (supposed?) cynodont skeleton and the new teacher. But instead, it's a disappointment to see a show that has white-washed characters who are all robotic with hardly any personality and only get screen time for the POC characters when they're "needed" for comedic purposes, or when the pointless filler story needs them to do something. The show doesn't explain concepts very well, and is just filler. Animation is very lazy, and the character interactions between each other is so shallow. Also when Janet showed up in the series, they didn't explain who she was at all. That implies that the viewers are supposed to know who she is from the original series, and thus be older than the actual intended audience Netflix should be aiming for. I see this reboot as a quick money maker for Netflix, where they didn't put much effort into it at all, and wanted to keep the name to grab the attention of potential viewers, while also white washing everyone as if no one would notice. (Seriously Netflix, you think everyone's skin color and face shapes and accents would suddenly become so white after a summer break? C'mon.) I might still continue watching more episodes to see if it can prove itself, but I'm skeptical it will.