Imagine Jurassic Park only without the ensuing havoc of a saboteur shutting off the power and raptors hunting everyone down. Also, instead of cloning dinosaurs from DNA, the park’s extinct animals were saved from extinction via a time portal. Oh, and instead of housing dinosaurs in a theme park-like environment, this “park” is more of an animal sanctuary open to accommodating any manner of extinct creature.

Welcome to Prehistoric Park.

Unlike a so-so Spielberg thriller, Prehistoric Park is a wonderfully imaginative and engrossing television mini-series. It stars Nigel Marven, a British naturalist who travels back in time in each episode to rescue animals on the brink of extinction. His Prehistoric Park is an in-progress compound designed to breed and care for these animals that evolution gave up on.

In the first episode, Nigel sets out to retrieve an absolute showstopper–the most famous, or infamous, dinosaur of all–a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Traveling through the mysterious time portal, he arrives shortly before the giant meteor that extinguishes all dinosaur life on earth. There he stalks a wounded T-Rex but ends up bringing back more than just the king of “thunder lizards.”

One of the neatest aspects of Prehistoric Park is that the show doesn’t just focus on dinosaurs alone; there’s an intriguing variety to the types of animals and time periods visited, as the second episode moves past dinosaurs and finds Nigel heading to the end of the Ice Age to rescue a Wooly Mammoth. But dinosaurs aren’t totally forgotten as the show continually flashes back to “present day” at the Park where the staff there must deal with the creatures Nigel’s already brought back, like a herd of Omithomimus that won’t settle in their new habitat or an antsy teenage Triceratops they’ve named Theo.

Keeping things different again in the third episode, Nigel heads to prehistoric China to seek out more dinosaurs, only this time they’re ones few of us have probably heard of before. They’re tiny, feathered, four-winged, flying dinosaurs called microraptors. But the hunt for these tiny dinos also reveals the largest creatures Prehistoric Park will come to host, along with a very unwelcoming volcano that causes trouble for Nigel and his crew.

For episode four, the Sabretooth Tiger is the desired extinct animal Nigel tracks down in South America, along with a giant, meat-eating bird whose predatorial dominance is overturned by the Sabretooths. First, Nigel heads to a time when the Sabretooths ruled the roost and the “terror birds” were on their way out. Then, Nigel’s off to when the Sabretooths were the ones dying out. Note to parents of small children: though the series has been pretty family-friendly so far, this episode features a bunch of baby animals, including some damn cute ones that…don’t make it. Just a warning that smaller children may find this very disturbing and Sombrero Grande is willing to reveal this minor spoiler if it can prevent fits of uncontrollable sobbing…like he had. Wait…ignore that last part.

Exhibiting the show’s most varied departure yet, the fifth episode sees Nigel off to a time before the dinosaurs to rescue giant bugs like a three-foot dragonfly and an enormous scorpion. Meanwhile, back at Prehistoric Park, the animal keepers are having troubles with many of the creatures Nigel’s brought back so far.

The sixth and final episode of the show puts Nigel once again back in the time of the dinosaurs, now trying to trap a fifty-foot “supercroc” called a Deinosuchus to bring back to the increasingly hectic Park.

In a way, it’s disappointing that the “supercroc” is the subject of the final episode since the Deinosuchus is arguably the least impressive CG creation of the series. The computer-generated effects throughout the show are pretty good for TV–even on par with the original Jurassic Park movie at times–though that varies from creature to creature. Some, like the Wooly Mammoth, look great and are easy to buy off on as real creatures, while some others, like the Deinosuchus and Sabretooth Tigers, appear to be only slightly more believable than creatures from TV’s Hercules and Xena: Warrior Princess.

But occasionally tepid special effects can’t spoil the wonderful sense of adventure that the show offers up. Thankfully the human actors are far more believable than the computer-generated ones, and they bring a strong sense of realism to the outlandish situations. The scripts are well done too, making the proceedings feel close to real while still managing to answer all asked questions before the end of each episode.

Prehistoric Park is set up like a documentary, filming the growing pains of the world’s first extinct animal sanctuary. There are a few shots in the series that couldn’t possibly have been shot documentary-style and kind of throw off the vibe (like flying with giant dragonflies through a forest as though speeding through the Moon of Endor on an Imperial Speeder Bike–Nigel can’t seem to catch a dragonfly here, but apparently the cameraman has no problem riding one’s tail), but other than these little nit-picks it’s a pretty believably shot mockumentary.

In addition to being highly entertaining, the show is also educational. In discussing the handling and behaviors of the show’s creatures, the characters and narrator frequently make comparisons to modern animals and zoo methodologies. Prehistoric Park is the best kind of “edutainment”: the kind of show you watch for fun and then realize partway through that you’ve learned something.

One thing that is never explained is how the time portals work. Like the doors in Monsters, Inc., they just do. Executive Producer Jasper James humorously explains in the DVD-set’s “Making of” feature, “Einstein always made a big deal about, you know, space and time and ‘wouldn’t it be difficult to time travel.’ And I think, in reality, he knew, like we do, that it’s actually quite simple: you just need a stick with some lights on it–and you stick it in the ground, time portal comes up, and you go back in time. There’s really nothing to it.” The “how” of the time travel really isn’t important to the story—the show isn’t about that; it’s about learning about the animals.

Prehistoric Park is an absolutely wonderful mini-series, full of adventure, drama, and interesting animal and historical facts. I highly recommend it for older children, families and adults with even the slightest interest in dinosaurs and other extinct creatures.

Ah, we start off in a courtroom. A drama usually can't go wrong with a courtroom scene; there’s instant conflict and precise adversarial roles.

Before I get into the episode, let me step aside a moment to acknowledge at the beginning (in case people don’t get to the end here) that the impossible has been happening and people sticking with the show have been rewarded. Painkiller Jane is better than the stilted, ungifted acting and plodding plots it started with. I really wanted this show to work – and it really is. It’s been improving by leaps and bounds – just like a real superhero.

This was a stand-up episode about Strikeforce Vicodin aka Team Neuro member Connor King being accused of serial arson and murder.

Connor King is in the defendant’s seat after being arrested for a series of arsons including one house fire that killed Lucy Samuels. What’s been happening though is the team has been tracking a fire-starter neuro, and naturally Connor been seen at nearly every scene.

Combine that fact with his combustible personal history and we have a conflagration. Connor King's shit is about to hit his least supportive fan. His former police partner is about to testify against him and among his record as a criminal are arson charges.

“Ex-cop, ex-con — kind of cute in a borderline, sociopath kind of way,” series heroine Jane Vasco muses. “Here's the deal, I’m able to heal and Connor isn’t.”

It's a high-profile case and not only is the situation looking dire, Connor's government lawyers are working against him to keep the neuro program quiet. Connor cannot put Maureen, Jane, Andre, Riley, or Dr. Seth on the team (and certainly not former railway man and former team neuro member who’s lost in a subway tunnel somewhere, never to be seen again).

We get to meet some of the leaders behind the team, including Gerald Morgan, delicately referred to only as "supervisor of Andre's team." Morgan is willing to sacrifice King to save the secrecy of the team. “He was always a liability,” Morgan says, which ain’t exactly a vote of confidence.

Connor is feeling frisky in jail when Maureen comes to visit. She breaks the bad news that his background on the legit side of the law on Team Neuro won’t be part of his defense. He’s feeling despondent and hopes that his “going away present” is with a “sympathetic” Mo and “the Supergirl.”

So they bond by hitting on each other, but also Strikeforce Vicodin becomes a legal defense team. Connor refuses to tell McBride more about his background, which strains their working relationship and gets the whole team tense.

Instead, Connor tries to escape twice just because he feels there’s no hope; he has obviously been railroaded before. The first time the jailer gets a little trigger happy and fires into an occupied courtroom. Jane jumps in his way as she sees them ready to shoot — and takes two slugs in the shoulder.

Riley, who now sits at an upgraded bank of screens, is figuring out the connections again. The target houses are two-story blue houses that all face West – or something equally random and absurd. All but one that is, though no one can shed light on the anomaly. Riley suggests maybe the arsonist grew up in a similar house.

McBride, who you would think would favor the law and order approach, has a cunning plan. It’s bold. It’s ambitious. When Bill Cole, the ex-partner, ex-cop, ex-cellmate, shows up at the courthouse, he’s given a message. He is told to go to the back of the courthouse and there’s McBride, gun in hand, pretending to be a hired killer for King to dissuade Cole from testifying.

It seems to be a plan burdened and fraught with risk and doubt. If it doesn’t work, Cole still testifies and Connor gets hiring a contract killer to his list of charges. Luckily, Jane poses as a witness too, and McBride, which, of course, is rather convincing.

In fact it works and Cole refuses to testify in court several times, pleading the fifth even though he’s been granted immunity. His loyalty to fear gets him a quick contempt of court.

Scott Samuels, Lucy Samuels’ husband, testifies and he’s a just-the-facts-ma'am type. He gets about as emotional as a frozen rock.

Doing their investigative due diligence, Riley and Maureen figure out that oil stains in a couple of the garages show that the arsonist arrives at the scene on a motorcycle. McBride points out the drawback to this brilliant sleuthing — Connor rides a semi-custom Saxon chopper.

Back in the courtroom, expert witness Dr. Erich Wilson creates some huge elaborate theory – involving basic magnifying equipment – about how the fires are started, yet don’t leave any evidence. Connor’s defense lawyer thinks he’s got the guy when he gets him to say the glass and the device would not have melted completely in a fire. Except the good doctor, as he talks, crumbles in his hands the device that had just burnt a small towel in a demonstration. It's made of crystallized sugar. Further evidence finds Connor King renting a storage unit, and several of the magnification burning devices are found there.

It is a flimsy frame job – by Connor’s defense team against Connor. Riley later "finds” the original contract document online and finds it’s been modified and created recently rather than when Connor had the storage unit a few years ago. Morgan arranged the frame job.

“I don't like your tone,” Connor’s attorney Richard Stanley tells McBride as the latter is getting pissed at the lack of support. Great response: “You're not supposed to.”

McBride, going way out on a limb, says he’ll stalk Stanley for the rest of his life if he has to, and the country has spent a lot of money to do that well.

Riley tries to find information on Samuels under the theory that they were the intended target with the others burned as cover. Somehow in his digital travels, Riley finds pictures of a beautiful woman – Ellen Drake – and mumbles, "If this isn't a reason for murder…" as he pastes himself into a picture with her.

Turns out yes and there’s Blue Ridge Motel video footage to prove it. Ms. Drake owns up to the affair on the stand and it’s discovered Lucy has $500,000 worth of life insurance, just purchased. And, she’s low-risk as she doesn’t ride a bike like he does.

Richard Stanley finally gets a pair and interrogates him fiercely – and Samuels sets the courtroom ablaze. He’s the neuro. Connor, hand-cuffed, runs across and deep-sixes the guy to the floor with a body slam.

The moral of the story is Strikeforce Vicodin members realize they’re a team and everything is warm and fuzzy. Or at least warm OR fuzzy. "He is cute, isn’t he?" Jane repeats again, about Connor. And I only mention that because it looks like in the next episode Jane becomes pregnant. It's billed as "the episode that changes everything." She discovers a part of her power she never knew about.

Next episode, airing June 22, “Lauren Gray” where Jane poses as a (pregnant?) model who is turning young women into old corpses.

What do you get when a writer known for ghost stories, haunted tales, and specializing in debunking paranormal occurrences gets a taste of his own scary medicine? A night of fright.

Mike Enslin (John Cusack) is a best-selling horror novelist and takes on a new book project called Ten Nights in Haunted Hotel Rooms. This should be an easy task for him after discrediting a long line of paranormal myths. But it seems his perfect score is about to change when he checks into suite 1408 at the infamous Dolphin Hotel in New York City. He first meets the hotel manager Mr. Olin (Samuel L. Jackson), who tries to convince him that spending a night alone in the room would be fatal. Soon after he settles in, odd things begin to happen and he must survive disturbing sequences of violence, frightening images of his dead daughter, and the genuine terror of moving ceilings and windows.

Needless to say this sounds like a very frightening movie, but the plot went in too many directions. Stephen King's short story "Everything's Eventual" from his audio book Blood and Smoke is really very good, but when screenplay writers Matt Greenberg and Scott Alexander adapted this and tried to lengthen it into a feature film, they lost the focus of an intelligent sci-fi supense drama. Even though John Cusack gives a good verbal and deranged performance, it's not enough. Mary McCormack as Lilly, his estranged wife and mother of their dead daughter, enters much too late in the film to make a real difference to explain why he chases ghost. Samuel L. Jackson's character was at best acceptable considering that he only has a diluted part in the film. The movie relies on CGI to entice the audience with disturbing visuals, but it doesn't work.

Directed by: Mikael Hafstrom
Running time: 1 hour 34 minutes
Release date: June 22, 2007
Genre: Horror/Suspense and Adaptation
Distributor: Dimension Films, MGM, and The Weinstein Company
MPAA Rating: PG-13