Season Review: Ark: The Animated Series Season One Part One

In a surprising turn of events that no one saw coming, we got ourselves a surprise series drop out of nowhere courtesy of Paramount+. Usually, surprises were supposed to be fun ways to catch us off guard, but from a business perspective, this usually means the streaming services don’t have much faith in the shows they’re releasing, especially when there’s no marketing involved. That’s not a good look for a service that offers good-to-mid content, mainly from the animation department.

The latest series to fall victim to this trend is an animated adaptation of an action-survival video game released nearly a decade ago with middling fanfare. That game was Ark: Survival Evolved, developed by Studio Wildcard, which involved players surviving in a historical fantasy world consisting of prehistoric creatures, monsters, and hostile humans from different timelines. The series was first announced during the 2020 Video Game Awards, with the game’s creators, Jeremy Stieglitz and Jesse Rapczak, serving as the show’s creators. However, we haven’t heard much else about it since it entered production in 2022, other than that two seasons were in development. That is until it dropped on Paramount+ at the last minute without warning. There’s also the matter of the show dropping only the first six episodes of the season, with the remaining ones premiering later, a strategy used for the second season of Invincible. We all know how that was turning out so far. However, the real question is whether this series deserves to exist regardless of its sudden release schedule.

The first half of Ark: The Animated Series depicts the tale of Helena Walker (Madeleine Madden), an Australian paleontologist on 21st-century Earth who’s recently grieving over the death of her wife, Victoria. After passing out from drowning in pills and wine, Helena wakes to find herself stranded in the middle of a vast ocean. She eventually washes ashore on a mysterious island called the Ark, which consists of dinosaurs, advanced technology, and warring tribes from different timelines fighting for the three powerful artifacts that could send them home. With the assistance of other survivors, including a Chinese rebel leader named Mei Yin Li (Michelle Yeoh), Helena strives to survive the island’s deadly obstacles and find a way to return to her own time.

I wasn’t very familiar with the source material, mainly due to my focus on the other video game franchises like Kingdom Hearts. However, the show’s concept was enough to get me intrigued by its adaptation. After all, I am a sucker for fantasy elements and dinosaurs, especially when it somehow involves time travel. I should credit the series for how it introduced its world-building and characters in just its first six episodes. Whether they’re fans of the game or newcomers, Ark: The Animated Series offered just enough information regarding the island’s capabilities to entice viewers without convoluting them. One such example is the three artifacts hidden in the island’s tribes, which are said to have the power to return the survivors to their given timeline. However, they were barely mentioned after the second episode, so it’s unclear if they’ll be brought up again in the second part.

Another element that I enjoyed was the direction taken for the series’s characters. Amid the episodes, the series often explored the main characters via flashbacks to before they were transported to The Ark. One example is Helena, who suffered from depression when her wife, Victoria, was murdered during an expedition. It also showcased in the second episode that Helena and her activist mother were part of a civil rights movement for black equality, emphasizing Helena’s inner conflict between peace and fighting for survival. Another example is Mei Yin, whose flashbacks display her as a vengeful warrior in the 3rd century, blinded by revenge against the corrupt Emperor who murdered her family. The series’ flashbacks depict each character’s struggles as they embark on their journeys, highlighting the themes of war, survival, and vengeance. While the series’ familiar story beats were not as grand as its scope, it managed to engage me with its well-developed characters, even though some of the emotional aspects were inconsistent.

I was also impressed by the show’s star power, including Gerard Butler, Michelle Yeoh, David Tennant, Jeffrey Wright, and even Russell Crowe. I know the other streaming shows have had this kind of lineup before, but you have to admit that this is one for the ages, at least in my eyes. But how were their performances? So far, they were pretty decent. Madeleine Madden reprised her role as Helena Walker from the game for the series, and she did very well capturing her character’s fearsome yet courageous personality. Gerard Butler was also suitable as the brutal Roman General Nerva, and Devery Jacobs did solid work as Alasie, making herself known in the industry after voicing Kahhori in the second season of Marvel’s What If.

Finally, we have the animation. Not only did Studio Wildcard return to produce the series, but it was accompanied by another animation company, Lex + Otis. Lex + Otis is known for working on projects like Raid: Call of the Arbiter and Netflix’s Trese. Despite only hearing about the animation studio for the first time, I was admittedly impressed with what it accomplished for Ark regarding its style. Although its presentation constantly reminds me of other shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender, it serves as an inspiration rather than an imitation of the art style and action sequences. Based on what I’ve seen so far, There’s some promise for the up-and-coming animation studio.

Overall, the first six episodes of Ark: The Animated Series have done plenty in the show’s concept and presentation to convince me of their potential. Despite a few iffy moments in its narrative beats, the series has so far succeeded in bringing the world of Ark: Survival Evolved to television screens and offering enough context for newcomers to dive in without any knowledge of the games. It’s far from a must-see show of the year, but I’m willing to withhold my final judgment until the remaining episodes are released. Hopefully, the folks running Paramount+ will remind us of its existence until then.