WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the first season of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, now streaming on Netflix.
Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous is the newest entry in the dinosaur-centric series, trapping a small group of inexperienced teenagers on an island with dinosaurs roaming the land uncontested and killing what they can find. By the end of the first season, the show proves to be an unpredictable and exciting entry in the twenty-five-year-old franchise. The problem with Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, however, is that it doesn't start on a high note.
The series opens shortly before the events of Jurassic World, with a select group of teenagers being chosen to be the first "campers" on the island. They're given a large treehouse to live in and are set up to accompany the Jurassic World staff on certain low-risk assignments around the island. Essentially, it's summer camp mixed with an internship. As a result, the early episodes lack the tension and drama that the latter half of the season is able to utilize to far greater effect. Part of this is due to the need for character set-up as we meet lead character Darius and the rest of the teens. But it also means the early episodes are considerably slower, as the more hands-on, child-friendly aspect lacks any sense of danger that makes the franchise so engrossing.
The first two episodes of the series are surprisingly dull for a series focusing on dinosaurs. The characters, still in their most basic form, aren't charming or appealing enough at first glance to warrant the extended attention. However, once the teenagers find themselves on their own and are forced to adapt to survive -- which begins to be a plot beat in the third episode, with a sudden stampede leading to Darius and Brooklyn being separated from the rest of the group and trapped within their vehicle as it sinks into the mud of the jungle -- the show picks up a great deal of urgency and excitement.
Things only get more engaging in the following episode, with the events of Jurassic World happening in the other areas of the park, leading to widespread chaos and unleashed dinosaurs roaming the park and killing guests and employees alike. This leaves the teens completely isolated from the adult staff who actually know what they're doing, and the show then shifts from a "teens trying to get along on dinosaur island" plot to a more thrilling "teens trying not to die on dinosaur island" storyline. While it takes over a third of the season to reach this point, it instantly makes the show inherently more tense and thrilling.
Even the character work takes a major upswing at this point in the season, with the one-note versions of the characters introduced in the first two episodes giving way to surprisingly complex aspects. A good example of this would be Kenji, who's introduced as the haughty and wealthy counterpart to Darius. The natural arc for this kind of character would be to have him and Darius grow into reluctant and surprising friends. But Camp Cretaceous takes it in a different and more realistic direction, with the terrors of the island slowly eating away at Kenji's confidence, building to his belief in using the underground tunnels crumbling as they discover all the gates sealed. This leads to actual moments of quiet empathy between the characters, especially as the season ends on a surprising and compelling plot twist.
With the group stuck on the island and on their own, the show actually positions itself to become a unique entity within the long-running franchise. It'll be genuinely about survival in a world of dinosaurs, for an extended enough period of time for things to get interesting, especially with the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom on the horizon. The five remaining kids trying to survive through a dinosaur ecosystem long enough to be rescued is a compelling concept for a series, especially one that's been more than willing to show characters getting killed and consumed on-screen. It may take a few episodes to really get going, but Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous becomes a very engaging show once it fully embraces being a part of the Jurassic franchise.