It’s been a few years since Darius, Kenji, Sammy, Yaz, Ben and Brooklynn escaped the dinosaur-infested Isla Nublar, as chronicled in Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.
Their survival was nothing short of spectacular. But now, dinosaurs don’t just roam a few islands off the shore of Costa Rica: They roam the whole planet.
In this neo-Jurassic Age (so dubbed by Dr. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), animals and humans must coexist. And thanks to the Department of Prehistoric Wildlife (DPW), it’s not nearly as bad as you might expect. They keep the more dangerous dinos away from humans and relocate the creatures, when possible, to dinosaur reserves.
Unfortunately, their efforts aren’t always successful. Although Darius (former employee of the DPW and paleontologist) and the rest of the Nublar Six kept in touch for a while, they all drifted apart after Brooklynn (who went into investigative journalism) was killed by a dinosaur during a job.
Darius blames himself for Brooklynn’s death since he was supposed to meet her the night she died. But Ben isn’t so sure that Darius is at fault. Why did Brooklynn want to meet that night? How did a carnivore mysteriously show up in the middle of the city undetected? And why was the DPW so slow to respond?
Ben thinks Brooklynn was targeted. And while Darius is hesitant to accept this conspiracy theory, when man-eating dinosaurs start showing up at the homes of his fellow Camp Cretaceous survivors, even he can’t deny the suspicious circumstances.
Their only hope of survival is to get what remains of the Nublar Six back together, settle their differences, and do a little digging of their own to hopefully solve Brooklynn’s death.
Jurassic World: Chaos Theory is a continuation of Camp Cretaceous. And the show pretty much has all the same content concerns as before.
Adults in Camp Cretaceous were rare, and most of them were corrupt individuals who had no problem abandoning helpless teenagers on an island filled with prehistoric dinosaurs. Darius and his friends are the adults now, but we still experience quite a bit of that corruption. And the show’s antagonists still have no quandaries with taking human lives.
The dinos have no problem killing people either. Some do it out of hunger, but at least a few have been trained to hunt humans by humans. As with Camp Cretaceous, these types of deaths typically occur offscreen, but there’s no doubt what’s happening.
Sammy and Yaz (both women) became a couple during Camp Cretaceous, even moving in together after escaping Isla Nublar. And they’re still a couple here, sharing the occasional kiss. Brooklynn and Kenji were another couple from the previous show, but they split up just before Brooklynn’s death, leading to some very complicated feelings between foster brothers Kenji and Darius, since Kenji also blames Darius for Brooklynn’s death.
And, of course, you can’t have a Jurassic World show without broaching the topic of cloning and gene manipulation, since that’s how the dinos were created to begin with.
So while Chaos Theory is certainly a more kid-friendly approach to ravenous, prehistoric dinosaurs (it certainly doesn’t spill as much blood as the live-action Jurassic World films), the LGBT content, dino creation and humans potentially serving as bite-size snacks may be unnavigable territory for some families.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at [email protected], or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Darius is hunting for the dinosaur that killed Brooklynn when Ben shows up to tell him that it wasn’t the dinosaur’s fault: It was sent to kill her by humans.
We hear that Brooklynn was killed by a dinosaur (and see one brief flashback of the attack), and Darius blames himself since he was supposed to meet her the night she was killed. Darius and Ben are attacked by three raptors. They use a net gun and stun baton to fend them off. Ben says he received several threatening messages after inquiring into Brooklynn’s death.
Members of the Department of Prehistoric Wildlife use tranquilizer guns to subdue a rampaging dinosaur. Before they fire, Darius notices the creature has barbed wire stuck in its foot, and he removes it, calming the dino. Because of his kindness, the herbivore defends them when a carnivore shows up. Darius chases the meat-eater down, but he’s stopped when his car blows a flat tire (which he kicks in frustration).
A picture of the Nublar Six shows Sammy and Yaz holding hands.
There is an advertisement for a lawyer representing folks with dinosaur-related injuries. People lie. Darius teases Ben about conspiracy theories.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
Violence, profanity and explicit content reign king in this mob-like series that’s crafted to show the worst of society.
Petty rivalries and sexual dalliances might make for good drama, but they don’t make much for wholesome viewing.
Fantasmas, like the crayon Julio hopes to make, has no clear message—but plenty of clear issues.
