Genndy Tartakovsky’s dinosaur epic Primal turns compassion into a survival tool

In “Spear and Fang,” the first episode of the new animated Adult Swim show Primal, the caveman Spear (Aaron LaPlante) sees his mate and young children devoured by a pack of horned dinosaurs. Later in the episode, he winds up fighting that same pack alongside a Tyrannosaurus dubbed Fang, and he befriends her two young children. It’s a sweet redemptive moment, suggesting that Spear might be able to regain something of what he’s lost. Then the leader of the dino pack shows u