S02E03

This week's monster might have been a big cat, but sadly the drama was lacking the incision of the furry creature's sabre-teeth.

Yet again, the story feels overly familiar. An opening teaser sequence featuring some paintballers being threatened by a monster is eerily similar in both theme and tone to the second season premiere's bowling alley prologue. What else lies in store in the coming weeks? A few folks playing darts in the pub are attacked by a prehistoric mollusc that seeps through an air vent? A couple of table tennis enthusiasts find themselves swallowed up by a killer gerbil?

Fortunately, some life was breathed into proceedings with the development of Caroline. Her devious nature was nicely hinted at via the image of Rex on her mobile phone, then confirmed via her meeting with Oliver Leek and the exchange of money. It will be interesting to see how this pans out over the coming weeks, and whether she gets her comeuppance.

Lucy Brown's performance as Jenny also deserves a positive mention as she exudes the right amount of confidence and sensuality. Her seduction of a trainspotter provided some much needed comic relief.

Apart from an enjoyable encounter between the monster and a JCB controlled by Abby, the action sequences were frustratingly directed. In a bid to instill some energy and immediacy to events, a decision was made to use shaky handheld cameras. This only serves to annoy. Time and resources would be far better spent in developing the script and characterisation to make us share a decent amount of emotional pathos with the characters and care for their precarious predicaments.