The Jurassic World film franchise is about to see the debut of its third and final film, Jurassic World Dominion. Fan anticipation is at an all-time high, especially with the return of Jurassic Park alums Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum. However, there's another Jurassic World story that's slowly but steadily fleshed out the world of Jurassic Park: the Netflix Original Series Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.
Camp Cretaceous begins with dinosaur fan Darius Bowman (Paul-Mikél Williams) winning a trip to the titular Camp Cretaceous, an adventure camp that takes place on Isla Nublar — the home of Jurassic World. Upon arriving at Camp Cretaceous, Darius meets five other kids: obnoxious rich kid Kenji Kon (Ryan Potter), star athlete Yasmina "Yaz" Fadoula (Kausar Mohammed), overly friendly farm girl Sammy Gutierrez (Raini Rodriguez), social media personality Brooklynn (Jenna Ortega) and near-germaphobic Ben Pincus (Sean Giambrone). The kids are forced to rely on each other when the Indominous rex from the first Jurassic World breaks loose, causing death and chaos.
The first season of Camp Cretaceous takes place concurrently with the events of the first Jurassic World movie; a rather bold choice but an inspired one. Even if you've never watched Jurassic World, the threat of a genetically enhanced dinosaur on the loose is still enough of a threat to drive an entire season of television. And due to the insistence of Steven Spielberg, who serves as an executive producer on the series, Camp Cretaceous doesn't pull its punches; its protagonists are often put in danger from the dinosaurs roaming Isla Nublar, other human beings who come to the island, or both.
Showrunner Scott Kreamer shared Spielberg's approach, saying that it would be an interesting angle for the Jurassic Park franchise to tackle: "In all the films, the kids are the side characters who need to be rescued by Alan Grant, Owen Grady, or an adult. So the whole idea is: Let's put kids in the center of the story. Let's cut off adult help. Let's make them have no one to count on but each other."
By the end of the first season, the Camp Cretaceous crew has no choice but to count on each other as all the boats on the island have departed, leaving them stranded. Hope seems to arrive in the form of eco-tourists Mitch (Bradley Whitford) and Tiff (Stephanie Beatriz); however, the couple are secretly big game hunters and traveled to Isla Nublar to hunt dinosaurs. In Season 3, the campers encounter yet another obstacle in the form of inGen scientist Dr. Wu (Greg Chun), who has come back to Isla Nublar to retrieve his research; and that's not even mentioning the sinister Scorpio rex that is hunting them down. Camp Cretaceous keeps things fresh by mixing up the threats; you never know what's going to happen next.
What also makes the series worth watching is how the campers grow throughout the course of the show. Nowhere is that more evident than with Kenji; originally a spoiled rich kid used to getting his way, he learns to put others before himself. In the Se — which drives a wedge between him and Darius. A relationship between Brooklynn and Kenji also starts to blossom in Season 4, proving that time, close quarters, and the throes of puberty can change how you look at someone.
Other characters who undergo a radical change include Sammy and Yaz. Sammy's cheerful exterior hides a dark secret; she was sent to Camp Cretaceous to spy on inGen's research for their rival Mantah Corp. Granted, she had a good reason for doing this — her parents' livelihoods were at stake — but it becomes hard for the others to trust her. Likewise, Yaz's perfectionist tendencies and loner nature leave her isolated from the group - and doubly so after she learns about Sammy's deception. The two finally repair their relationship during the Season 3 episode "The Long Run". When the Scorpio rex poisons Sammy, Brooklynn goes to Wu's lab to retrieve an antidote - a difficult task made even harder due to her spraining her ankle in Season 2 and her growing fear that she'll die without seeing her family again. However, she manages to push through and save Sammy's life.
But the campers who undergo the biggest changes are Darius and Ben. Darius at first is only interested in seeing the dinosaurs on Isla Nublar and is reluctant to open up to the others. However, he steps up to lead the other campers when times get tough. In the Season 2 episode "Misguided", he and Sammy manage to escape from Mitch and Tiff's clutches, and he forms a plan to save the dinosaurs from being hunted; and in the Season 3 episode "Whatever It Takes" he also attempts to snag Dr. Wu's laptop in order to implicate the geneticist for all the crimes he's committed. He even manages to win over the Season 4 antagonist Kash D. Langford (Haley Joel Osment) by pretending to be disdainful of dinosaurs.
Ben goes through his own changes, especially as Season 1 sees him supposedly falling to his death. However, he manages to survive thanks to the help of Bumpy, an Ankylosaurus that becomes his best friend. Both Ben and Darius learn to overcome their respective fears of leaving Bumpy behind on Isla Nublar and leaving Ben behind respectively, and Ben's survival skills even come in handy when finding food and coming up with plans to survive. Though the series hasn't been renewed for a fifth season, its mixture of dinosaur action and character development make it a must-watch for any Jurassic World fan.