Dark Angel Season 2

World-Building: Great
Characterization: Great
Plot: Decent - Awesome (varies with episode)

The second season of Dark Angel is another great season, but one with a very different tone and backdrop. Overall, I highly enjoyed the season, but there were some very irritating elements that prevented me from enjoying it as much as the last season. The finale redeems the show and it is one of the the best episodes from either season, but unfortunately, the show was cancelled so many of the plotlines that were left open are never resolved.

There were many changes this season including the bad guys, the characters, Eyes-Only's focus, and most significantly, the status of the Transgenics and Manticore. I have to say, I missed many of the characters from season one like Bling and Herbal and I didn't care at all for some of the new characters (Asha). I have to say that the fact that the whole Manticore status was changed and that the increased intensity with which the transgenics were being hunted down was a great move for the show, but this took away from the Eyes Only missions which made season one so cool. This would have been fine if they had replaced the Eyes-Only plotlines with ones that were more compelling, more in the vein of the last few episodes, but some of the episodes earlier on in the season were very bad. So bad that I couldn't bring myself to re-watch them this time around, and, to be honest, my experience of the season overall was not any less for having missed them.

The worst of these one-off episodes that feature a dangerous transgenic is the one with the weird reptile-creature (which looked like a really badly done CGI dinosaur) that spits out disgusting gooey cobwebs in which to trap its victims. Manticore making human-like Transgenics is great and creepy, but dinosaurs that spit out goo... no. I also particularly hated this episode because Max and Logan's virus problem gets a "temporary" solution which allows them to kiss for a couple of minutes and then everything goes back to how it was. *headdesk*

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the virus. Manticore makes this virus (and injects it into Max's blood) that is specifically targeted to Logan's DNA. Which means that they can't touch at all or he dies. It was ok for a while, but they really should have resolved it. It also made me angry because it didn't make sense, scientifically, for Logan to get immunity for a while and then suddenly almost die again. That's not how "immunity" or "antibodies" work last time I checked. I would love to get an explanation that makes this plotline make sense, but the series doesn't really go into that in too much detail, obviously.

Another major change was the direction they went with Ames White, I'm guessing to make him scary and formidable. He's still not as creepy as Lydecker was in Season 1, even though they made up this insane cult conspiracy thing. Some people got really put off by the whole breeding cult storyline, especially because it moved the show from being solidly in the science fiction realm towards something that's more magic than anything else. The cult members can do the weirdest things with their powers, including, shockingly, move things without touching them. (Tom Riddle reference totally unintended). Personally, I didn't hate it too much and I actually really enjoyed the episode with the creepy cult powers, but it definitely illustrates the huge difference between the two seasons.

The finale makes this all ok. It was, in short, a piece of awesomeness. From the new characters to the great game-changing plot to Joshua! It all works for me. I particularly liked the Chief of Police's character Clemente, but many of the other characters are also awesome. This episode really makes me long for a third season!

I would definitely recommend this season as well, but be prepared for some unrelated and lame episodes in the beginning/middle of the season. If you can get through those, however, you will be rewarded with an unforgettable finale.

Dark Angel Season 1 Review

World-Building: Awesome

Characterization: Great-Awesome

Plot: Great

The first season of James Cameron's Dark Angel is a gripping season full of action, great world-building, and some great characters that the viewer can easily emphasize with. Even the main villains have great characterization and add to the experience. I've watched this show several times and having just recently re-watched it I decided to give it a review. 

The main character, Max, is a genetically engineered "supersoldier" who escaped, along with twelve others, when she was a child. The show starts off by showing us the events of the night of the escape and then skips to show us her life in a post-apocalypse Seattle, where she is trying to fit in with everyone else, evade recapture, and find her fellow escapees who she sees as brothers and sisters. Despite all this, she's not a Mary-Sue, she has flaws that we see from the very first episode. On the moral side she is prepared to steal to pay the private investigator that's helping her locate the other escapees. On the physical side, she might be a genetically engineered superhero who can preform amazing feats, but there are also side-effects. Her body isn't able to produce the right amounts of a neurotransmitter, so if she doesn't take a supplement she has shaking fits and becomes almost helpless. 

The world building is great, because it merges science fiction elements with elements of social commentary. Shortly after Max's escape from Manticore (the secret facility where the genetically enineered soldiers were kept) the Us was attacked with an electromagnetic weapon (usually referred to in the show as "the pulse") which changed the society and caused a lot of social problems. There's a lot more homelessness and poverty, shortages in many essential goods, and corruption runs rampant through the city. I won't go on for too long about this, but suffice it to say that this backdrop and the detail that's provided in the show makes for excellent world-building! 

Most of the episodes have a new problem or bad guy that Max has to face, but the season also has an overarching plot related to Max's continued struggle against Manticore. 

The final piece of awesomeness that I want to comment on is the wealth of interesting characters in the show. Max's friends don't work for everybody, but they definitely worked for me. I appreciated the variety of characters presented in the show and the fact that each character was given some room to develop, even when they were only there for one or two episodes they were well-written. 

There wasn't really an episode that I didn't like in this series. Some awkward moments for sure, like the mirror scene between Max and Logan, but it's hard to complain about that when the rest of the show is so good. Some of the episodes I found a little bit spine-chilling, like the episodes with the red series soldiers and the one with Diamond, but I absolutely loved them for it! (I just avoided watching them at night, lol). 

I would highly recommend watching this first series of Dark Angel to all lovers of speculative fiction!