A dark future? (Dark Angel)

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	Dark Angel
Date:	22/02/01 (205 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting ideas, Ms Alba, James Cameron

Disadvantages: Not entirely original

James Cameron has been an outstanding director in the field of science fiction ever since he made Terminator in 1984. Since then, with films such as Aliens, The Abyss and Terminator 2 he has only confirmed that. While not exactly the most original (post holocaust society? Computers "gone bad"?), they certainly have enough tension and thought put into them to render them unmissable by any science fiction fan.

When Sky One announced that they would be showing a new science fiction series from James Cameron, I was very intrigued. I like his work (I hated Titanics’ story, but thought his use of special effects was amazing) and therefore I was looking forward to this.

Before I get to my thoughts on what I think of this series so far (it’s still running – we’re perhaps about five episodes in) here’s a brief plot synopsis to whet your appetite if you’re interested in this sort of thing…

In 2009 a group of genetically enhanced children (aged around nice or ten years old) who have been trained and conditioned to be super soldiers escape from a military base in Wyoming, USA. Fast forward ten years – the USA is in a depression because of an enormous EMP (electromagnetic pulse) which has wiped out all of the electrics on the west cost of America. Seattle is a city that has corruption oozing out of every pore, but is getting back on its’ feet after the pulse. This part of America has seemingly turned into a police state with heavily armed police on every corner, and movement within the city severely restricted.

Logan Cale (Michael Weatherly) is a journalist, and a rich man with a secret – he’s really the cyber terrorist “Eyes Only” whose goal is to inform the people of the corrupt individuals who currently hold positions of power in their city.

Max (Jessica Alba) is a beautiful cycle courier who has two rather large secrets – one, she’s
a genetically enhanced human (one of the children, now grown up – around 19 or 20) and two, by night she’s a cat burglar, which she does to fund her private investigation into finding her co-escapees. She’s also being pursued by Lydecker (John Savage) one of the personnel from the Manticore project from which Max escaped.

In the pilot episode, after an adventure which introduces you to the characters and shows you how enhanced Max really is, she agrees to join forces with Logan in return for information on her co-escapees. (I deliberately left any detailed episode information out in case you wanted to watch this yourself) The first few episodes also introduce some other plot details which I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by giving away, like the fact that the genetic tampering means that Max is prone to seizures unless she gets medication to counteract the effects of the tampering)

It’s an interesting take on the post apocalyptic scenario because everything has been left intact, the only damage done was to the electronics (which have since been replaced from other parts of the US and other countries) but all the problems associated with this are evident – corruption, scarcity of goodshardhsip of people trying to stay alive etc.

I like this programme a lot. As is the trend these days with fantasy or science fiction programming, it gives you a lot to think about. As with some other programmes like The Pretender (which I loved, incidentally) the Max’s background is built up, over a period of weeks via flashbacks. A problem I have is explaining to you why I like it. It’s not big and flashy, and for James Cameron, it’s a fairly unassuming programme. The cast are good, but some of the characters are just the usual wisecracking sidekicks, although Original Cindy (Valerie Rae Miller) and Kendra (Jennifer Blanc) do seem to be a bit more likeable and original than the male sidekicks. r>
As an interesting aside, given the amount of hype and plugging that Sky One are throwing at us about this program, I have to assume that they’ve invested very heavily in it.

On another note, in the eyes of my friend (who shall remain nameless!), Jessica Alba has stolen Teri Hatcher’s crown of being the most beautiful woman in the world! Surely, that makes it a MUST WATCH show!