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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Jumped the shark after the pilot episode., Dec 10 2003
James Cameron's "Dark Angel," starring Jessica Marie Alba, debuted onto the public television circuit with the glitzy, media-permeating fanfare of a P.T. Barnum exhibit. It was intended to be the Fox Network's answer to "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer," but unlike the latter show, "Dark Angel" never lived up to the glimmers of potential which it displayed in the pilot episode.The lead character, Max Guevera/X5-452 (Jessica Marie Alba), with enhanced feline abilities was interesting enough despite the all-too-familiar "I just want to be normal" superhero formula lurking underneath. Gratuitous shots of Miss Alba -- dare I say "miss" in our enlightened society? -- in a skin-tight leather outfit was undoubtedly a major selling point with the teenage male audience but often cheapened the series to the level of a D.C. comic book. The overarching plot involving genetically-engineered super soldiers whose DNA had been artificially created, inserted as fertilized eggs into the wombs of surrogate mothers, born under military supervision, raised in an experimentation compound and then escaped as children was laughably cliché, but still interesting. This was tacked onto a futuristic environmental setting in which a dystopian Seattle has been devastated by an electromagnetic pulse. These two premises were mildly compelling, and the show was at its best when exploring them, but the moment it would veer into alternative plotlines, it would fall from an average weekly thriller to a stinking pile of fungus. The ensemble cast which populated the show on a weekly basis was by far the worst failing of this short-lived series. The supporting characters were often teenage stereotypes painted in broad, one-dimensional strokes for the sake of political correctness (i.e. Original Cindy) and used the most annoying hip-hop slang. The point of using slang is to make communication quicker, not to use it so much in a sing-song fashion that basic communication itself becomes stupidly incomprehensible. Apparently, middle-aged creators James Cameron and Charles Eglee were trying so hard to make a hip show that appealed to teenie boppers that they didn't realize being too trendy is just as detrimental as being too normal.
Coupled with the annoying overuse of rat-tat-tat Ebonics, a constant "battle of the sexes" theme existed throughout the series which would have been wickedly amusing if it hadn't usually lacked wit and reverted to simplistic invectives. Max saying lines such as, "Girls kick ass, [because] it says so on a T-shirt" was humorous. Max saying lines such as, "Guys are the weaker sex" to a grieving widow who has just lost her beloved husband isn't humorous, even in a morbid sense. A twisted sense of humor can be sickeningly funny, but, if an episode writer is not careful, it often can just be sickening. There is a very fine line to toe. The Dark Angel writers should have remembered Mel Brooks' famous advice, "If I cut my finger, that's tragedy. If a man walks into an open sewer and dies, that's comedy."
For the lackluster action scenes in which Max displayed her "dizzying" superpowers, the Dark Angel crew often utilized a simple fast-forwarding technique. This is an effective trick if executed correctly, but instead it often came across as sped-up footage from a shaky hand-held video camera. In retrospect, far more interesting combat effects could have been created using wire stunts ala the deified choreography of Yuen W. Ping. Ultimately, the corniness of "Dark Angel" became more and more insufferable; the weekly episode writing didn't improve; the characters became so posh they were borderline snotty. Midway through the first season its Nielsen ratings began to slip. Seeing no quality improvement, viewers abandoned "Dark Angel" like rats from a sinking ship. By the second season, the once-promising series had degraded to having Max slaying Buffy-like monsters and encountering freakish beings that seemed borrowed from the X-Men comics. If only the series writers had aimed for a wider demographic audience other than middle school teenagers and focused less on being devastatingly hip, "Dark Angel" might have lasted a few more seasons. Tsk! Tsk!
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