Dark Angel - Season 2 [DVD] [2001]

In the year 2019 the U.S. has become a third world country in the wake of the Pulse - an electromagnetic shockwave unleashed by nuclear terrorists in 2009. This is Max's world, a broken world, an unforgiving place even for a genetically engineered soldier like her. On the run from her creators and constantly in search of her past, Max joins forces with the idealistic cyberjournalist "Eyes Only." She's a revved-up girl trying to make a run-down world a better place.

Season Two picks up several months after the first season. Max, believed to be dead by her friends, is given a life saving transplant and incarcerated within the Manticore compound. No-one can get the better of Max for long though, it isn't long before Max has found a way to escape, destroying Manticore and releasing the other transgenics.

Max soon realises the universal truth - that people are afraid of what they don't understand. As more and more of her fellow 'transgenics' become the objects of hate with the city of Seatle, and are hunted down by the ruthless NSA operatives who seek to destroy all evidence of Manticore's existence. Max assumes responsibility for releasing the transgenics into the 'real world' making it her own personal mission to ensure their safety from those that would seek to harm them.

Then there is the whole romantic relationship between Max (Jessica Alba) and Logan (Michael Weatherly), which starts off the second season with him thinking she is dead. Then he gets the good news, she is alive, but the bad news: she has been given a virus that is genetically programmed to kill Eyes Only. You have to admit, it terms of keeping apart two people who seriously want to get together, this is a rather creative way, and there are a couple of very good episodes dealing with their romantic problems (e.g., "Borrowed Time," "Hello, Goodbye"). We are supposed to then throw X-5 Alex (Jensen Ackles) into the mix as a love triangle, but I can never believe Sam would be unfaithful to Logan, let along want to go the kissing cousin route. I prefer the problems with the X-6s ("Bag 'Em") and the X-7s ("Designate This").

Perhaps the best proof of how the show was matching steps forwards with step backwards is in the supporting cast. With Alex and Joshua becoming the third and fourth most important characters in the show after Max and Logan, that meant reduced roles for Original Cindy (Valarie Rae Miller) and Norman (J.C. MacKenzie). The latter is reduced to on-going homoerotic shtick with Alex, especially in the Manty Coro bits, and the former is reduced to popping in to episodes for brief moments of clear thinking and moral support. This is underscore by their return to prominence in the series finale, "Freak Nation" (raise your hand if the final scene reminds you of a line from CSN&Y's "Deja Vu").

Perhaps the problems with Season 2 of "Dark Angle" is that making things bigger and going the whole "X-Men" route with the public outcry to get the wicked mutants, is just pretty much a complete flip on the more intimate and secretive world of post-Pulse Seattle we got in Season 1 (and if you listen to the commentary track for "Freak Nation" you can learn what further changes were coming in Season 3). It seems strange to fault a show for moving in new directions, given how often they become stagnant, but all these changes might just have been too much too soon. Then again, the fault might be audiences were not particularly open to so many changes. You certainly cannot say that watching Alba as Max got tiresome (just her comic book refusal to ever kill any of the homicidal maniacs after her and her buddies).

Ironically, FOX's reasoning for cancelling "Dark Angel" was that they did not want to do two futuristic science-fiction shows (i.e., costly sets and special effects), and decided to go with the highly anticipated sci-fi western "Firefly" from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" creator Joss Whedon. Of course, "Firefly" never had the ratings of "Dark Angel" and never made it to double figures on episodes. If you missed "Dark Angel," then it is certainly worthwhile checking it out on DVD. The second season is not as good as the first, but still way above average in terms of science fiction shows. James Cameron directed the finale, which marked the first (and so far only) time he has dealt with human actors as a director since "Titanic." The DVD also includes some featurettes and a gag reel, but the chief attraction in the extras are the few but definitely above average commentary tracks.