DVD Review: Dark Angel: Seaon 2

Dark Angel faced some tough times in its short run as a series. When the show debuted, Buffy was the reigning television tough chick. The slayer had a few seasons under her belt and had stabilized into a witty and well-realized show that was producing Emmy quality episodes. Buffy had also just spawned a spin-off with the enormously popular Angel character.

In Dark Angel's corner was the mightly James Cameron, a force to be reckoned with to be sure, but also unproven in the television world.

It was perhaps a bad sign that the show was frantically trying to reinvent itself by the end of the first season. Change isn't necessarily a bad thing, but this had almost a sense of desperation. When season 2 came around, it almost didn't seem like the same show. Much of the edginess and dark wit was gone, replaced by action and conspiracies.

Don't get me wrong. If done well, I don't mind it when a series evolves and reinvents itself. It can be natural and refreshing change. In the case of Dark Angel, however, the changes almost seem too forced and too rushed. The creators knew they had to capture an audience quickly if they had any chance at all of stealing some of the Buffy thunder, but they made their play by going too outlandish too quickly.

Plot elements (such as the half-human, half-animal rejects) should have been introduced gradually, if at all. Some of these elements should have taken seasons to mature and instead are introduced and resolved in the span of a handful of episodes. New characters are thrown into the mix with such dizzying rapidity that it becomes almost impossible to care for many of them.

In the span of one season, we are given a completely new race of genetic mistakes, who are all on the loose. Max (Jessica Alba) is infected with a virus designed to kill her budding love interest and mentor, Logan (Michael Weatherly). Max develops mysterious runes on her body that may be the "signature" of one of the orignal genetic scientists, or they may be the key to a long lost secret. Oh, and those escaped genetic mutants? They're interested in forming their own nation.

It's all just a little much for one little season of television.

As with the first season, Jessica Alba does a decent acting job in the role of Max, a genetically supercharged soldier. Some of Max's toughness is gone, allowing Alba the opportunity to show more emotional range (but don't get me wrong, she still kicks butt when she has to). Her biggest challenge is in maintaining a continuous sense of frustration regarding her relationship with Logan.

And about that Logan character. He must have the worst luck in television. He was paralized in the first season until a transfusion of Max's blood helps him heal. But now in the second season he's faced with a genetically created virus that has been inserted into Max for the purpose of killing him. Poor sap. It's enough to make one wonder: Had the show survived, would some season-long tragedy become the running joke of the Logan character?

Ultimately, Dark Angel's problem is that it tried to be too much to too many. By attempting to appeal to so many tastes and quickly gain an audience, the show lost focus and degenerated into a juggling act that simply could not sustain itself. It's too bad, too, because given 5 or 6 seasons to fully explore all of these ideas and this show might have been great. Instead, it's just a slightly jumbled curiosity.

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