by Mike Hilty, Contributing Writer
Welcome to Cross-Platform Partners! In honor of a new movie release, I have selected a TV show to watch to pair with the movie. Think of it as a way to get hyped for the new movie, a preview of things to come, a means to tide you over if the movie won’t be released where you live for a little while, or a change of pace if you’ve run out of related movies or sequels.
Welcome to December! It’s a month filled with blockbusters, Oscar contenders, and holiday movies. December historically has had some of the biggest releases of all time. It’s often a strategic move to release a movie in December if you anticipate it making a ton of money. January and February usually do not have movies available that will stop a true juggernaut at the box office. In the top five highest-grossing films of all time (not adjusted for inflation), three movies were released in December. Two of those were directed by the same guy, and both were the most original films in the top five. Say what you will about James Cameron, but the man knows how to make a hit film. Cameron is releasing Avatar: The Way of Water in December, so I partnered it with his only TV property: Dark Angel.
Set in dystopian Seattle in 2019, Dark Angel is about genetically-enhanced super soldiers called X5s within a program called Project Manticore. In 2009, a group of these soldiers break out of a secret facility in the middle of Wyoming. One of these soldiers is named Max (Jessica Alba). She is living in secrecy, and living a normal life with a job and friends. Striving to figure out where her other brother and sister soldiers are, Max partners with Logan Cale (Michael Weatherly) and together with her friends from the courier service, she works like Original Cindy (Valarie Rae Miller), Sketchy (Richard Gunn), and Herbal Thought (Alimi Ballard) to piece the mysteries surrounding Project Manticore together.
Dark Angel follows in the footsteps of shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Xena: Warrior Princess with a strong female lead. It also follows suit with Cameron having a strong female character, similar to Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Aliens. Alba is the breakout star of Dark Angel, as she was mainly cast as a popular pretty girl in films, or bit parts in television shows. This is her first performance as the lead, and by every metric, she does an admirable job. Everything isn’t always easy for Alba. The dialogue is pretty horrendous at times, and she often gets relegated to someone who uses her looks to get what she needs. More times than not, though, she’s a strong and gifted heroine who is loyal to her friends.
The people around Max are a colorful cast of characters who have great chemistry with Alba. This starts at the top with Weatherly, who is the second most prolific performer next to Alba. Logan Cole is a fascinating character. He’s a cyber journalist who has his eyes set on weeding out government corruption and criminal activity. It’s a bit undefined what Logan’s true intentions are at first, as the series goes back and forth between Logan and Max working together and living their lives separately. Logan is a great sidekick to Max; he compliments her skills with tech-savviness, connections around Seattle, and inspiring the people to wake up to the truth about what’s going on.
Alba and Weatherly have great chemistry. I did find myself rooting for them to be together, even though they resist for a long time. They feel like a typical will-they-won’t-they couple. They fight often, but never to the point where their relationship might be irreversibly damaged. Also, they have a lot of close calls when they get close or save each other in dangerous situations. Their story develops organically and has one of the more interesting first encounters with one another in a television series I’ve seen. It’s the furthest thing from a meet-cute.
The general story involves Max’s search for her “siblings” from Manticore. Season One focuses heavily on this storyline, and has a semi-main antagonist Colonel Lydecker (John Savage). As the pseudo-lead for Manticore, Lydecker is tasked with bringing back any X5 soldiers that escaped. Throughout season One, various X5 soldiers make an appearance, including Zack (William Gregory Lee) and Ben (Jensen Ackles). Both of them play various roles to help Max find and support other X5 soldiers. Lydecker is eventually surpassed by someone even worse up the Manticore chain, Elizabeth Renfro (Nana Visitor).
Season Two jumps the shark in terms of story. There’s a heavy emphasis on different types of transgenic individuals from Manticore. The term transgenic refers to individuals who have had their DNA modified with other things. This feels like an attempt to one-up the X5 soldier, or even show what originally happened to them before they were successfully created. Max and Logan have something happen to them that keeps them apart, which is a creative way to keep their story from becoming stale. Where Dark Angel goes off the rails is when they explore the origins of Manticore and introduce the Breeding Cult. I think I’ll just let that stew for a minute as a way to emphasize just how weird Season Two gets, which unfortunately led to its cancellation.
A lot of things go unresolved with Dark Angel, aside from the ending. I was more interested in learning about what happened with the Pulse, which leads to the United States becoming a third-world country. The show references the Pulse several times, which could potentially explain why Project Manticore was introduced in the first place. There’s a handful of characters who get introduced, and then there isn’t much of an explanation as to why they are no longer on the show.
Despite some of its shortcomings, Dark Angel will go down as Cameron’s only attempt at television. It does make me wonder what he had in mind for if the show continued into season three and beyond. The series ends on a major cliffhanger, which is disappointing to say the least. I will concede that Dark Angel also shows its age, especially when it comes to LGBTQIA+ references, and for the male gaze when it comes to some of the cinematography. In the end, Dark Angel will also be known as another show that showed a strong female character who could hold her own and wasn’t considered a damsel in distress. Season Two, with all its faults, is trying to speak of prejudice, similar to how X-Men talks about it in comics.
Cameron certainly knows how to make something great. I’m lukewarm on the first Avatar movie, accepting that it’s a visual masterpiece with a so-so story. I just want to be dazzled visually for Avatar: The Way of Water, and if it can give me a coherent story, I’ll be fine.
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