Jessica Alba was doing grl power way before Jennifer Garner and she is cuter, post apocapyptic Sci Fi should be a slamdunk and wow - 6 DVD's in Season 1 so you can't say they didnt get a chance to get this right - BUT, i just can't get into it, is it the acting, the narrative, the basic premise of the show? beats me, but its missing pretty much everything that makes for a good dramatic or comedic series, and it does try to do both. If I could draw one parallel from the cinema, its Tank Girl - its got a modicum of style, a painfully offbeat demeanor, no substance and a grandiose vision, but Tankgirl was over in a couple of hours - did i mention Season 1 was on 6 discs? I wish Jessica lots of luck whatever she's doing right now because she is talented but this was not a good showcase for her and if you listen to the director's commentary you will conclude that talent was not overabudnant at every level of Dark Angel.

(Yes, I expect a bunch of negative helpful ratings like everyone else who gave this show 1 or 2 stars. I guess some fans can't accept opinions that differ from their own.)

After getting into Buffy the Vampire Slayer this past year, I was anxious to find another show that was similar to it. Assuming this would be just as good as Buffy, I bought it (without ever watching an episode before) for $20. Big mistake, although I'm thankful that I bought it for a sale price instead of shelling out $40+ bucks for something this bad. I guess you could say it was a stupid decision, but I've done the same for other shows that I eventually went on to enjoy. Now, this review won't be completely fair since I've only seen 12 episodes (even though I've had the DVD set for two months), but I'll review by what I've seen so far. The fact that I find it painful to sit through an episode should be an indicator of Dark Angel's quality. In comparison, I watched 144 episodes of Buffy in one month, while it's taken me 2 months just to watch 12 episodes of Dark Angel.

The biggest problem with DA seems to be the horrid acting, and the even worse dialogue. It seems like the writers were trying way too hard to make this show "extra-hip and cool", but it just comes across as lame and embarassing. They even have guest appearances from people like Master P and Mack 10, which continues to show that the creators favor hipness over acting ability. The main character Max (played by Jessica Alba of course) seems to do nothing but spout off lame lingo. She'll have serious discussions every once in awhile to advance the plot, but most of the time her dialogue consists of nothing but annoying phrases such as "I gotta Blaze!" (actually, I believe she says that at least once in every episode). The way Alba delivers her lines makes it all the more annoying. For the people that haven't seen the show, here's an example of some of the "brilliant" dialogue you'll find in the show:
Random peeper: "I'm sorry Max, but you're the bomb!"
Max: "Ka-Boom!" (*kicks him in the crotch*)"

Or how about some of the episode titles? "411 On the DL", "Blah Blah Woof Woof", "The Kidz Are Aiight", and "Shorties in Love". Yeah, I know their only titles, but that gives you an idea of the juvenile writing on this show (come on, they can't even pick good names for their episodes...)

While Buffy entertained me with some of it's humorous one-liners, Dark Angel's attempts to be funny fall flat everytime. Speaking of flat, lets move on to the supporting characters. Michael Weatherly plays the second main character, the wheel-chair bound Logan Cale. While Michael isn't the greatest actor, he looks like Robert De Niro when compared to the rest. Without him, I'd probably go insane from watching this show. He's the only one that seems to talk like a regular person, instead of attempting to use as many hip one-liners as possible like everyone else. Max's boss, 'Normal', also talks, well...normal, but even a brick has more emotion than him. 'Sketchy', a guy who works with Max, isn't too bad, but the only reason he's there is for comedy relief (which makes him pointless since he isn't funny at all). Finally, there's Original Cindy, Max's best friend. It seems that every line Cindy has is nothing but the type of "Hey, look how hip we are!" dialogue that I mentioned before, which makes her another useless and annoying character.

The plot is decent so far. Nothing special just yet, but it's nice to see that most episodes contain continuity. Also, there is some character development, which is always a plus. With a better cast and writers, this could have actually become a great show.

Overall, avoid this one, even if you are a fan of similar shows. I am not a Buffy fanboy or anything, but I'd easily recommend getting all 7 seasons of that and the 5 seasons of Angel before ever getting this. There are a few positive aspects of this show, but I could easily name 5 terrible apects for every good one.

The good thing about Dark Angel: Jessica Alba looks great.

The bad thing about Dark Angel: Every other thing!

Dark Angel is a showcase for mediocrity. I would say that the acting (and I use that word loosely) is on par with a local elementary school play, but I don't want to insult elementary school plays. The diaglogue strives for hip but only manages a pathetic adults-who-think-they-are-teens falseness. Where the firetruck did they come up with this crap? The stories don't make sense. The characters are flat. The conflict is weak. The premise is vapid.

Oh, wait, I remembered another good thing: I only paid 14.95 for season one.

The "King of the World" really got knoocked off his throne with this 1999 TV series that was part Charmed/X-Files/Alias all rolled into a poorly written and poorly done show with both bad cg effects and a story that looked like it got it's creative ideas from the over-rated Matrix movies. A real Bleech.

I have to give it up to the first season of Dark Angel. I was a fan of the series, but I hadn't seen any of the episodes since they first aired, 'til I got my copy of DA season 1.

Holy moley.

The writing was nearly as witty as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and sometimes way ahead of its time. Ever heard of "defenestration"? No? Check out "Art Attack"- an episode that featured Master P before he made people say, "Ugh!Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah!". This series had music by Jill Scott playing in the background before anyone knew who she was. They used a theme song written by Chuck D. They mentioned the Taliban BEFORE 2001. These cats were definitely on to something.

But more than that, James Cameron et. al. came up with a plot that compares favorably to the best of comic book/sci-fi mythology. Set in Seattle years after a devastating terrorist attack (someone set off an EMP, frying technology all over the US), this series features a number of people who choose to work towards a better society instead of giving up. In some ways, this reminds me of Cameron's work on the "Terminator" series.

Jessica Alba (of "Honey" fame) plays the main character Max. She's a genetically engineered meta-human who runs and fights like a modern-day bionic woman. Max is not your typical hero--in the very first episode we see her using her powers to burgle someone's place. Her foil is Logan, a post-apocalyptic investigative journalist who will definitely remind you about what today's media is missing.

Max is befriended by her workmates at Jam Pony messenger service, including Original Cindy--a beautiful African-American woman who speaks her own brand of English, dates other women, and sticks up for her peeps. She meets other people with special abilities, some of whom are out to kill her. It turns out that the government is out to retrieve her, and this leads to a few Matrix-esque wire fighting scenes that made for outstanding TV. By the 3rd or 4th episode, this series finds its stride and builds quickly to an awesome season finale.

I wish I could say that season 2 was as good, but it simply wasn't. Check out season 1 so you can learn, in the words of the manager at Jam Pony (and Joni Mitchell), "Don't it always seem to go/That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone..."