Co-created by James Cameron, Dark Angel is best remembered as the vehicle for Jessica Albas breakout performance as genetically engineered super soldier Max. Its also notable for its incomprehensible technobabble, grating dialogue and thin plot, and although Alba was praised for her role, the acting can be inconsistent. The series survived for two seasons before it was cancelled in favour of Firefly, because one cult sci-fi show wavering in the ratings was quite enough for Fox, thank you. Dark Angel reportedly exceeded its $3 million budget in every episode of its first season, but the effort shows. The series was set in a post-apocalyptic Seattle after an electromagnetic pulse has destroyed the majority of modern technology, which allowed Cameron and co-creator Charles H. Eglee to draw heavily on cyberpunk for the citys grimy and corrupt atmosphere. The irritating invented slang never quite works, but the odd combination of hovercrafts, pagers and turn of the millennium hip-hop somehow coheres into a visually striking and fully realised futuristic world. Was there much point in that carefully developed world when its inhabitants were usually too absorbed by their ongoing love triangles to explore it? Perhaps not, but it made for a pretty background, at least.
