Dark Angel : season 1 review

200?

22 50 minute episodes

SF elements

escaped teenage mutant super-soldiers

Review

In a USA brought to its economic knees by an EMP, Max, a sulky teenage thief, breaks into Logan's apartment to steal valuables, and is caught. So starts a strange friendship: Max is a mutant super-soldier on the run from the secret Manticore base, while Logan is a rich playboy who just happens to be "Eyes Only", intent on bringing the bad guys to justice. Logan gradually gets Max to realise she can help people too. But the danger of being caught by Manticore is never far away.

This is fun, in a grungy, post-apocalyptic sort of way. A variety of plot-lines means the Manticore conspiracy is only one of many sub-plots (although it grows towards the end of season finale). We meet an interesting bunch of characters, mainly through Max's day job as a bicycle courier, and Max herself makes an interesting truculent super-hero. And although a running theme is about how one should use ones abilities to Do Good, it manages to be only very slightly preachy when doing this.

Rating: 3.5

[ unmissable | great stuff | worth watching | mind candy | waste of time | unfinishable ]

reviewed 8 February 2003