It's easy for us to assume that no matter what comes our way, America will prevail politically and economically. Fox-TV's Tuesday night drama Dark Angel, which recently won a People's Choice award for favorite television dramatic series, confronts that assumption by asking "what if we don't?" Behind this rather typical sci-fi action thriller is a siren warning us where Gen-X thinks the world is headed in the new millennium. Unfortunately, the only hope the show gives is the old-fashioned triumph of the American individual.
Produced by filmmaker James Cameron (Titanic), Dark Angel thrusts viewers into a rundown, Bladerunner-like Seattle in the year 2019 where its rogue-heroine, genetically engineered Max (Jessica Alba), tries to remain undetected as she hides from malevolent government operatives who raised and trained her to be a superhuman fighting machine. Her goals in life are to not get caught or killed by these men; score enough of the amino acid called tryptophan to satisfy a genetic malfunction; and find the other test tube soldiers who escaped with her 10 years before.
Along the way, Max finds a friend in underground journalist Logan Cale (Michael Weatherly), a wealthy wheel-chaired idealist who anonymously broadcasts his investigative findings on a streaming video show named "Eyes Only" (only his eyes are shown). Logan is a cynical savior figure on the show, committed to bringing truth to a world where a free press is no longer functioning. He also occasionally gives Max information about the "siblings" for whom she's looking.
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