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I'm really enjoying Dark Angel on re-watch, I know that it had its cheesy moments, but I just really enjoy the world-building and the characters I suppose, especially Max, Logan, Original Cindy, and Lydecker from the first season, then Alec and Joshua from the second. I enjoyed that the drive of each episode in season 1 was usually always about Max resolving her past and tracking down her siblings, and of course the flashbacks to Manicore. I always get much more emotionally invested in shows that keep most episodes focused on their main characters emotional journeys, rather than on a case of the week format
I was a shipper for Max and Logan, I thought they had a really great dynamic in the first season with him being the rich idealist and Max being the streetwise harder-edged character, although I must admit that it didn't really carry over to season 2 for me, I was shipping Alec and Max by then :P From what I've heard it was actually originally planned for Alec to be Max's new love interest, but the actor who played Logan objected and used his influence with Jessica Alba to change that? The virus storyline in season 2 lasted waaaay too long and the Logan/Max ship was completely played out for me in the second season quite honestly, they should have just got Logan and Max together in season 2 and done something different with them if they were determined to stick with them as the main romance of the show, the whole virus storyline didn't do much for their chemistry IMO
I really don't get why season 2 seems to have such a bad rep though, I know that even Jessica Alba has been really down on this season, but it wasn't that drastic a drop in quality to me at all? The realism was stretched more granted when they wanted to suggest that a secret government agency was also creating vampires and mermaids, but well that aside lol. I really liked the ensemble cast they had that year, both Alec and Joshua were really fun additions, and I tended to enjoy the subplots with them a lot more than the comic-relief B plots they had with Jam Pony in season 1 tbh. It was a shame how underused Original Cindy was once the focus switched to the Manticore characters instead though, there were quite a few episodes where I thought they could easily have thought of ways to incorporate her in the main plot more as she was Max's best friend and someone in the know, but season 2 did seem to focus mostly on Max working either with Logan, or with Alec
Alec and Joshua had really good chemistry together as friends, and you could tell that the actors enjoyed working together. I enjoyed their friendship a lot more than the way that Max tended to baby Joshua actually, I kind of felt like she would have found a way around it if it was her or Logan who had the facial deformities and couldn't go outside, but with Joshua she seemed to fall into a very rigid idea of you must NEVER go outside and it's all for your own good. She basically had him swap one basement for another without even trying to look into any alternatives, but then the Halloween episode did have Max admit to herself that a lot of it was about hiding Joshua away as a dirty little secret because she feared people looking at her differently more than anything
I wasn't a big fan of Agent White, he came across as such a generic screaming bad guy at first, and so I was never really convinced by the backstory they tried to give him to make him more interesting, they kind of lost me there actually with the breeding cult and the snakes! I much preferred Lydecker as a bad guy, I was surprised at how quickly they faded him out in early season 2 and barely bothered to resolve his story, it made him wonder if there were personal issues with the actor? I thought it was really weird that they didn't even credit the actor as a "special guest star" in his season 2 episodes, and that he didn't get any kind of memorable exit
I guess that season 2 must edge out the first season as a favourite for me as I have a lot more to say about the characters that year and the dynamics between them, even if season 1 is considered the ~technically superior~ season. I guess that some of the season 2 episodes were of dodgier quality (the vampire episode for one!) and things did get a little silly at times, but I thought that the opening three episodes were stronger than anything from the first season, same with the final stretch of episodes from season 2.
And now I'm off on holiday for this week, will be back on Friday!
I was a shipper for Max and Logan, I thought they had a really great dynamic in the first season with him being the rich idealist and Max being the streetwise harder-edged character, although I must admit that it didn't really carry over to season 2 for me, I was shipping Alec and Max by then :P From what I've heard it was actually originally planned for Alec to be Max's new love interest, but the actor who played Logan objected and used his influence with Jessica Alba to change that? The virus storyline in season 2 lasted waaaay too long and the Logan/Max ship was completely played out for me in the second season quite honestly, they should have just got Logan and Max together in season 2 and done something different with them if they were determined to stick with them as the main romance of the show, the whole virus storyline didn't do much for their chemistry IMO
I really don't get why season 2 seems to have such a bad rep though, I know that even Jessica Alba has been really down on this season, but it wasn't that drastic a drop in quality to me at all? The realism was stretched more granted when they wanted to suggest that a secret government agency was also creating vampires and mermaids, but well that aside lol. I really liked the ensemble cast they had that year, both Alec and Joshua were really fun additions, and I tended to enjoy the subplots with them a lot more than the comic-relief B plots they had with Jam Pony in season 1 tbh. It was a shame how underused Original Cindy was once the focus switched to the Manticore characters instead though, there were quite a few episodes where I thought they could easily have thought of ways to incorporate her in the main plot more as she was Max's best friend and someone in the know, but season 2 did seem to focus mostly on Max working either with Logan, or with Alec
Alec and Joshua had really good chemistry together as friends, and you could tell that the actors enjoyed working together. I enjoyed their friendship a lot more than the way that Max tended to baby Joshua actually, I kind of felt like she would have found a way around it if it was her or Logan who had the facial deformities and couldn't go outside, but with Joshua she seemed to fall into a very rigid idea of you must NEVER go outside and it's all for your own good. She basically had him swap one basement for another without even trying to look into any alternatives, but then the Halloween episode did have Max admit to herself that a lot of it was about hiding Joshua away as a dirty little secret because she feared people looking at her differently more than anything
I wasn't a big fan of Agent White, he came across as such a generic screaming bad guy at first, and so I was never really convinced by the backstory they tried to give him to make him more interesting, they kind of lost me there actually with the breeding cult and the snakes! I much preferred Lydecker as a bad guy, I was surprised at how quickly they faded him out in early season 2 and barely bothered to resolve his story, it made him wonder if there were personal issues with the actor? I thought it was really weird that they didn't even credit the actor as a "special guest star" in his season 2 episodes, and that he didn't get any kind of memorable exit
I guess that season 2 must edge out the first season as a favourite for me as I have a lot more to say about the characters that year and the dynamics between them, even if season 1 is considered the ~technically superior~ season. I guess that some of the season 2 episodes were of dodgier quality (the vampire episode for one!) and things did get a little silly at times, but I thought that the opening three episodes were stronger than anything from the first season, same with the final stretch of episodes from season 2.
And now I'm off on holiday for this week, will be back on Friday!
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