frelling_tralk: (Nikita by katrin_folly)
frelling_tralk ([personal profile] frelling_tralk) wrote2015-09-28 12:11 pm
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Dark Angel seasons 1 and 2

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!

[identity profile] supernutjapan.livejournal.com 2015-09-28 11:38 am (UTC)(link)
I'd love to do a rewatch of Dark Angel when I have the time! I'm with you on shipping Logain and Max until Season 2 and then switching :D I really liked Alec and Joshua together too. Not only did they get along well together, the relationship changed Alec, I think. And developed his character. We got to see more of his brooding side, which he was always hiding with Max (from what I remember).

[identity profile] lilly-the-kid.livejournal.com 2015-09-28 11:57 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, I miss this show. I like season 1 better, for me season 2 is very different in tone and season 1 just works better for me. But having said that, once I made peace with season 2 being different I would have loved to watch on and see where the story would go.

[identity profile] livejournal.livejournal.com 2015-09-28 12:28 pm (UTC)(link)
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[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/ 2015-09-28 01:02 pm (UTC)(link)
I think I only watched Season 1. I really don't remember it well, it was okay but not exactly my thing.
liliaeth: (Default)

[personal profile] liliaeth 2015-09-28 01:36 pm (UTC)(link)
One thing I'll always remember of this show, is how much Jessica Alba's acting improved from s1 to s2. It worked out with her character arc, but in s1, she was about as bad as David Boreanaz in s1 of btvs. And by s2, she'd leveled up to great.

Well that and it's one of the first shows I watched Jensen Ackles on*g*

[identity profile] malicat.livejournal.com 2015-09-28 04:48 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't remember which season I liked more (well,I certainly didn't like the open end of the second season ^^) but I totally looooved Joshua so for me he alone made season 2 worth watching!
And I'm with you on the shipping thing. I liked Max/Logan too but I was way more into Max/Alec!

[identity profile] theron09.livejournal.com 2015-09-28 04:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah, I want to rewatch Dark Angel now!

[identity profile] bm-shipper.livejournal.com 2015-09-28 06:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Have a great vacation week :)

[identity profile] emeraldarrows.livejournal.com 2015-09-28 08:10 pm (UTC)(link)
I watched a bit of season one a few weeks ago. Looked like an interesting show. (:

[identity profile] little-firestar.livejournal.com 2015-09-29 07:29 am (UTC)(link)
Ah, Dark Angel... I remember when it first aired in Italy; back then, I remember the magazine "Ciak" writing about how the producers had seen Alba and asked her if she was real because she was too perfect; and I remember saying :"Jessica Alba? The chick who played the semi-crazy chick on Flipper?"
(You see, I was a Flipper aficionado...)
I've never been too much of a fan of the show, and I left in season two- way too stretched, even for a sci-fi shpw, and even for someone who, likes me, has geown with the x-files. And I've never been too much of a shipper, even if Jessica Alba and Michael Wetherly were dating back them. At a certain point, I even started NOT liking him too much (and I even considered NOT watching NCIS because he was on, because I imagined that he would ahve enver been able to make me like a character).

[identity profile] place-to-hide.livejournal.com 2015-09-29 09:04 am (UTC)(link)
I haven't rewatched them in a while. I wish there was a season 3.

[identity profile] bogwitch.livejournal.com 2015-09-29 11:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Dark Angel is so frustrating! There was so much potential in it, yet they let it get just that bit too silly. It wouldn't have taken many changes and it could have been great.

I much prefer season 2, mainly due to Alec.

[identity profile] stolenglimpse.livejournal.com 2015-09-29 11:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Dark Angel: the little show that could but never really did.

I love it. Love season 1 for the one arc eps, the Logan/Max relationship, Jam Pony. Season 2, well, Alec, Joshua, Original Cindy (though less), the Alec/Joshua friendship of awesomeness. The Alec/Max potential.

It got too deep in that cult/snake thing and Max being the all that the more the show advanced. I much preferred Lydecker as a villain. He was but he wasn't at the same time, you know.... he basically just wanted his kids back... Renfro was something else in comparison. White was too much of the villain... and they picked the guy that more than looks the part, too.

Alba and Weatherly were dating so when came time of season 2, Weatherly picked a major fit anytime there was mention that Max (Jessica) would get closer to another character. Came in Alec and, let's face it Jensen Ackles is a babe!) and hello jealousy up to the roof. I was a Max/Logan shipper in season 1 but I became a Max/Alec shipper pretty fast. The whole virus thing might have helped... I don't know... something changed and I didn't like Logan as much...

When I think of what they were leading us towards if season 2 hadn't been cancelled and what season 3 could have been... MAN!!!! I don't know if you heard or read but Max/Alec would have actually became a thing. She would have been the leader and Alec her second or whatever also. Logan would have become so addicted to the transgenics blood it would have caused a riff between Max and him. There was more but I don't quite remember it all.

There were books made out to kinda finish what season 2 was. I had one book. No idea if it was actually part of those but I didn't even finish it... I don't think. Unless I did and it's the second one I couldn't finish. I don't quite remember. Oh wait, no. It was 1 book from before the show (that I didn't like and didn't finish) and 2 to finish season 2 that I didn't get because I couldn't find them anywhere.

I love that show. I'll have to do a rewatch (and better screencaps) soon.
geckoholic: (jensen4)

[personal profile] geckoholic 2015-10-04 02:35 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't know why people come down on S2 either. Sure, it was ~different, but I didn't think it was less good at all. Ah well.