For Christmas my wife bought me “Dark Angel - The Complete First Season” and “Dark Angel - The Complete Second Season” DVD boxed sets. This science fiction television series by James Cameron of Titanic movie fame only ran for two seasons (2000 – 2002) when it was abruptly canceled much to our chagrin. I was pleasantly surprised when I opened my package and saw them all shrink wrapped shiny and new and on Christmas night after the kids and grandkids went home we watched the two hour premier. Each night since I have watched two or three shows after I feed the horses, chickens, goat and our pack of stupid dogs.
The premise of the show is that in the year 2009 a genetically bred super soldier named X5-452 who took the street name of Max (Jessica Alba) escaped from a government genetics compound called Manticore. She escaped with 11 other X5’s all of which were very young children with barcodes embedded on their necks to live “Normal” lives on the outside. Within months of their escape terrorist detonated an electromagnetic pulse weapon above the US. This “Pulse” destroyed most of the computer systems in the US and turned the US into a third world nation overnight.
Ten years later the show picks up the story of Max as she works as a bike messenger for Jam-Pony express delivery with flashbacks to her past and shows how the 19 year old attempts to find her 11 “Brothers and Sisters”. She does this with the aid of a man named Logan Cale (Michael Weatherly) who runs an “Eyes Only” informant network to punish the unjust. She meets Logan when she tries to steal some artwork from him to sell since he is a rich man and probably wouldn’t miss it anyway. When she was caught red handed she escapes by demonstrating her remarkable skills and Logan finds her thorough his informant network. She does tasks for him and his informant network and in return he uses his network to help her find the others while being tracked by Colonel Lydecker (John Savage) a senior Manticore officer who calls them his “Kids”.
I remember that the show was moved from a good television night to a bad television night (Friday) and even though we never missed an episode apparently its ratings dropped and it was canceled by what I believe was the bad time slot change. I was more upset when this show was canceled than I was when another favorite show of ours “Boston Public” was also canceled without warning. Sometimes I think it is just me and the old Hite luck that makes my favorite shows disappear.
I recently told my wife that maybe we shouldn’t watch “House” so much for fear that it will also be canceled. It is bad enough that for the last two seasons House is constantly being preempted by either the baseball playoffs or the obtuse American Idol rubbish which my wife seems to enjoy a little too much. On the other hand “The Simpson’s” which is my all time favorite prime time cartoon is still going strong so maybe it is not me after all.
On the average I don’t watch that much television because I prefer to read alone in peace and quiet with a cup of coffee and maybe with a dog or two in the armchair with me. Other than having MSNBC or CNN on as background noise when I am working I watch very little television but I try to find time to watch the Simpson’s and House each week and Seinfeld reruns on weekdays when I have the time.
Tip: Here are the links to the DVD boxed sets if you are interested. I would suggest that since these boxed sets are a bit on the costly side as all of the television boxed sets seem to be that when you buy them or for that matter anything from Amazon look for the “Used & New” links. These links will provide you with Amazon partner sites where you can buy things such as books and movies marked as used when they are in fact still new and in the box. However you need to read the descriptions carefully because some items are slightly damaged or really are used.
Dark Angel - The Complete First Season
http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Angel-Complete-First-Season/dp/B00005JLJM
Dark Angel - The Complete Second Season
http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Angel-Complete-Second-Season/dp/B00008YGRX
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