Dark Angel-Season 2: Part 2 (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Post Apocalyptic	Main Menu Introduction Menu Audio Featurette-Seattle ain't what it used to be (6:06) Trailer-Video Game (1:29)
Rating	?
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	440:30
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (3)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	James Cameron Jeff Woolnough Steven Williams Allan Kroeker
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Jessica Alba Michael Weatherly Jensen Ackles Valarie Rae Miller Richard Gunn Kevin Durand J.C. MacKenzie Ashley Scott
Case	?
RPI	$79.95	Music	Joel McNeely

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	Danish English Finnish Norwegian Swedish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, "Computers provided by Apple": credits
		Action In or After Credits	No

    While not a pinnacle of TV drama, this last half of the second series of Dark Angel presents a good paranoid thriller with a deep conspiracy that would have been uncovered over a longer period of time, had the show continued. As it is, the show did not continue, and this is all we have to show for it. The episodes presented in this half are as follows:

• Borrowed Time (42:45): Max tracks down a cure to the virus keeping her and Logan apart. Unfortunately, it has a time limit. Will she at least get one night with him, or will events conspire to keep them apart once again?
• Harbor Lights (42:44): Max suffers a gunshot wound and is taken to the Harbor Lights hospital where the doctors are sure to find the results of her medical tests interesting - if Logan can't keep them away. This episode is interesting as it introduces a new villain thread that would probably have been explored further in the third season had it gone ahead. Unfortunately, its only place now is as the first of the loose ends.
• Love in Vein (42:46): What is love? What is devotion? And exactly how far will some people go for it? In this episode, a group of people with barcodes on the back of their necks are wreaking havoc across town, and drawing attention to themselves. Upon investigation, Max discovers a Manticore prodigy leaning how to play God.
• Fuhgeddaboudit (42:45): Helping Logan out on an Eyes Only investigation, Max winds up having dinner with some Mafia thugs before going home tired. Hang on? Tired? She doesn't sleep. It seems a Manticore psionic may have a slight interest in the Mafia.
• Exposure (42:13): Logan learns the location of Ames White's son Raymond, and sets off with Max to do some reconnaissance. When they arrive, the find that the depth and organisation of the breeding cult are far greater than they had first considered possible.
• Hello, Goodbye (42:12): Alec is arrested for murder, just when Max needs him most. The police have an eyewitness, and DNA evidence, but he insists he is innocent. Meanwhile, by pure chance, Joshua meets a young woman named Annie, and the two immediately find themselves attracted to one another. This is helped, obviously, by the fact that she is blind. But what will she do when she finds out what he really looks like?
• Dawg Day Afternoon (41:15): Unhappy that Max and Alec fended off Annie's affections for him, Joshua attempts to look in at the window of the woman he desires. Unfortunately, he is spotted by some street thugs and chased into another district, only to bump into Annie just as the thugs catch up to him. A wild dash through the sewers with police covering all the exits is the only thing that will save him. None of that will be important if Annie can't forgive him for his trickery.
• She Ain't Heavy (41:15): White thinks he has finally tracked down Max, only to discover it is her Manticore twin, X5-453, now going by the name of Sam, and with a husband and young son. Ever the optimist, White uses the situation to his advantage, and holds Sam's family at ransom in return for his use of her likeness.
• Love Among the Runes (41:16): Runes, symbols of an ancient language, start appearing on Max's body. What do they mean? In fact, what do they say? We also learn some surprising information about White's heritage, and delve deeper into the past of the breeding cult.
• Freak Nation (61:19): And this is it - the series finale. Notable not only for being the series finale, but also for being the first time since Titanic that James Cameron stepped behind the lens - yes folks, the big man himself directed this episode, in what was probably a last ditch effort to save the show. Unfortunately for him, it did not work, and when the final credits roll on this episode, the world of Dark Angel is no more. On the upside, this is a very good episode, conveying the atmosphere of paranoia extremely well early on, and then converting that to a very tense last half hour that culminates in a fight scene that will have you cheering for every punch landed by the good guys. Great television.

    When all is said and done, not many are going to remember Dark Angel in years to come. Those who do, however, will most likely have these discs on hand to sit down and remember the show by. And who knows, maybe we will eventually see Dark Angel: The Movie...

Video

    As with the first half of the season, the episodes are presented at 1.78:1, and are 16x9 enhanced. This show was always shot to enable both 16x9 and "standard" versions to be drawn from it, but the widescreen version certainly makes it look that little bit nicer. The season finale in particular makes use of the widescreen aspect ratio (a side effect of James Cameron's direction?).

    Sharpness is extremely good, once again looking like a big-budget movie and not a TV show. There has never been a TV show that has looked this good on DVD. There is again a small amount of grain from time to time, but the second half of the season sees even less of it than the first. There is no low level noise present.

    Colours are muted to reflect the post-apocalyptic nature of Seattle in 2020, but when colour highlights get a chance they are produced well. For a show that largely paints in greyscale, colours are certainly not the most noticeable aspect.

    The same strange image break-up artefact that occurred a few times in the first half of the season is present in this half too. Instances are at 3:45 of episode 12 (Borrowed Time), 3:59 of episode 13 (Harbor Lights), 3:45 of episode 18 (Dawg Day Afternoon), and 3:59 of episode 20 (Love Among The Runes). They are extremely minor and only worthy of mention due to their curious nature. There is very little aliasing, although the video segments of TV news, used more frequently as the show moves towards its conclusion, usually look like poor-quality streaming video, suffering from many compression artefacts and severe aliasing, although this is intentional. An example is the conclusion broadcast at 59:39 of the season finale (Freak Nation). There are no film artefacts at all.

    The subtitles are the only down-side to this transfer, as they are quite lax in following the dialogue, often paraphrasing entire segments of dialogue simply to reduce the number of words written on the screen.

    These are dual layered discs, but there is no layer change during any of the episodes, with two episodes per layer. Note that as this series was only 21 episodes long, the final disc only contains two episodes, so it nice to see that Fox did not compromise by trying to squash the two episodes onto the other discs in this half.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The solitary audio track consists of the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 2.0 surround (at 192 kbps).

    Dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all times. At least in this the soundtrack performs admirably. Even the somewhat muffled dialogue of the Joshua character - caused by the make-up used to create the dog-like effect - is easily understood. Audio sync is spot on throughout and never causes a problem.

    One thing I will not miss is the theme tune for this show. Spending an hour being lectured on the finer points of doily manufacture would be preferable to listening to the Dark Angel theme even once. Those who, unlike me, find some enjoyment in the theme will be glad to know that the start of episode 20 (Love Among The Runes) contains most of the full version of the theme, lyrics included. I must admit that the theme makes more sense when there is a little more to it. For the rest of the music, the credit goes to Joel McNeely and he has done an admirable job, creating a score that reflects the futuristic, post-apocalyptic nature of the world in which the action takes place.

    Surround activity is extremely limited (despite being a surround-encoded soundtrack), with only a very few music cues and the occasional sound effect making their way to the rear channels. For the most part they sit dormant, allowing all of the play across the front soundstage. Fortunately, the way the centre has been worked in to the mix helps create a nice wide front soundstage that is not too bad for a TV series.

    The subwoofer, due to the 2.0 nature of the soundtrack, will only receive re-directed bass if your settings allow for it. If they do, the soundtrack contains enough bass to use the subwoofer from time to time, but there is nothing there that will knock any walls down.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Featurette - Seattle Ain't What It Used To Be (6:06)

Dark Angel Video Game Trailer (1:29)

    The video quality is excellent - there has never been a TV show look this good on DVD. It looks just like a big-budget movie.

    The audio is serviceable, and that is about it. With very little surround activity and little bass, the soundtrack could have done so much better.

    The two extras presented (with a combined running time of seven and a half minutes), are almost as bad as the zero extras on the first half of the season - and in a series that really presented some good opportunities for truly interesting extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall