Uploaded June 2011 | Updated September 2026, 17 hours ago
Right in the midst of Hollywood's thrall with female action characters, James Cameron unleashes his version of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" with "Dark Angel". Dark Angel starred Jessica Alba as a genetically engineered (read borderline super-powered) girl who was raised in an orphanage but is breaking free of the system to live in the underground in Seattle. We know it's Seattle, because she is pictured standing on top of the Space Needle in the promos.
As usual, our young heroine and her ragtag band of misfits will work to tear down the system and earn freedom from The Man for themselves and others.
The show dealt mostly in simple angles such as these, essentially working (like many others) as televised juvenile fiction. Jessica Alba was good looking but her acting skills weren't up to the task. The show ran two seasons and ended. It is still remembered by many, but doesn't really carry the same level of reminiscence as something like Buffy or 90210.
You can draw a line from Buffy through this show right into the even more out there (but still girl powered) "Birds of Prey" a few years later. I wish I had a promo for that one.
Many would say James Cameron's version of Ripley in Aliens lead directly into Hollywood's thrall with the female action character, so in this way he was cashing in on something he co-created with Ridley Scott and presumably some writers.
This spot aired on FOX during a Sunday, January 14th, 2001 airing of The Simpsons.
Right in the midst of Hollywood's thrall with female action characters, James Cameron unleashes his version of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" with "Dark Angel". Dark Angel starred Jessica Alba as a genetically engineered (read borderline super-powered) girl who was raised in an orphanage but is breaking free of the system to live in the underground in Seattle. We know it's Seattle, because she is pictured standing on top of the Space Needle in the promos.
As usual, our young heroine and her ragtag band of misfits will work to tear down the system and earn freedom from The Man for themselves and others.
The show dealt mostly in simple angles such as these, essentially working (like many others) as televised juvenile fiction. Jessica Alba was good looking but her acting skills weren't up to the task. The show ran two seasons and ended. It is still remembered by many, but doesn't really carry the same level of reminiscence as something like Buffy or 90210.
You can draw a line from Buffy through this show right into the even more out there (but still girl powered) "Birds of Prey" a few years later. I wish I had a promo for that one.
Many would say James Cameron's version of Ripley in Aliens lead directly into Hollywood's thrall with the female action character, so in this way he was cashing in on something he co-created with Ridley Scott and presumably some writers.
This spot aired on FOX during a Sunday, January 14th, 2001 airing of The Simpsons.
