History YMMV / DarkAngel

** 9/11 happened between seasons, and suddenly portraying the government as evil, portraying the police as evil, portraying as America evil could all lead to spectacular backlash. All those aspects had to be toned down, even though they're all necessary in a {{Cyberpunk}} setting.

** Most importantly, [[NarmCharm the cheese was gone]], along with the TotallyRadical. No more stories about Max going into heat and having to distract herself, or making enough money to bribe the police, or rescuing her friends from Japanese gangsters. Instead it was all about collecting lost transgenics, which were too serious and low budget to be exciting, and not fun enough to make up for it.

* TheScrappy: Asha was another one of Logan's agents introduced in the second purely to drive a romantic wedge between Max and Logan. That of course pissed off the shippers, meanwhile she had no interesting personality or skills of her own.

** 9/11 happened between seasons, and suddenly portraying the government as evil, portraying the police as evil, portraying as America evil could all lead to spectacular backlash. So all those aspects had to be toned down, even though they're all necessary in a {{Cyberpunk}} setting.
** Max and Logan admitted their feelings to each other but the writers wanted to keep the dramatic tension so Max was infected with a virus that kept her and Logan from touching. Instead of the flirty WillTheyOrWontThey of the first season the audience got romantic {{Wangst}}.
** Max and Original Cindy's social lives disappeared along with a large part of their social circle. Instead of hanging out with their friends and dealing with dystopic city life, Max spent all of her time getting Alec and Joshua out of trouble and whining about it. Great for Jensen Ackles fans, bad for everyone else.

** Most importantly [[NarmCharm the cheese was gone]]. No more stories about Max going into heat and having to distract herself, or making enough money to bribe the police, or rescuing her friends from Japanese gangsters. Instead it was all about collecting lost transgenics, which were too serious and low budget to be exciting, and not fun enough to make up for it.

%%* TheScrappy: Asha. Just... Asha.

* MagnumOpus: ''Darkness Descends'', which is widely seen by thrashers as one of the genre's pinnacles. Fans of the more progressive side of thrash sometimes side with ''Time Does Not Heal'' instead.

* JustHereForGodzilla: Many people on forums confess to only watching for JensenAckles. Unfortunately, this usually means they watch only "Pollo Loco" and Season Two and thus don't appreciate that Season One is also good.
** Both SkyOne and {{SyFy}} in the UK (when it was still Sci-Fi) implied in their trailers that the main reason to be watching was Creator/JessicaAlba. This proved to be the case for [[TestosteroneBrigade a lot of people]] (and unlike Jensen Ackles, she appears in every single episode).

* MomentOfAwesome:
** Max swinging down like Tarzan in the DieHardOnAnX episode "Prodigy" and catching Logan as he's thrown off a roof.
** "Female Trouble" is basically made of Awesome (and one of the few episodes not to have a [[DownerEnding Downer]] / BittersweetEnding), but especially Max blowing Lydecker a kiss as she jumps over him on her motorcycle.
** Max ''finally'' beating seven shades of shit out of Alec in "Fuhgeddaboudit" ("[[AndThisIsFor ...that's for whatever stupid thing you do next...]]").
** Gem, the pregnant X5 in the SeriesFinale "Freak Nation," gets one of her own during the climactic siege at Jam Pony; one of the villains crashes next to her and she lays the baddie out with one punch... ''in the middle of her giving birth.''

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Only appeared in one episode, but proved popular with the fans. And with the writers, so that they decided to bring JensenAckles back as his clone, albeit with a very different personality.

** Both SkyOne and {{SyFy}} in the UK (when it was still Sci-Fi) implied in their trailers that the main reason to be watching was JessicaAlba. This proved to be the case for [[TestosteroneBrigade a lot of people]] (and unlike Jensen Ackles, she appears in every single episode).

* MagnificentBastard: Lydecker.

* TheScrappy: Asha. Just... Asha.

* NotSoDifferent: Alec and Season 1 Max. Both are opportunistic, are pulled into the 'hero business' when they'd rather be indulging in petty crime, and keep themselves at a distance from others. Actually pointed out in Season 2 episode ''The Berrisford Agenda''.

** Gem, the pregnant X5 in the SeriesFinale "Female Trouble," gets one of her own during the climactic siege at Jam Pony; one of the villains crashes next to her and she lays the baddie out with one punch... ''in the middle of her giving birth.''

* AlasPoorVillain: Ben.

* NotSoDifferent: Alec and Season 1 Max. Both are opportunistic, are pulled into the 'hero business', and put themselves at a distance to others. Actually pointed out in Season 2 episode ''The Berrisford Agenda''.

** Both SkyOne and {{SyFy}} in the UK (when it was still Sci-Fi) implied in their trailers that the main reason to be watching was JessicaAlba. This proved to be the case for a lot of people (and unlike Jensen Ackles, she appears in every single episode).

* SpecialEffectsFailure: Gossamer. Jesus, the Dark Overlord from Film/HowardTheDuck looked better!

** "Angel" because from the pilot onwards she becomes a (beautiful female) hero to the downtrodden, and "Dark" because she has bleak past as a government-engineered super-soldier/assassin, and a somewhat dubious present as a part-time cat burgler, and ''not'' of the Robin Hood variety.

* TheWoobie: Joshua.

* MagnificentBastard: Lydecker and Renfro (aka Madame X).

* SpecialEffectsFailure: Gossamer. Jesus, the Dark Overlord from HowardTheDuck looked better!

* ChaoticNeutral: Max probably starts off as this, but with CharacterDevelopment becomes genuinely good, perhaps ChaoticGood instead.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Nana Visitor AKA Major Kira Nerys from Deep Space Nine as Madame X/Dr. Elizabeth Renfro
** John Savage as Lydecker counts for anyone who's seen ''TheDeerHunter''.
** Hey! {{NCIS}}'s [=DiNozzo=] is Logan! And Michael Weatherly has said he was inspired by ''Dark Angel'''s Alec.
** ''BattlestarGalactica'': Sharon/Boomer (Grace Park) as a female breeding X5, Leoben (Callum Keith Rennie) as a sheriff, Chief Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) as a hotel manager, Tory (Rekha Sharma) as Dr. Beverly Shankar, Crashdown (SamWitwer) as a transgenic named Marrow, Cally (Nicki Clyne) as an X6 named Fixit, Dualla (Kandyse [=McClure=]) as Joshua's girlfriend Annie Fisher, Narcho (Sebastian Spence) as Tinga's husband Charlie Smith, Elosha (Lorena Gale) as a teacher, Simon (Rick Worthy) as Detective Ramon Clemente, Gaeta (Alessandro Juliani) as Max's work friend Druid.
*** Grace Park is the only actor to have played both a transgenic and a Cylon.
** ''{{Caprica}}'': Agent Durham (Brian Markinson) as Dr. Sam Carr.
** ''TheOffice'': Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) as Phil, the "superhero" who gave Logan his exoskeleton.
** ''{{Supernatural}}'': Mary Winchester (Samantha Smith) as Logan's ex-fiancée Daphne. Meg Masters (Nicki Aycox) as Max's sister Syl.
*** This is funny, as it means JensenAckles and Nicki Aycox, in addition to playing enemies on ''{{Supernatural}}'', have played brother and sister on ''DarkAngel'', although Ben and Syl didn't appear onscreen together.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Nana Visitor AKA Major Kira Nerys from Deep Space Nine as Madame X/Dr. Elizabeth Renfro
** John Savage as Lydecker counts for anyone who's seen ''TheDeerHunter''.
** Hey! {{NCIS}}'s [=DiNozzo=] is Logan! And Michael Weatherly has said he was inspired by ''Dark Angel'''s Alec.
** ''BattlestarGalactica'': Sharon/Boomer (Grace Park) as a female breeding X5, Leoben (Callum Keith Rennie) as a sheriff, Chief Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) as a hotel manager, Tory (Rekha Sharma) as Dr. Beverly Shankar, Crashdown (SamWitwer) as a transgenic named Marrow, Cally (Nicki Clyne) as an X6 named Fixit, Dualla (Kandyse [=McClure=]) as Joshua's girlfriend Annie Fisher, Narcho (Sebastian Spence) as Tinga's husband Charlie Smith, Elosha (Lorena Gale) as a teacher, Simon (Rick Worthy) as Detective Ramon Clemente, Gaeta (Alessandro Juliani) as Max's work friend Druid.
*** Grace Park is the only actor to have played both a transgenic and a Cylon.
** ''{{Caprica}}'': Agent Durham (Brian Markinson) as Dr. Sam Carr.
** ''TheOffice'': Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) as Phil, the "superhero" who gave Logan his exoskeleton.
** ''{{Supernatural}}'': Mary Winchester (Samantha Smith) as Logan's ex-fiancée Daphne. Meg Masters (Nicki Aycox) as Max's sister Syl.
*** This is funny, as it means JensenAckles and Nicki Aycox, in addition to playing enemies on ''{{Supernatural}}'', have played brother and sister on ''DarkAngel'', although Ben and Syl didn't appear onscreen together.