Dark Angel, which is also called James Cameron’s Dark Angel, is set in the, now very near, future of 2019. Following the detonation of a nuclear weapon in the upper atmosphere by terrorists, an electromagnetic pulse, now simply known as the Pulse, hit the United States, destroying the majority of the electronic infrastructure of the country.
Max, later played by Jessica Alba, escapes from a facility in Wyoming as a child, along with a number of other children, at the beginning of the first episode in 2009, shortly before the Pulse. The facility, known as Manticore, was creating genetically engineered super soldiers, and that was what Max and her fellow escapees were.
Ten years later and Max is living in Seattle and working as a bike messenger. The United States is rather poor shape after the Pulse; as most of the money was electronic, when the electronics were destroyed, so was the money, and the economy crashed, entering into a depression that is still going on.
There still seems to be a functioning government, of sorts, albeit one that is even less democratic and even more corrupt than before, and there are references to military districts, suggesting that it is now to a large extent a police state and run by the military.
In season one, all the super soldiers seen are essentially human, even if their genetic makeup has been tinkered with a bit – Max, for example, has feline DNA mixed in with her human. In season two, there is a much greater range of modified beings, and many are distinctly non-human, as Manticore had been performing a much wider range of experiments than was originally suggested. Things get a little strange in season two in general, as there are links to conspiracies much greater than the simple manufacture of super soldiers, and in some respects it feels like a different series.
Dark Angel only ran for two seasons, being cancelled after a ratings drop following the new plot elements in season two, elements which did change the whole feel of the story. The extended season two finale episode didn’t end on a cliff-hanger, as such, but did leave many plot threads open. The intended story of season three was revealed in the DVD of season two, and the story did continue in novels following the cancellation.