Time is all you've got. You may think you have other stuff, but when your time runs out, all that other stuff goes away. I spent two hours on Dark Angel . What I got was 36 minutes of commercials and 84 minutes of story including about 76 minutes of characters swapping dialogue that would have been hip ten years ago and about 8 minutes of action. Not a good enough return for the two hours I spent.
Action is expensive.
The fifteen mil this two-hour episode cost only bought about 8 minutes of action. James Cameron only has writer credit, but he may have directed a minute or two that has a distinctive look. That's not good enough. When I stood in line for two hours to watch Terminator 3D , I definitely felt like I got my money's worth. Dark Angel is set in a dystopian future.