Houston Chronicle

By IAN SPELLING

Dark Angel is a hit of ... well, Titanic proportions.

The reviews are rhapsodic, the ratings are aces, and the demographics are ideal. So it's no surprise that Fox gave the green light for nine more episodes to fill out a full season for genetically revved-up Max (Jessica Alba) and cyber-crusader Logan Cale (Michael Weatherly).

So what's the secret of their success? "It's Jessica's hair," Weatherly jokes. "It just wins every time. The Farrah Fawcett flips are great.

"Really, though, that plays into one of the elements that's very successful, I think, which is that it has a sense of humor without necessarily being ha-ha funny," Weatherly says. "It's a strange blending of genres, where you've got this sci-fi world and the crime-solving element.

"Logan is earnest and sincere and kind of locked onto what he's doing," he says, "while Max's crew is much more playful. They lend the show a little bit of ballast, a bit of air for the dead weight of Logan in his wheelchair, crusading for right.

"The show is layered, and it's not Three's Company, where you just have Jack falling over the couch every week and Larry coming in with a bad shirt on," he says. "I think the laughs and the payoffs on the comic side are matched by what's happening on the dramatic side.

"Sometimes it's hit-and-miss," he admits,"but we're trying to make something that's different and special, and worth coming back to every week because you don't know what's going to happen. You don't know if Jack is going to fall over the couch."

There's no couch to speak of in "Cold Comfort," an episode airing Nov. 28. Instead, it introduces a third genetically enhanced being.

Born in Manhattan and raised in Connecticut, Weatherly, 32, dropped out of Washington, D.C.'s, American University to pursue acting. Early credits include appearances on television's Guiding Light and The Cosby Show and in films Trigger Happy and The Last Days of Disco and the sci-fi saga The Colony. More recently, Weatherly played the role of Christina Applegate's ex-husband in Jesse and appeared in Charmed, Gun Shy and the sci-fi spoof The Specials.

By the time Weatherly arrived for his Dark Angel audition, Alba had already been cast as Max. In fact, producers James Cameron and Charles "Chic" Eglee had designed the show to fit Alba as snugly as one of Max's leather outfits.

"They really built the concept around her strengths ... When we first read together, neither of us knew exactly what the other was up to -- and that's good, and that's the way we still relate to each other now on the sound stage. I love working with Jessica," he says.

The buzz is that Weatherly and Alba are reportedly dating offscreen. "It's completely understandable that you'd ask," Weatherly says. "But the less I say, the better, which leaves you with nothing."

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