Cameron’s Fox series a certain hit

James Cameron, “Titanic” grossed $1.8 billion worldwide and earned 11 Academy Awards. What are you going to do next?

Well, strangely enough, while his movie adaptation of “Spider-Man” crawls through development, Cameron opted to go to Fox Broadcasting Company. Yes, the movie magnate is dabbling in TV, and is doing quite an admirable job with it.

Cameron’s series, co-produced with Emmy winner Charles Eglee (“Murder One”), is the futuristic sci-fi thriller “Dark Angel.” The two-hour premiere is from 9 to 11 tonight, with the show settling into its regular 9 p.m. time slot next Tuesday.

As his track record shows, Cameron is quite comfortable with both science fiction and action, and “Dark Angel” has plenty of both. In pitch parlance, it’s “The Fugitive” meets “Blade Runner.”

The show tells the story of Max (played by Jessica Alba, “Never Been Kissed”). A genetically enhanced human prototype, Max escaped from a military facility during her youth. A decade later, she’s working as a bike messenger while hiding from her pursuers in Seattle early in the 21st century. She’s fit in well among normal humans, but still she wonders if any more of her kind managed to escape.

Max finances her search for others like her by using her physical talents as a cat burglar. One night, she enters the wrong penthouse and crosses paths with Logan Cale, an idealistic cyberjournalist who’s fighting corruption in government during the second Great Depression.

Cale figures out what Max is, and tries to recruit her to his cause, but she hasn’t stayed free and alive this long by sticking her neck out. Eventually, Max comes around to his cause.

“Dark Angel” is well done and suspenseful, with Max supported by a well-drawn cast of characters played by largely lesser-known actors.

It’s concept-heavy, often the kiss of death among channel-surfing chattel. Still there’s plenty of action to hang onto the minutiae-challenged. “Dark Angel” is well-scheduled, up amongst comedies on ABC and NBC and news on CBS, but it’s seeking much the same audience as WB’s “Angel.” But it should be able to carve out a niche that allows it to not only survive, but thrive.