Dark Angel (2016) User Reviews

Dark, gritty, compelling drama.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 2 August 2019]

Joanne Froggatt gives a tremendous performance in Dark Angel, bringing Mary An Cotton, The Black Widow, to life. Cotton is a well known figure from history, a serial killer, a woman who killed countless victims, generally to profit by them.

Great storytelling, it's done in a way which grips you and informs you, but her crimes are definitely not sensationalised.

It's beautifully made, with strong production values, but it's performance of the outstanding Froggatt that stands out.

Some will definitely find it disturbing, it's a very grim tale. 8/10

Honest and grim story from Victorian times

[barryrd · 8/10 · 2 June 2017]

This is not a feel-good movie. However, it is a very good drama. For me, it made for good television viewing. It deals with the evil of murder and in this case, guilt does not get in the way. Joanne Froggatt, one of the stars of Downton Abbey as Lady Mary's servant and close companion, is the Dark Angel. Her role in this movie is totally different and she performs it superbly. This is not a glossy presentation and it shows with vivid reality, the hardship of life for both men and women. Men working in unskilled jobs are treated badly and their wives suffered the brunt of their humiliation. One of the interesting aspects of this movie is how she steps out of the role that was prescribed for women in Victorian times. She is very unhappy with how badly women of her status were treated and has no hesitation in using her cunning to survive. The movie deals with relationships, class, lust, secrecy, trickery, betrayal. Make no mistake, serial murder is no way to deal with life's unfairness. What this story shows is where desperation can lead. This woman is intelligent, beautiful and capable of strong friendship. The movie doesn't hold back in this honest portrayal of Victorian life.

Was she a serial killer?

[zendatrim · 8/10 · 12 August 2017]

OK i just assumed she was one of Britain's worse serial killers possibly responsible for over 20 deaths but was she?

I was left wanting more. There was no EVIDENCE of her killing anyone, arsenic was used everywhere in victorian times even on wallpaper and yes CLEANING they used it in soft soap quite regularly most households used it. I have read more about her, and when the police checked her home where the child had died, they found nothing which would have had arsanic in it, just medicine bottles with the childs name on them, as he was being treated for an illness, yet some of these bottles were empty, and some had gone missing.

Part of the evidence was it was said that Mary ann cotton had given the boy a severe beating a few days before his death, yet on the coroners first report they mentioned nothing about bruises or any beating, in actual fact they found no real reason why he died. Surely if he had been given arsenic he would have had traces of massive fit.

I really think that they should commission another series now about the evidence and other issues surrounding this women. I am not convinced she was a serial killer after my research. Out of 100 children born 50 would be dead in a few months, a very high mortality rate, her mother clearly died of hepatitis and when would she have gotten time to go off and buy arsenic to kill her with and wouldn't there have been a trace of it in a teapot or did she walk around with her killing teapot. Her friend died, did she kill her or did she succumb to the same illness her sister in law had?

No i am not convinced. I think the series was written well but I feel it could have gone further much further. I am not saying she didn't kill anyone but i am not sure she was the killer they were making her out to be.

She had lived quite happy in cornwall OK it is said some of her children died there but then so did many children die as the chances were very very high for death.

Yes i enjoyed it and it did make me want to know more, all the evidence and transcripts were purely heresay. No real evidence was found if it was now i think the case would have been thrown out. Yes they found traces of arsenic in the boys body when they exhumed him but arsenic is in the ground, and it was proved that the home where he was living with his stepmother had arsenic in the wallpaper.

Her death was horrific she didn't die of hanging she suffocated as the execution was done very poorly and she took a long time to die, as she was being suffocated not having her neck broken. We know nothing of it really just supposition, and i think now it would be great to have a follow up of the case.

the series must be good because it made me want to know more about the whys and wheres of it all i thought the acting was brilliant either way Mary Anne cotton was a very troubled young women but i am not convinced she was a monster.

A really lethal 1800s British woman.

[TxMike · 9 August 2019]

This is billed here as a 2-part mini series but I was able to watch it as a single, 2-hour movie on PBS.

I became a Joanne Froggatt fan watching her in "Downton Abbey", she is a very authentic actress. Here she is Mary Ann who, over the course of her life, married several times and thus took several different last names. Perhaps she is best known as Mary Ann Cotton.

Historically she is billed as perhaps Britain's first female serial killer, records are incomplete but it is said that the count was upwards to 21. Including some of her own children "who got in the way of a new relationship". She was hanged at age 40.

Froggatt is very good in this role, as well as the other actors. I found the whole story fascinating and this drama seems to stick closely to historical accounts.

"Let me make you a nice cup of tea."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 3 August 2019]

By my count, there were eight victims of Mary Ann Cotton (Joanne Froggatt) in this story, about half the body count she left behind according to a closing narrative following the picture, where it stated that she might have been responsible for thirteen to twenty one deaths by poisoning. Pretty gruesome by anyone's standards, but thinking about the era in which they occurred, it doesn't sound impossible given the absence of extensive forensic autopsies or investigation of potential criminal behavior. For her part, Mary Ann came off as a stone cold executioner against anyone who stood in her way of achieving a degree of personal and financial security. Even the accidental death of her own daughter, for which she did show some remorse, was quickly forgotten in her quest to achieve upward mobility at a time and place when people born into their particular circumstances were generally expected to live out their lives in pretty much the same manner. Oddly, there were times when Mary Ann virtually admitted her complicity in certain deaths around her, though anyone who came close to guessing were summarily dealt with, her own mother a case in point. Interestingly, reviewers here refer to this presentation as both a two part television mini-series and as a full length movie, but my library copy offered the story in three separate installments. Though the murderess Ms. Cotton ultimately had to pay for her hideous crimes is foretold in the opening sequence of the story, it's a statement made by her lover Joe Nattrass (Jonas Armstrong) that resonates throughout the latter half of the picture when he off-handedly remarks - "For be sure our sins will find us out".

This angel had black wings

[Red-125 · 9/10 · 2 June 2017]

Dark Angel (2016) was apparently seen in England as a two-part TV miniseries. We saw it as a full-length TV movie. It was directed by Brian Percival.

Joanne Froggatt plays Mary Ann Cotton, England's first known female serial killer. There's no suspense here--the movie opens with the protagonist being led to the gallows. The movie then circles back to explain to us how events brought Mary Ann Cotton to her execution.

Joanne Froggart must have been delighted to play this macabre role. All those years at Downton Abbey left her with the reputation as playing a fine person with a pure heart. Now she gets to play a far heavier role. She does a fabulous job with the part--you really do believe that she could, and would, murder people in order to get what she wanted.

As portrayed in the movie, Mary Ann Cotton wasn't a demon, and she didn't start out with a view towards murdering her way forward. Victorian times were repressive for women, and a bad marital choice left a woman on her own with no obvious opportunity for escape. I'm sure many women dreamed about getting out of an unhappy marriage by murdering their husband. However, dreaming is one thing, and arsenic is another.

It was easier to avoid detection as a serial killer at a time when many people died young of natural causes. Death was everywhere, and arsenic was readily available. (It was used to control vermin.) Apparently, it's still possible to buy arsenic. Here's a headline from The Guardian Newspaper: "Toxic chemicals such as strychnine, arsenic and cyanide are freely available for sale on the internet, leading toxicologists have warned." Not a happy thought.

There's hardly a cheerful moment in this movie, and yet I enjoyed it. Joanne Froggatt is a brilliant actress. Freed from ensemble work, she can show the breadth and depth of her talent. Even if the film is depressing, it's still worth seeing just to watch Froggatt act.

Underrated.

[smartinezmd · 10/10 · 16 April 2019]

I gave this movie/series 10/10 stars not because it was that good = it was very good - but because it is much better than the current score of 6.8 out of 10 stars. Honestly, it's an 8 stars, at least. Very well acted. With Alun Armstrong, forcryingoutloud. Need I say more? Joanne Froggatt does a fine job of acting as well. There. I said more. Also, another fine period piece to treat your eyes, your and your sensibilities to. Lovely costuming and scenes. Authentic. The language and script were authentic as well...I had to look up a few phrases which is always a good sign. Read along with Mary Ann Cotton's listing in Wikipedia. It follows closely along the reported life and only within 3 episodes. Such a long and eventful life for a serial killer. A woman serial killer. You can find the listing of her last child on Findagrave.com - the only one to have survived into adulthood out of the 13: Margaret Edith Quick-Manning Cotton Kell - who lived to be 81-years old. No small feat. She moved to America and came back to Durham County where she finally died. She raised four children who all lived well-into the 20th century.

Glorified Crime Re-enactment

[katharineshowalter · 4/10 · 18 January 2018]

First let me say, I love Joanne Froggatt. She is a beautiful and compelling actress and I want to see more of her in better movies and series. In fact, all the actors in DARK ANGEL are very good. Laura Morgan, Emma Fielding, and Jonas Armstrong are standouts, and Alun Armstrong can do no wrong. However, the writing and direction of DARK ANGEL leave much to be desired. Mary Ann Cotton's motivations are very sketchy -- something vaguely feminist and she states that she wanted "more" -- and so it is very hard to sympathize with her character. What we are left with is a glorified crime re-enactment from one of those exploitative Dateline or crime channel shows. What's worse is that the series creators try to suggest some ambiguity about some of the killings, which comes off as coy rather than clever. And then at times the juxtaposition of her being a tight spot to a quick cut to a corpse is almost comic. Mary Ann Cotton deserves a better treatment. There is much more to her story than is shown here.

The Title is apt and compelling....

[Ralph-Jennings · 10/10 · 30 December 2016]

Not sure which side of the bed (or whose) the other reviewer -ianlouisana got out of but maybe is a relation to Boris or permanently repressed. I found this two part serial compelling viewing, well researched, flavour and atmosphere of the times reminiscent of The Village with John Simm and Maxine Peake. Women in Victorian times had a place in society that was subservient and dependent upon male vanity and compassion. Not until after WWI, despite some notable exceptions, do they gain the independence of spirit and opportunity to exist outside the bounds of duty and childbirth. This tale relates the story of a tormented soul torn between the poorhouse and an institution she cannot or will not join. Serial killers deserve to be hanged (so was the punishment of the day) regardless of their gender. Watch and be moved by this TV drama.

"I brush up quite nicely" grubby Victorian Lothario to "heroine".......

[ianlouisiana · 1/10 · 12 December 2016]

Carelessly written (viz above) monotonously depressing,permanently gloomy piece that I have read elsewhere as being presented as a portrait of a "Strong Woman"in an overwhelmingly male - dominated society. Don't you believe it. "Dark Angel" allegedly tells the story of reputedly the first woman serial killer, a vicious yet pathetic creature who murders at will despite knowing she will assuredly hang( or because,possibly). Starting with a jolly scene in the Death Cell things go downhill quickly as the Dark Angel murders baby and adult alike until even the Victorian plod begin to suspect something about her is amiss. I daresay today she would plead childhood abuse and have any surviving children returned to her and be awarded a full - time team of social workers. Everybody overacts like mad and the Lothario gets a knee - trembler in the first reel before he even knows her name as far as I can make out. It has been said that Victorian working - class women either sold their bodies or sewed shirts ( a contemporary painting "The song of the shirt" offers the clues snapped up by eager middle - class Gallery - goers)The Dark Angel showed there was a "Third Way" with a result that was only too predictable.

Taut and Thrilling

[mostglad · 9/10 · 16 February 2019]

Excellent presentation of a true crime story from Victorian England. Joanne Froggart is convincing as the narcissistic psychopath. Not cheerful, but well worth your time.

Donnelly G

Black Widow Might Have Been A Better Name For This TV Miniseries

[Clusium · 8/10 · 21 May 2017]

Fact-based story about a serial killer, who marries multiple times, only to kill her husbands, & the children she had with them, so that she can claim the insurances on her dead mates. Joanna Froggatt of 'Downton Abbey' fame, stars as Mary Ann Mowbray, who poisons everyone who gets in her way of her goals. Her final mistake comes when she murders her step-son. Finally she is caught. She is arrested, tried and convicted of this one murder. She is sentenced to death by hanging.

Missing Necessary Background

[ChrisB13 · 3/10 · 16 January 2022]

When I see any film, especially one such as this, I expect to be told a story. Whether true or fictionalized, I do wish to know how the protagonist arrived at the point which we are seeing that person now. In this case, I knew nothing of Mary Ann Cotton (1832-1873) before I viewed the film. I'd not even heard of her. Mary Ann Cotton was alleged to be "Britain's First Female Serial Killer" but at the end of the film I knew nothing more about her life or motivations outside of the fact that she came from a poor family and her father was killed in a mining accident when she was 8 years of age. Mining accidents were hardly uncommon in the regional collieries during that time and I wanted to know what had formed this woman. What was her background and what drove her to do what she had allegedly done? In an interview on "This Morning" on ITV in the UK, Ms. Froggatt stated that she really wanted to know what happened to this woman...why Mary Ann Cotton may have killed between 13-21 people! Well, Ms. Froggatt, it seems I would like to know the same things! In my opinion, outside of a strong performance by the entire cast, that mission was not accomplished. The good parts stand outside of that mystery insofar as the rest was very well accomplished. Sets, locales and costuming were wonderfully authentic and detailed for the period. A special shout out to Caroline McCall, of Downton Abbey fame, whose thoughtful attention to detail in costuming was, once again, beautifully done.

Believable

[sergelamarche · 8/10 · 22 February 2019]

Nice production with epoch clothes and location. Not sure about the talking. The story is incredible but apparently true. The reality may have been more ruthless and chilling even though it was in this. We forget how death was routine in these times.

Compelling drama

[robfollower · 8/10 · 24 February 2021]

Dark Angel headlines the fabulous Joanne Froggatt (Anna Bates in Downton Abbey) in a true story of Victorian poisoner Mary Ann Cotton, in a two-part drama beginning at Durham jail in March 1873.

British nurse and housekeeper who was believed to be Britain's most prolific female serial killer. They say poison is a woman's choice of murder weapon. Mary Ann Cotton is a major reason why. Criminologists and historians estimate she killed thirteen to twenty-one people with her little tea pot.

Joanne Froggatt is quietly ferocious playing against type as the sociopath Cotton. She is totally sinister, yet charming, approachable, promiscuous, stoic, no regard to consequence, manipulative, and completely narcissistic. She also projects the fear and vulnerability of a (periodically) single woman in a highly class-conscious society. It's a must-watch for Ms Froggatt, who acts her heart out at every turn. She's an amazing actress.

Outstanding period settings; great scenery and atmosphere. The period costumes were superb. I found it an overall interesting, an engaging approach of a macabre true story. Recommended for fans of British costume dramas and compelling crime shows.

A classy bit a drama man

[katherinedobson-59089 · 8/10 · 6 January 2023]

What a compelling drama, thoroughly interesting. I only stumbled across it after hearing the ghostly tale of Mary Ann on a history tour in Durham city. I grew up in the village from where she is claimed to originate and yet had never heard of her. Joanne Frogatt and Alun Armstrong have strong performances and I very much enjoyed the rest of the cast and the wonderful locations including the North East coastline and liberal use of our amazing Beamish Open Air Museum. An unknown and under rated tale of mystery brought to life, I would have only liked to know more behind her rationale but it seems little is really known of her, with limited written records for the rural mining community of the time I suppose it's no wonder. And also makes you question how many other "Mary Ann's" got away with similar crimes!!?