A German series on Netflix (subbed but also dubbed fairly well into English) "Dark" is the brainchild of Baran Bo Odar and Jante Friese, which ran for three seasons between 2017 and 2020. With COVID and Lockdown affecting the timing and filming of the third series, "Dark" still managed to pull off that rare achievement of sticking its ending - three seasons of perfect television which, considering the vast cast of characters and ridiculously intricate criss-crossing plotlines, is definitely not something to take lightly.
It's almost impossible to describe this as just sci-fi, though with its heavy time-travel themes and slightly "Twin-Peaksy" small town weirdness, it sits in the sci-fi and fantasy camp more than anything else but without a doubt it's probably one of the few shows that somehow manages to make paradoxical storylines work, and not just work but work really well.
Most of the show centres around this geeky guy, Jonas Kahnwald:
Jonas' father committed suicide, and after a bout of depression Jonas returns to school life just before the younger brother of one of his friends disappears during a storm, the latest in a long line of children who have gone missing in Winden (his home town) over the years.
Before long, we are shown what is actually happening to those kids - and though some of the plotlines don't really make any sense (to me at least), we begin to understand just how pivotal Jonas is to all this as he begins to understand what's going on and tries his best to undo the current timeline (without venturing too far into spoiler territory, with somewhat disastrous results).
"Dark" has a huge cast, and by rights no show with a cast this big should work as well as it does. Not only that, the cast is split between 3 - sometimes 4 different time frames in the past, present and distant future. Yet you begin to 'know' these characters as the show unfolds, never showing its aces right until the very last series.
The cast act their socks off (and I'm amazed none of them have shown up in Hollywood or in any other movies or TV, they are amazing actors one and all) and the show plays out to one of the most jarring, eerie yet totally listenable soundtracks you'll ever find onTV (I discovered Agnes Oble through this show and am so glad I did, her music is incredible).
Odar and Friese are about to set sail with a new Netflix show with little known about it other than it being set in some kind of weird Bermuda Triangle-like time rift aboard a ship. "1899" retains a few of the cast members from "Dark" but looks like it's also going to retain that jarring, off-kilter weirdness above everything else, which means I can't wait for it to arrive.
For what it's worth though, if you love "Out there" TV like The X-Files or Twin Peaks you could do a lot worse than check this out. It\s just brilliant stuff from start to finish.
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