Stop hiding, Dark! It’s Time For This Netflix Show to Share the Limelight
In 2017, Netflix released a gem which barely caused a ripple. There were a few glowing reviews and the odd explanations published, but Twitter wasn’t on fire with spoilers or behind the scenes interviews. Dark wasn’t on everybody’s lips. Yet, deep in the dark recesses of forgotten TV, Dark shone. TV has had a boom in the last twenty years; Dark, Netflix’s first German-language show, still manages to be completely unique. It’s a thrillingly complex science fiction series featuring a cast of well-rounded, engaging characters. This is a show that has more in common with a puzzle box than a sitcom, and it is one of the most unique viewing experiences to premiere on Netflix in years.
There’s one thing epic TV shows are prone to: cancellations. There’s a distinct punch in the gut when you suddenly read that the series you spent weeks gushing over is now cancelled forever – with no hope of recovery. Fantasy and science fiction shows tend to only finish their run when they can justify their massive costs with a large audience. I learnt this at a young age when I stumbled on the old HBO classic, Carnivàle. This was a fantasy show set in the 1930s American dustbowl, and the main characters were part of a travelling circus. It was intricate, fantastical – and cancelled. It ended with a cliff-hanger that will never be resolved. If your show is lucky enough to make it past the hallowed three seasons and sees a finale in sight – there’s no reason to believe they’ll actually be able to pull it off. There’s a collective shudder amongst Game of Thrones fans when you mention the last series – an exhausting attempt at an ending which felt like it had been hastily filmed the night before. Now, in the Golden Age of TV, shows carry a warning. Unless the whole series has finished and has been universally well-regarded, the audience runs the risk of potentially wasting their time.
The cases of TV fatigue have been rising exponentially during lockdown. The symptoms are as follows: nothing piques your interest, and you’re filled with an acute sense of dread that whatever show you’re watching right now might never get a conclusion. The cure is actually rather simple - Netflix’s first German-language show, Dark, whose third and final season premiered this June. Frustratingly mislabelled as “German Stranger Things” potential viewers have been driven away before they have even pressed play. Dark isn’t a remake of Stranger Things; it sits on the opposite end of the spectrum. As a result, Dark is one of Netflix’s most maligned and missed-out on shows. Stranger Things is fun and pickled in 80s nostalgia, but Dark – whose storyline also features the 1980s and missing children – is an altogether more satisfying puzzle, asking questions about the human condition.
Dark takes place in a small fictional German town, Winden. Here, everybody is intrinsically linked with everybody else - and there’s nowhere to hide. Four families are unknowingly entwined in a labyrinth of secrets and mysteries that haunt the town, and each of their lives is dominated by the smoking tower of the town’s nuclear power plant. In the opening episode, we discover that children have gone missing. The police have no leads, no suspected murderer – nothing. These kids have just vanished out of thin air. Yet there’s something far weirder going on in Winden than the standard missing person enquiries. Fields of birds and sheep drop dead for no reason. Energy surges rattle the community. Something happened thirty-three years ago – and some think the same thing will happen again. The secret that Winden is really hiding? Time travel. This is how the sci-fi show starts, but it’s the beginning of an intense puzzle that takes you through a labyrinth of twists and turns.
Dark doesn’t suffer from the previously mentioned failures. The ending is well-deserved and logical. Evidently, this was a TV show that was planned out and written long before any cameras started rolling. This is in stark contrast to a show like Westworld, where an episode was famously rewritten after people on Reddit guessed the twist. Writer Jantje Friese and director Baran bo Odar have created a seamless TV show. There are no plot holes, no jarring convergences or some random characters added in for comic relief. Due to its straightforward and precise nature, Dark has far more in common with a long film than a long-running series. This is a show that’s perfect for TV, as timelines clash into one another and characters morph into their older selves. These events all happen at once, and it’s perfectly illustrated with split scenes and familiar music. And because Dark has been immaculately well-plotted, each series is a continuation of the one before, in style and quality. This also means that unlike so many other science fiction and fantasy shows, the ending is perfect. Not only does it make complete sense, but it is rare to be satisfied with a conclusion. A well-crafted TV show that leaves you feeling satisfied rather than desperately signing petitions is a rare find.
Did you ever get one of those maze boxes as a child? You would move a ball bearing around a wooden maze, for it to only drop through onto an increasingly complex layer. With each series, Dark becomes increasingly multi-layered and labyrinthine. This is a breath of fresh air. Dark trusts that not only the viewer will be able to keep up, but also that the audience is interested and engaged in this intricate story. It isn’t dumbed down and simplified, but its web of secrets and lies becomes ever more tangled.
Very few TV shows are prepared to be this convoluted. This isn’t just a science fiction show; this is a show which feels impossibly human. It never strays into camp territory nor are significant life-shattering discoveries just accepted with a shrug. In Dark, characters grieve with their losses and cope with deeply personal situations that have only arisen due to time travel. Yes, big questions are asked, but Dark can easily juggle the bewildering loss of a son alongside bootstrap paradoxes. Each character is nuanced and, due to the small-town nature of the show, are loved and loathed by other characters in equal measure.
Fascinatingly, character’s decisions and mistakes ripple through time and have the ability to shift the reality of their friends and family altogether. While brilliant on an emotional level, this is a fantastically crafted show too. The acting is seamless – each character is so believably interlinked with another, especially when they bump into their younger and older selves, which is a hazard that comes with time travelling. The casting alone is terrific and slightly uncanny, and all versions of each character genuinely appear as though they are related. Dark opens with kaleidoscopic credits and a haunting song from the band Apparat, and the cinematography continues to get more spellbinding the more you watch. Dark doesn’t look like your average TV show, and the experience of watching it certainly isn’t on the same parallel as anything else.
Surely, if this series is one not to be missed, then why seemingly is no one talking about it? The fans of Dark found lurking on the internet are overwhelmingly enthusiastic, but let’s face it – Dark hasn’t exploded into the stratosphere. I could confidently watch the final series weeks after it aired, knowing that there was no chance of being spoiled on Facebook, Twitter or even Reddit. Dark isn’t all that well known, which is something you could put down to Netflix’s poor marketing campaign, or the fact that it’s in German. Unfortunately, there seems to be an overwhelming reluctance to watch things that aren’t in English, but there are two secrets regarding subtitled films. The more you watch subtitles, the easier it becomes. You forget fairly quickly that you’re reading not listening. Secondly, if you do struggle with reading, many foreign language shows on Netflix do have an English dub option, so these shows are not out of your reach. If you haven’t seen anything with subtitles – Dark is a perfect place to start.
Dark is one of the hidden treasures released this decade, and it is definitely one of the best finds. Intricate mind puzzles might be what the show is famous for, but it also asks fascinating questions about destiny, fate and the human condition. It’s a highly unusual watch, and if you’re suffering from TV fatigue, it’s well worth dimming the lights and searching out Dark. Prepare to be enlightened.
Written by Lucy Clarke
Lucy Clarke is a recent graduate in German Studies and an avid film lover and writer. When she’s not watching or writing about film, you can find her trying to befriend all the neighbourhood cats or singing Eurovision classics. You can find her blog here: lucyatthepictures.com and you can also find out what she’s up to on her twitter