Dark (Season 3)

I remember when I was in high school; a normal season of American TV would consist of 20 to 30 episodes.  Now, it seems that a season might run 8 or ten episodes.  Granted, I have access to a lot of European series.  A run of 20 episodes would seem too much for one stretch.  However, I’ve noticed it with Star Trek: Picard and Stranger Things.  Dark’s entire three-season run of 26 episodes would be one season for a show like Star Trek: The Next Generation.

For those who haven’t seen the first or second seasons, Dark is a German series.  It centers on a small, fictional town named Winden.  There seems to be a bit of a temporal knot.  People can access points in the city’s history at 33-year intervals through a tunnel.  There’s also a machine that seems to allow for shorter jumps.

At the end of the second season, we find out that there’s an alternate dimension.  One of the key factors in the city’s history is a boy that not only goes missing, but becomes displaced in time.  There are a few differences that add up to big changes.

The season deals with going back and forth between the two universes and trying to undo the entire thing, which requires going to a third, main universe.  If you think this is confusing, you’re right.  It’s often difficult to keep track of who belongs in which universe.  This is even true in cases where there’s only one version of a character.  Sometimes, it seems like there should be three or four versions of a character.  This is because they’re bouncing around in time like ping pong balls, covering a span from 1888 to 2053.  (It’s hard enough keeping track of the family trees.  Now this?)

There is a religious/spiritual influence, with one character being named Noah.  The two characters believed to have started the two universes are Adam and Eva, each belonging to a different universe.  It’s also difficult to tell where everything begins.  (Beginnings are endings; endings are beginnings and all that.)

As with the first two seasons, lies factor in to the narrative.  This added to my confusion a little.  Characters realize that they have to be manipulated into maintaining the correct order of events.  Is there even really a way out?  Is there free will enough to end it all and prevent all this suffering or are the characters fated to go around and around for infinity?

This is not a bright and cheery series.  There’s a missing child, time travel, dimensional travel and plenty of secrets to go around.  There’s also the apocalypse hanging over everyone’s head and the knowledge that averting doomsday means that a good chunk of the population might get erased from existence.  Oh, and the fate of three universes hinges on a car accident.  Being erased from existence might be a blessing.

If this hasn’t dissuaded you from watching it, there is a satisfying ending at the all of it.  There is a nice, even pace to the series, even if it is a bit slow.  One good thing about our modern technology is that you could, and probably should, watch them all in one binge.  Don’t do it halfway and take a break.  Watch the entire thing over the course of a week or two, which will probably make it easier to keep track of.

IMDb page

Dark (Season 2)

Generally, saying “more of the same” isn’t a good thing.  It could be.  In the case of Dark, it might be, since the first season was done well.  It would be a way of letting you know that the second season is just as intricate as the first.  However, it would be misleading and a bit inaccurate.

For those that haven’t heard of the series, Dark takes place in a fictional German town called Winden.  It might seem normal town.  The first season was released in 2017 and took place in 2019.  Winden’s nuclear power plant is slated to be decommissioned.  A young boy named Mikkel went missing, which mirrored another  disappearance 33 years prior.  Oh, and there’s a wormhole in a cave that can take you back in time 33 years.  Thus, parts of the season also took place in 1986 and 1952.  It ended with a boy named Jonas stranded in 2052.

For those that were turned off by the confusing nature of the first season, it doesn’t get better.  This one has the same intricacies, only more of them.  Season 2 picks up some time after the end of the first season.  Jonas has been in the future for a while and has been looking for a way back.  The apocalypse hit and he has to try to stop it, or at least try.  The residents of 2053 aren’t keen on letting him into the remains of the power plant, which would help him get back.

People go back and forth and talk to their younger selves.  There’s a time machine that people give to themselves or to other people.  (Keeping track of who has which version of it is a task in and of itself.)  There’s also the chicken-and-the-egg nature of where the entire time loop began.  If Jonas is to undo everything, where does he do it?  Does it matter?  Even if he does succeed, it would come at a great personal cost to himself.

We also have two additional years to keep track of: 1921 and 2053.  It appears that 1921 is the earliest time period, chronologically.  It’s not clear, though, if 2053 is the last.  (The second season takes place in 2020, so the other years have advanced to 1954 and 1987.)

In my review of Season 1, I mentioned the Novikov Self-Consistency Principle.  This continues in the second season.  Those that are aware of the nature of their reality try to cheat fate, as if that’s possible.  Many of the younger versions seem idealistic, wanting to prevent the future, but it always happens as it was meant to.  (It would be so easy to just shoot your former self or something, but no one thinks of that!)  Once they’re older, it would seem that the characters get more jaded and see things differently.

There’s a part of me that wants to reveal more of the plot, but I don’t know that I can.  It’s so complicated and confusing, it’s better that you just watch it.  The first season was 10 episodes and this was 8, meaning you could probably watch both seasons in two or three days if you had nothing else to do.  (In fact, Season 3 is supposed to be the last.  I wouldn’t blame you for waiting until that drops so that you could watch the entire thing at once.)

This series seems to be made for people that like to pay attention.  If you were planning to watch this while doing something else, you’ll probably miss things.  Also consider that it’s in German, so you might have to use the subtitles.  If you start watching, prepare to actually watch it.

IMDb page