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DARK (NETFLIX) - THE WHOLE SERIES REVIEW

The distinction between the past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion. -     Albert Einstein


Let’s talk about DARK series on Netflix here. It has been a week since the last season aired and it still got me hooked with its beautiful yet harrowing story the series offered. If you haven’t watched the series, I suggest to watch it now. Don’t forget to bring some refreshments because you might need them. The concept of this series is really, really heavy and pretty hard to understand at first but don’t worry, you’ll understand the storyline easily. And don’t forget to bring some “cheat sheets” too.

Dark is a German sci-fi thriller series co-created by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese. It aired on Netflix streaming service. This series has three seasons which focused on the aftermath of a child’s disappearance which lead to darker secrets and hidden connections among four families. And time travels. YEAH! TIME TRAVEL.

The story itself is divided into specific years as we go back and forth (that’s why you need some cheat sheets so you don’t get lost). The set is in a fictional small town Winden with its nuclear plant and mysteries to uncover. It all started with the suicide of Michael Kahnwald and the disappearance of Mikkel Nielsen, and everything went downhill since then.

The complexity of the story makes this series great and it might force you to do a rewatch or two in order to understand the whole concept. During the first season, the story is more centered about the two events as I described earlier that leads to another darker events that happened before in Winden. The second season continues with the families’ attempts to reunite with their loved ones, the second season includes new aspects to the mysteries and a bigger destructive event that will happen. And the third season focused on how to prevent this bigger destructive event from happening and how to end it all.

The character developments in this series are also great. Even though the story has more focus on Jonas Kahnwald (Played by Louis Hoffman), all supporting characters here they have bigger impacts on the story too. The versatility of the story center could also be changing in course of the episodes and revealed secrets. I can say that there are no small roles in this series. The hero might change, the villain might be blurry with motives, even characters that we don’t expect that they will have bigger splash, they all are shining and made huge impacts to the storyline.

The performances from the actors are also a top-notch quality here. Well-acted, bring souls and depths to their characters especially in the third season where everything is turned around and twisted, and the actors have to do different tasks with their acting.

The soundtracks and the visuals of this series are also great, they offer so much somber tone and add atmospheric element to the series.

Knowing that this series is ended with the third season, at first I was afraid about this. Many TV series that contain complexities within its story, failed to deliver a perfect resolution to its story. DARK is on a different level on how to end a story. The last two episodes in the last season were shown just like flashbacks on what happened in the first and the second season and they told it in a chronological way. All those mysteries were solved and closed completely without sacrificing the quality of this show. Why do I talk about ‘sacrificing quality’? Because most TV series that I know of including *cough* GAME OF THRONES *cough*, they sacrificed the quality of their own TV show to end it. DARK has this rare quality on how to end a story. It has no plot armors, no illogical acts, and it’s well-written. All the problems solved within several episodes, and it has a beautiful yet emotional end to its series, a literal swan song.

Looks like Christopher Nolan got a new competitor here.

Anyway, DARK is a complicated series, yet it offers gripping stories, incredible characters’ developments, atmospheric cinematography and soundtracks. DARK already marked its way as one of the strongest and the strangest sci-fi series ever made.

Co-creators

Baran bo Odar                                 Jantje Friese

Cast

Louis HofmannOliver MasucciJördis TriebelMaja SchöneKaroline EichhornSebastian RudolphAnatole TaubmanMark WaschkeStephan KampwirthAnne Ratte-PolleAndreas PietschmannLisa VicariMichael MendlAngela Winkler



Opening Song

"Goodbye"

Performed by Apparat featuring Soap&Skin

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