Netflix's Dark: German Thriller SeriesTV 

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RocZX

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This show is awesome. I watched it twice already once dubbed in English and once in original German. It has a Stranger Things vibe to it .
Netflix has already confirmed a 2nd season for it.

 
It has a Stranger Things vibe to it.
Not for me. I mean, there's similarities in that the lead characters are the children - both in 2019 and 1986* - and of course it's partially set in 1986, but that's where it ends. The antagonists don't seem to be too similar either; in Stranger Things it's:
Government experiments into psychic phenomena, particularly MK Ultra, breaking into a dark dimension and the horrors it contains
While in Dark it appears to be:
Ordinary people, a nuclear power conspiracy and time travel.
Although I'm only 5 episodes in*, because it's a little... slow.

Dark's cinematography and soundtrack are extraordinary though. The story has plodded a bit, in the style of a classic moody Scandinavian drama, but I appreciate the split-screen way of presenting the 1986 kids with their 2019 adult* counterparts.


*I'm also assuming 1953 will make an appearance at some point, but 2052 seems unlikely to me
 
Not for me. I mean, there's similarities in that the lead characters are the children - both in 2019 and 1986* - and of course it's partially set in 1986, but that's where it ends. The antagonists don't seem to be too similar either; in Stranger Things it's:
Government experiments into psychic phenomena, particularly MK Ultra, breaking into a dark dimension and the horrors it contains
While in Dark it appears to be:
Ordinary people, a nuclear power conspiracy and time travel.
You are looking to hard, the Stranger Thing vibe is more smiple.
  • They are both set in a small town ( and they wooded area in the town)
  • They both have a facility that is trying to hidden things and locking the public out
  • The facility both have portal to different world under their building
  • They both have missing kid and nobody knows what happen to them
  • The facilicy is linked to the missing kid
  • The parent's of the missing kids are going crazy looking for kid
 
You are looking to hard, the Stranger Thing vibe is more smiple.
I don't really see it. Sure, the setup is similar, but the plotline isn't that close and Dark is... well... much darker. Like, super dark. Like, the very first scene is
A guy hanging himself
And it doesn't get much cheerier than that afterwards. Also, we're only at episode five but that Hannah seems like a proper bunnyboiler...
Although I'm a bit baffled why she doesn't remember that the young version of her dead husband looked exactly like the youngest kid of the guy she's having an affair with - whose brother went missing in identical circumstances 33 years ago - 33 years later while events are repeating; perhaps that's to come.

Also, Joyce in ST is a major character throughout; halfway into Dark we've only seen Eric's parents in one scene so far, in the first episode...

Still don't know who the dead boy discovered in the field in 2019 is - the one who seems to be from the 1980s but died recently according to the autopsy.
 
Right, we've finished it.

It's exceptionally bleak, and a bit of a challenge to watch but also difficult to not binge. And every episode raises far more questions than it ever answers :lol:

Nevertheless, I think that...

Noah:
recruits Bartosz, because he IS Bartosz...

... and Bartosz, as Noah, is Agnes Nielsen's husband (1953) and father of Tronte...

... to ensure that Ulrich (1986) is born, so that he can go back to 1953 and be arrested for the boys' deaths, but also so that...

... Mads (1986), the first victim, and Mikkel (2019) are born, so that...

... Mikkel can become Michael (1953) and father Jonas (1986), so that...

... Jonas can be flung into 2052, become the Stranger, ally himself with Claudia (1953) and...

... create the Higgs Field in 1986 with Claudia's machine to fracture time into 1953, 1986 and 2019 in the first place, to start the events all over again.

However, one thing I'm not sure about is what:
10-year old 1953 Helge is going to do now he's the first time traveller and has ended up in the experiment bunker in 1986.

Which, incidentally, means that Helge is the only character to exist in a single time period - 1986 - as himself at three different ages (1953, 1986, 2019) at once; although I suppose technically 2019 Helge died before 1953 Helge arrived, having tried to kill 1986 Helge.
Roll on season 2.
 
A good series. I enjoyed the pacing, something that came through from other European series, dedicating an hour per episode to develop. Looking forward to the future aspect after the first series ending, and of course the unresolved (as yet) past elements.
 
Season 2 is available now with, appropriately (considering the theme) a third and final series next year. Haven't started on it yet, because @Mrs. Famine requires my presence when she watches it :D
 
Season 2 is available now with, appropriately (considering the theme) a third and final series next year. Haven't started on it yet, because @Mrs. Famine requires my presence when she watches it :D
Oh yeah. That was major, major weird crap.

Thus far, due to the various time-travelling characters and events occurring in 1921, 1954, 1987, 2020 and 2053 simultaneously, one couple are subsequently aunt and nephew, one woman has slept with one man and married another's son before sleeping with him (thus her other lover is, latterly, her father-in-law), one character is two other characters, and a woman is her own grandmother.


Also there's an apocalypse... which possibly also starts all the events in at least 1953, 1986 and 2019. @Mrs. Famine is currently upstairs rocking herself into a paradoxical coma.
 
Nothing has ever helped less than episode one of season three, which now has three Marthas even though...
Old Jonas/Adam killed teenage Martha in front of young Jonas at the end of S2, just before another teenage Martha appeared to save Jonas from the black-hole-based apocalypse event. That's because...
The show now invokes alternate dimensions, but only one alternate dimension thus far.

In (what I call) the M-dimension, the Nielsens live in the original Kahnwald house, except for Ulrich who split with Katharina to be with Hannah Kahnwald (as opposed to merely cheating on her in the J-dimension) in the original Nielsen house (but he's also cheating on her). Martha rides the same bike and has the same coat Jonas had in the J-dimension, and Jonas doesn't exist in the M-dimension. Erik is still missing and Mads still went missing, but Mikkel doesn't travel back from 1987 to create new events in 1954 that lead to Jonas's birth, though elderly Helge Doppler is still chattering about it all happening again.

My current suspicion is that Martha become the time traveller in the M-dimension, and ends up as Jonas did, only...
... instead of Jonas becoming Adam, Martha becomes Eve. Getting them together may either be the start of the apocalypse cycles, or the end of it...
There's also a new character, only referred to in the credits as "Unknown", who appears in Adam's... dwelling as three versions of himself (young unknown, adult unknown, old unknown) right at the very beginning, and later on in the Doppler house in 1987.

Oh, and to add to the whole mental:

Thus far, due to the various time-travelling characters and events occurring in 1921, 1954, 1987, 2020 and 2053 simultaneously, one couple are subsequently aunt and nephew, one woman has slept with one man and married another's son before sleeping with him (thus her other lover is, latterly, her father-in-law), one character is two other characters, and a woman is her own grandmother.
1888 is a new time period for the show in season 3...
 
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Holy crap, I'd completely forgotten that there were two more travellers, and episode 2 picked up on one of them...
Katharina Nielsen, who went back to 1986 to find Mikkel; instead she found the Ulrich who had gone back to 1953 and been locked up in an asylum after trying to kill Helge.
This appears on the floor in elder Martha's... office? during the second episode as well. It doesn't appear to have any spoilers, though I don't recall who Hanno Tauber is:

dark-season-3-family-tree-netflix.jpg


But it does reconfirm something from S2 - when Agnes arrived in 1921 Winden with her son Tronte, the father's identity was a mystery... Tronte is important to the whole series of events because he is Ulrich/Mads's father, and Ulrich is Magnus/Martha/Mikkel's father...

No Mikkel, no Jonas (and thus no Adam) in the J-Continuum; no Martha, no traveller (and I suspect no Eve) in the M-Continuum. If Jonas/Adam and Martha/Eve aren't the start of the whole thing, I'll be surprised...
 
I don't recall who Hanno Tauber is
Ah, revealed in episode four :lol: As is the infinity symbol - or "the origin" - and it looks like I'm right about Martha too. "The Unknown" is/are bothering me too...
They have a cleft lip. I'm wondering if this is a birth defect from inbreeding - if The Unknown is also The Origin their parents are technical aunt and nephew, but also I think they connected at least two other ways, as well as being their own ancestors - which means The Unknown will have to father Tronte Nielsen with Agnes.
Some fun dumps in four as well, with evil (selfish and cruel) time-womb Hannah meeting her boyfriend's wife's mother as a presumably abused teenager (it's around 15-20 years to early for her pregnancy to be Katharina), given her later appearance as an abusive single mother. And then there's Egon, who gets dumped by his mistress and his cheating lesbian wife on the same day. Which, fun fact:
Technically makes Hannah responsible for his drinking, which is what made him fundamentally useless in the Mads investigation in 1986, which is what made Ulrich become a policeman.
The one big question right now surrounds Jonas, or more specifically Jonas, The Stranger, and Adam:
In the 1888 J-Continuum, The Stranger/Jonas denies any memory of the M-Continuum Martha taking teenage Jonas to the M-Continuum on the day of the J-Continuum apocalypse.

However, in the J-Continuum, Adam/Jonas, clearly has full recall of these events. Why does The Stranger have knowledge of Jonas's life from his own past except going to the M-Continuum, and why does Adam have knowledge of Jonas's life from his own past including this? Both should have lived this portion of their lives, and Jonas was never born in the M-Continuum so there is no alternate Jonas...
Also it looks like almost everyone is a child of a time traveller (as well as being a parent to one), which means they only exist because Jonas and Martha did it... but then Jonas and Martha are also the result of time travel. As well as the question about where they came from in the first place, there's a question of what happens if they do indeed break the cycle...
 
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I've finished watching it already... now it's fun watching you try to work it out :D
I like my chances - I was on the money with Eve (without even looking at episode titles; they sometimes give the game away) :D

I've got a rough family tree drawn, although it's more like a hedgerow.
 
I like my chances - I was on the money with Eve (without even looking at episode titles; they sometimes give the game away) :D

I've got a rough family tree drawn, although it's more like a hedgerow.

I must admit that after S2E4, when time travel other than in 33 year jumps came into it, I gave up on thinking I could work it all out as it opened up too many possibilities!
 
I must admit that after S2E4, when time travel other than in 33 year jumps came into it, I gave up on thinking I could work it all out as it opened up too many possibilities!
Isn't that the episode where Jonas went back to 1921 (33 years before the previous earliest time period)? I don't recall anywhere that's had someone jump in anything other than a multiple of 33 years.

Anyway, episode 5 has put a real spin on things now with two pretty major issues:

There's two Marthas from the same approximate time period now; to date all time has progressed synchronously, with days passing in all time periods at the same time - if you jump from 2019 to 1986 and spend a day in 1986, when you jump back a day will have passed in 2019. The presence of two teenage Marthas, and two no more than a couple of months apart
One is pregnant but not showing, the other just had sex with Jonas to become pregnant
, begs the question of how that's even possible. The only other time we've seen two characters the same age is when they're from the different worlds, and given that J-Continuum Martha is dead that's not happening.

And to add to the wtfery, Traveller Martha has just killed Jonas. If Jonas is dead he cannot become The Stranger or Adam.

All I've got at this point is the tri-lobe design; the infinity loop on Elder M-Continuum Martha's floor (and Adult M-Continuum Martha's wall) has two lobes, but the big book of time travel that both Adam and adult Claudia have (another adult Claudia from another dimension just gave it to her), which we've seen several times, has three lobes. That tallies with the original three time periods, the portal connecting the three, the 33 years, and the design itself appears in The Stranger's 1888 experiment with M-Continuum Traveller Martha's dark matter (which has three Tesla coils) and when the M-Continuum time/dimension travel device is activated. In case you don't know where I'm going with this...
A third dimension solves all of these problems...
 
Isn't that the episode where Jonas went back to 1921 (33 years before the previous earliest time period)? I don't recall anywhere that's had someone jump in anything other than a multiple of 33 years.

His jump after that one isn't a multiple. The one through the blob when he tries to save Michael and sees his slightly younger self at the lake.
(On checking, I meant S2E6).

I'm not going to risk saying anything about S3 because I can't trust my recall of when I learnt / figured out things :)
 
His jump after that one isn't a multiple. The one through the blob when he tries to save Michael and sees his slightly younger self at the lake.
(On checking, I meant S2E6).
Ah yes, the Sic Mundus machine which is the evolution of The Chair. That might cover:
Multi-Martha in the M-Continuum
 
Ah yes, the Sic Mundus machine which is the evolution of The Chair. That might cover:

Almost anything! That's my beef with it. And it does not cover why other methods are limited to 33 year jumps, a constraint I rather liked.
 
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