A small town, missing children, a mysterious government facility, flickering lights, a huge serving of 80s nostalgia. No, we are not talking about Stranger Things. The 10-episode German, Netflix season of Dark (with English subtitles) is set in the year 2019, in the European town of Winden, which is nothing like Hawkins.
The two shows may sound like cousins but the difference between the two is largely tonal, almost like the contrast in the moods of Marvel and DC. As the name suggests, the slow burn, Dark unfolds in dimly lit, rainy, ominous surrounds with time-travelling and era-hopping characters.
A delicious dread pervades the mood of Dark, which uses the device of sci-fi / supernatural mystery to contemplate on the everlasting flux of time in a Lynch meets Fincher way.
If you look at the series through the prism of Einstein’s premise - The distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion - you’ll be in for a thrilling ride replete with metaphors through gloomy rooms, foreboding forests and caves as stand-ins for black holes, with the same intrigue of the Upside Down of Stranger Things.
Four episodes into the season and you will find yourself theorising - Can time travel fix the past or avoid a certain kind of future? These weighty concerns coupled with a yellow tone draping the show in agreeable melancholy, make it a perfect winter or rainy day watch.
The show begins on a tense note as a teenage boy goes missing and cops have been unable to turn up any leads. The charred corpse of another unnamed child surfaces and then we find ourselves plunging into a rabbit hole of complex webs of relationships, family secrets and head-spinning mysteries.
A Small-Town Noir Teeming With Characters
The intimate setting of a small town makes for a tangle of overlapping relationships and intertwining back-stories. With over 20 characters and a three-generation-long timespan where characters flit between the past and the present at a fast pace, the show also delves into what binds communities in small towns.
You may even be tempted to look up family trees online but that will only open up a can of spoilers. Take heart, the show offers regular split screen introductions to remind you of the characters and their 80s versions. The show needs the exposition to keep it from hitting epic levels of bafflement.
Similar tropes may lead you to draw unfair comparisons with Stranger Things and you may conclude that Dark does not leave you with winsome characters like Dustin. But what Dark lacks in terms of endearing characters, it makes up for with an intriguing plot. The veil of obscurity lifts and the motives become clearer with time. Character revelation in Dark would mean giving away too much of the plot.
And what may appear like underwritten characters are simply enigmatic personalities that unravel languidly, making the theme of time more relevant and the mysteries more rewarding. The characters only fleetingly reveal their spark with poignant lines. In one of the scenes, a child says, “Even if someone is dead, he’d want to be found.” In one fell swoop, in this instance, Dark manages to give us character insight and make us emotionally invest in the character along with propelling the plot.
The show also weighs in on the promises our younger selves make to our future selves and the regrets that our older selves harbour towards our past versions. It makes you wonder, through the eyes of the children on the show - Do you really know your parents? What were they like back in time?
Cherry on Top
Dark begins with a kaleidoscopic title sequence that is also reminiscent of a Rorschach inkblot test, inviting viewers to delve into their own psychological interpretations, setting the stage for a subjective idea of time, with an accompanying hypnotic title track. The significance of sound in a thriller can never be overemphasised.
The music used at key moments in the show is a curious blend of the iconic Ramsay tune and it strangely works against the backdrop of lyrically ghastly visuals.
Bingeworthy Scale: 4/5
If you like shows where answers raise another pile of questions, this one is for you; beyond the genre of a whodunnit, a whendunnit.
Pro-tip for Parents
This is a not fun kids show like Stranger Things. With dark pasts, explicit sex scenes and affairs, the show dives headlong into macabre imagery like dead sheep strewn across fields, dead birds falling from the sky and corpses of children.
The internet is dark and full of content that can be watched unsupervised by your children.
If your teen child inadvertently stumbled upon the series, you can talk to her/him about time as a philosophical and scientific construct as well as grief.
(This review is based on the first five episodes of Dark S1.)
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