Review: Dark (2017-)

“Foldout your hands, give me a sign, put down your lies, lay down next to me, don’t listen when I scream, bury your doubts and fall asleep, for neither ever, nor never…. goodbye.”

I don’t know whether ‘Sic Mundus Creatus Est’ or not, but I believe that ‘Sick Minds Created This’ show! Netflix’s The german-language show demands extreme concentration from its viewers because you don’t know when a mother becomes her daughter’s daughter, a daughter becomes her mother’s mother, a girlfriend becomes her boyfriend’s aunt because her brother marries to the mother of her boyfriend in the past and her father who is having an affair with her boyfriend’s mother is searching for his son in the present who is also father the boyfriend. A small town Winden (Germany), full of lies and secrets, faces some cases of missing young boys. Here fates and relationships of four families entangle them in a never-ending loop. And if that is not enough, few time travelers who just cannot live peacefully in their own timeline, jumping here and there and create additional intricate circumstances.

If I start with what the first thing I liked about the show is its theme song. After theme songs of FRIENDS (I’ll be there for you), The Sopranos (Woke up this morning), and Freaks and Geeks (Bad Reputation), ‘Goodbye’ is a theme song that I did not skip even for once. So edgy, unsettling, but addictive as the show itself! Acting by all the actors is so subtle that you will fall in love with their characters (except Hannah, she is a wacko).

Some of the characters foreshadow themselves about what will happen next. Ulrich’s favorite quote, ‘No Future,’ became a reality for him when he stuck in the past forever. Mikkel’s magic trick of two cups of disappearing things ‘Not Where but WHEN’ also played with himself, he vanished, not from Winden but in a different time. Of course, the most captivating character is Jonas. While people are stunned by Mikkel/Michel and Charlotte/ Elizabeth, for me, the most intelligent move of the whole series is that Jonas becomes Adam, who is the protagonist is also the antagonist. An innocent boy who tries to save the world becomes the culprit behind the utter destruction. 

It also reminds me of the movie ‘Predestination,’ where an agent tries to catch and a bomber only to find he is the criminal from the future. And yes, it is possible, because we all change with time. Some of us are at the stage of Jonas, some of Adam’s, and some might be at the stage of the Traveller, does not know where the chosen path will take. It will be interesting to know what happens in the third season.

During my watch, two movies, a drama, and another show had struck in my mind:

1. ‘Predestination’: I want to thank all who suggested me to watch the series after I reviewed the movie ‘Predestination.’ Both share themes of time paradoxes. Thanks to the film that I was ready for any twisted identity about any character in the show. (The movie has four characters, played by two actors, who represent only one person!) Yes, when you compare them, the film seems average in front of the mind freak show, but you can feel the shadow of the movie over it.

2. ‘The Endless’: The ‘bootstrap paradox’ or ‘casual loop’ reminds me of another sci-fi movie, ‘The Endless.’ The film is criminally underrated as I am not seeing people discussing it more. ‘Dark’ has only one loop of 33 years, which has elaborated in 18 episodes, but imagine a movie of 1 hour and 56 min., which has infinite time loops so close to each other and of different timelines and of varying time duration like of 12 years or of 5 minutes or just 1 second! It’s my suggestion to everyone, do watch both movies.

3. ‘Oedipus Rex’: The show has one more concept that we can’t escape from our destiny. Whatever has predestined will happen no matter what. If anyone tries to change it, it becomes the reason to make it happen. This reminds me of a classical Greek tragedy, ‘Oedipus Rex,’ written by the legendary playwright Sophocles. In the story, in the fate of Oedipus is written that he will kill his father and marry his mother. To prevent this, his father tries to kill him when he was a child, but he survives and eventually raised by another king and queen in another country. But his fate didn’t leave him here too. So Oedipus who doesn’t know that these are not his birth parents, he leaves them, reach to a place, kills few people in a duel, marries the queen of the land, only to discover at the end that he completed his destiny by running from it. What happens after that is the part of most tragic events written in world tragic literature. But if we add a time loop here, he discovers that the child of his has the same fate and he tries to kill him ….and it goes on! 

4. Twin Peaks: The whole Winden city gives vibes of Twin Peaks. Both have beautiful surroundings, beautiful people but with twisted relationships, lies, secrets, enchanting music, and something estrange in the woods. Both cities are real, and I want to visit both of them.

P.S. A quick question: if you ever get a chance to go back in time, where will you go? What will you change?