![]() Dark, which first bowed in 2017, is the kind of narrative that keeps you on perpetually uneven ground, peeling back more and more layers and revealing absolutely batshit connections. ![]() And it’s not hard to see how this show grabbed the attention of so many worldwide. Was it after Tales From the Loop bowled me over? My intense love affair with Station Eleven? My inexplicable flirtation with the objectively bad Manifest? Whichever it was, several of you were out here saying that when it came to weird science fiction things happening to regular people on TV, Dark was the way to go. I don’t remember which article it was when our commenters first started recommending Dark. This was disappointing for a show that hooked me and felt like must-binge TV for two seasons. I’m rarely a quitter when it comes to media consumption-yet I just couldn’t finish Dark. I was on board for this bizarre ride, but by the show’s third season, I felt like we’d gone one twist too far. The show is a, well, extremely dark mystery-thriller in a category I’m going to call “urban science fiction.” Its characters exist (for the most part) in present-day trappings-but then we have strange goings-on involving wormholes, time travel, time machines, and increasingly complex conspiracies that make Lost look like a kindergarten class play by comparison. Of course, we don't recommend that since you would miss out on all of the other mind-bending events in Season 3.On the recommendation of several Mary Sue commenters, I watched the first two seasons of Netflix’s first German-language original series, Dark. In fact, the finale does such a thorough job of explaining itself, that you could just skip to the end. It's a delicate balance that is handled expertly. And what's even more admirable is that Odar and Friese leave enough ambiguity that there's room for the viewer to use their own imagination for certain unexplained parts of the story. Without getting into specifics, the finale is able to explain (in great detail) what in the hell has actually been going on these past three seasons. These philosophical debates do get a bit tiresome after the third or fourth time you hear about "ends" and "beginnings" and "free will," but it all culminates in a satisfying hour and thirteen-minute finale that doesn't disappoint. ![]() Play And speaking of saving, Jonas and Martha's struggle to find a solution to preserve both of their worlds has less to do with confronting an actual villain in Season 3, and more about battling ideologies between Adam's (Dietrich Hollinderbäumer) Sic Mundus organization and some new players that you'll discover throughout your binge. How much does one guy have to go through to save the world(s)? In one exhilarating scene, Jonas bares his teeth when he says, "I'm tired of having all these obligations." It's a simple phrase, but as a viewer, watching Jonas' vulnerability here makes it easier to empathize with him. Continuing in the same vein as Season 2, Jonas is a more proactive character who's not afraid to show his rage and frustration with all of the unending talk of the apocalypse and time loops. While the number of point-of-view characters continues to grow in Season 3, Hofmann's Jonas is still at the center of it all. Well, not easy per se, but at least doable for us mere mortals that don't possess Odar and Friese's brain capacity. But the purposeful way scenes transition from character to character, from year to year, from earth to earth, all track in a way that's easy to follow. The creators don't hold up a sign that reads, "Hey, this is Earth-2," or anything so obvious. Miraculously, it all makes sense somehow. (Basically, she's seen some s**t.) The story also continues to skip from 2020 to 2053 to 1954 to 1888, so not only is there a different version of Winden to explore on a different earth, but there's also all of the time-traveling conundrums from the first two seasons to account for. But even more fascinating than the town of Winden's new appearance, is that we get to know more about this particular version of Martha, who Vicari effectively portrays as a bit more rugged and downtrodden due to the fact that she's traveled between worlds.
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