Culture Crash: Revisiting the German Netflix Series, “Dark”

Back in December 2017, I was absolutely riveted by a German Netflix show called Dark, which tells the story of a German town experiencing a rash of child disappearances. However, things aren’t as they seem, and the audience quickly catches on that these aren’t just abductions, but that time travel is afoot. Its first season was a baffling, intricately plotted and rewarding season of television that demanded a lot of its viewers but that totally enthralled me.

But I ran into an issue last year, when season two debuted. I remembered the broad strokes of Dark, but had forgotten a lot of essential smaller stuff.  I tried and failed to watch season two, when I realized that to watch it the way I had wanted to watch it, I’d have to re-watch season one. I never got around to doing that though, and then this summer, Netflix released the show’s third and final season.

So for the past week or so, I have been devouring Dark. First re-watching season one and then progressing onward for the first time, and I must say.. That is absolutely the correct move. A show like this almost would have benefited from being released as one, long, 26-episode miniseries. The show relies so much on the audience keeping up, and as a viewer, that is one of my favorite things. I love seeing all of the details pay off, and I fear that if I had tried to just watch season two without remembering the full picture from season one, I’d have been so focused on what I forgot, that I wouldn’t be catching the clues for what comes next.

But while I’m watching it in rapid succession, the show is firing on all cylinders. So if you’re like me, and you fell off after season one, or if you’re just someone who likes science fiction, time travel stories, and/or the ins and outs of paradoxes, Dark is finally available to stream in the way it works best: all at once, in a breathtaking marathon. The complete series is streaming on Netflix now.

I’m Evan Rook.

Show Transcript