Television Dark - Netflix TV series

KM

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Anyone checked this out?

German TV series which is getting a lot of rave reviews right now. Compared to Stranger Things ofcourse.

Here's the premise:
The disappearance of two young children in a German town brings light to the fractured relationships, double lives and past of four families living there, revealing a mystery that spans across three generations.[1]
 

djdhrubs

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Was gonna hop onto this series next, then on a whim started Star Trek Discovery. Will get to it soon I expect!
 

The Firestarter

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That being said, why in Germany, every damn show and movie is dubbed ? Drives me mad.
 

Maagge

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Watched two episodes the other day. I kind of liked it. It's like a Twin Peaks and Stranger Things combination.
 

Runner

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The dubbing was terrible and it's much better with subtitles. Seen 2 episodes, it's alright, not pulling me in yet.
 

Maagge

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Finished this yesterday and thought it was way, way better than the second season of Stranger Things. It does get a bit silly in some of the last episodes and the ending seemed a little bit cheesy. None the less it kept me guessing for a long time and had a decent creepy feel to it.
There's still quite a few open questions and it was a bit of a mind feck at times. Oh and a word of advice: If you decide to watch it pay attention because there's a lot of characters to keep track of I thought.
 

CassiusClaymore

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Finished this yesterday and thought it was way, way better than the second season of Stranger Things. It does get a bit silly in some of the last episodes and the ending seemed a little bit cheesy. None the less it kept me guessing for a long time and had a decent creepy feel to it.
There's still quite a few open questions and it was a bit of a mind feck at times. Oh and a word of advice: If you decide to watch it pay attention because there's a lot of characters to keep track of I thought.
Also finished it and agree with all of that statement. Yeah I had to consult a wiki at one point to make sure I know who all the characters were from the different time zones. Really good stuff though and I assume there will be a season 2 with the way it was left.
 

Massive Spanner

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three episodes in and I really like it.

Get very similar vibes to The Returned with the multiple timelines, cool soundtrack, awesome cinematography, and linked characters, oh and the fact that you basically have no idea what's going on.
 

Maagge

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three episodes in and I really like it.

Get very similar vibes to The Returned with the multiple timelines, cool soundtrack, awesome cinematography, and linked characters, oh and the fact that you basically have no idea what's going on.
Yeah that's what reminded me of Twin Peaks initially. The soundtrack has a very prominent role and the way it's filmed makes it seem like it's isolated completely from the rest of the world. Even down to houses seemingly not having any neighbouring ones.
 

Spoony

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three episodes in and I really like it.

Get very similar vibes to The Returned with the multiple timelines, cool soundtrack, awesome cinematography, and linked characters, oh and the fact that you basically have no idea what's going on.

You'll love it. Time, free will, paradoxes - they're all covered.
 

Sarni

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Only seen the first episode so far but liked it a lot.

Regarding dubbing, I had hard time choosing whether to go with dubbing or original plus subtitles. Thing is, even when I watch movies in English I will have subtitles as it's my second language but I hardly use them, they are just my insurance policy when I don't catch something. I don't know German (studied it at university and high school for a couple of years but never really learned much) so I am forced to read subtitles all time which is a bit of a distraction, but it is indeed a better experience to watch it in original language. Acting is pointless otherwise.
 

Gambit

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Watched the entire series, make sure you're on subtitles, Dubbing ruins it. My second favourite series of the year. It's like a Jigsaw puzzle of a series.
 

Massive Spanner

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Finished it last night. Thought it was close to being great, but not quite. Thoughts:

I think the show's biggest problem is a severe lack of any likable characters. I know it's supposed to be bleak, but still, the characters are all very unsympathetic and lacking any real charisma.

And it's incredibly difficult to keep track of who's who, especially when '53 pops into the equation.

You also really need to suspend belief in the idea that the future characters don't recognize the past versions of characters that show up, especially when it comes to Mikkel. I mean surely the c*nt (Jonas' mum) who marries Mikkel would have gone "Jesus, hang on, Ulrich's kid looks a bit weirdly like my husband when we first met..."

The ending was a bit of a let down too, very little answered and only more questions. Like The Returned. Especially when it's very difficult to see where they could go with a second series without making it completely daft.

Oh and I really don't get the Stranger Things comparison, it's far more Twin Peaks/The Returned.
 

Spoony

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Finished it last night. Thought it was close to being great, but not quite. Thoughts:

I think the show's biggest problem is a severe lack of any likable characters. I know it's supposed to be bleak, but still, the characters are all very unsympathetic and lacking any real charisma.

And it's incredibly difficult to keep track of who's who, especially when '53 pops into the equation.

You also really need to suspend belief in the idea that the future characters don't recognize the past versions of characters that show up, especially when it comes to Mikkel. I mean surely the c*nt (Jonas' mum) who marries Mikkel would have gone "Jesus, hang on, Ulrich's kid looks a bit weirdly like my husband when we first met..."

The ending was a bit of a let down too, very little answered and only more questions. Like The Returned. Especially when it's very difficult to see where they could go with a second series without making it completely daft.

Oh and I really don't get the Stranger Things comparison, it's far more Twin Peaks/The Returned.
I think it's because of the group of kids that went looking for their lost friend in the first episode, it was also based in a small town with nuclear power plant(what was the one in ST?). But yeah was different, ST was family entertainment, this one was the opposite...more convoluted, gripping, full of unlikeable characters, time travel, paradoxes, it asks questions about fate and free will.... etc
 

AkaAkuma

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I thought it borrowed a lot from lost, Netflix are adept at taking something popular and remaking it.
 

Kapardin

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Just finished watching it. Amazing show. The story is so complicated, but if you pay close attention, everything is tied up so neatly and loose ends are left like that for the next season. Just brilliant, 10/10 for me.

I disagree with someone who said they couldn't relate to the characters. The characters are the very real part of the show, they suck you into their world and make you care for each of their fortunes. It does get a little confusing identifying who is whom for the first 3-4 episodes, but afterwards you get used to it and it gets easier.

Oh, that guy who played Ulrich looks exactly like Schweinsteiger. He was my favorite actor. And the actor who played his younger self looked like how Schweinsteiger probably looked when he was young.:lol:

EDIT: Forgot to mention the absolutely addictive soundtrack. The show made me discover Anja Plaschg (Soap&Skin), now I have her songs on loop. The soundtrack was truly exemplary for a tv serues and set the mood perfectly.
 
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Irrational.

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Just finished binge-watching it. My mind is frazzled and have more questions than answers but it was thoroughly gripping. Thanks for the recommendation! I look forward to season two. :)
 

Tarrou

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Was fun for a while but it's just a pile of convoluted nonsense, isn't it?
 

Irrational.

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Was fun for a while but it's just a pile of convoluted nonsense, isn't it?
Whilst it is true that the whole show is a complete mindfeck, it is of the enjoyable variety. I struggled keeping up with the characters/ families/ timelines for the first half of the season but still was an enjoyable watch nonetheless.

This family tree also makes things a lot clearer, and I was referring to it several times throughout (shamelessly stolen from Reddit):

 

Oaencha

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Just finished watching it. Amazing show. The story is so complicated, but if you pay close attention, everything is tied up so neatly and loose ends are left like that for the next season. Just brilliant, 10/10 for me.

I disagree with someone who said they couldn't relate to the characters. The characters are the very real part of the show, they suck you into their world and make you care for each of their fortunes. It does get a little confusing identifying who is whom for the first 3-4 episodes, but afterwards you get used to it and it gets easier.

Oh, that guy who played Ulrich looks exactly like Schweinsteiger. He was my favorite actor. And the actor who played his younger self looked like how Schweinsteiger probably looked when he was young.:lol:

EDIT: Forgot to mention the absolutely addictive soundtrack. The show made me discover Anja Plaschg (Soap&Skin), now I have her songs on loop. The soundtrack was truly exemplary for a tv serues and set the mood perfectly.
I was thinking the same; Schweinsteiger and Mads Mikklesen’s love child.
 

Kapardin

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Was fun for a while but it's just a pile of convoluted nonsense, isn't it?
At the end of the day, you have to keep this in mind:

The show is about the time paradox. Time is a closed loop and these characters are just helpless pawns willed on by destiny. Of the 5 time travellers - Jonas, Ulrich, Mikkel, Helge are the ones who are caught in this paradox, while Claudia is aware of what is going on. I thought it was absolutely exquisite how they made use of this paradox to tie up so many loose ends -- Old Jonas takes the Cesium waste from the explosion and uses it to seal the wormhole, only to have caused the explosion in the first place, which in turn opened the wormhole and provided the radioactive cesium for him to use it to try to close it, and it also made him exist as then Mikkel was able to travel back in time to become his father...also, old Helge crashing into middle-aged Helge prevents him from giving his interview to Egon about the missing kids, which in turn causes middle-aged Helge to get away scotfree, which in turn causes old Helge to come back in time to stop him...yet another infinite loop. Mikkel goes back to the past and becomes Jonas' dad, only because Jonas opened the wormhole by trying to close it in the first place -- thus without son, father does not exist and without father, son does not exist. Ulrich goes back in time and leaves his mobile phone, which becomes the key to constructing the machine that is used by Jonas to attempt to seal the wormhole, which in turn causes the wormhole to exist. So, if Ulrich hadn't gone back in time, his son Mikkel wouldn't have been lost in the past, since his mobile phone wouldn't have been left there in the past to construct the machine that was used by Jonas to inadvertently open it...and heck, Jonas himself wouldn't have existed. Claudia is the one who goes back in time and gives the plans for building the machine that Jonas gets hold of, something she got after the machine was built.

Of all these, Noah is the only one who seems immune to the trap of the Paradox. He is a mystery character, we will find out more about him soon enough.

If you read what I wrote, I hope you understand the sheer genius of the show. Convoluted it is, nonsense it is not. Lynchian elite.
 
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Spoony

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At the end of the day, you have to keep this in mind:

The show is about the time paradox. Time is a closed loop and these characters are just helpless pawns willed on by destiny. Of the 5 time travellers - Jonas, Ulrich, Mikkel, Helge are the ones who are caught in this paradox, while Claudia is aware of what is going on. I thought it was absolutely exquisite how they made use of this paradox to tie up so many loose ends -- Old Jonas takes the Cesium waste from the explosion and uses it to seal the wormhole, only to have caused the explosion in the first place, which in turn opened the wormhole and provided the radioactive cesium for him to use it to try to close it, and it also made him exist as then Mikkel was able to travel back in time to become his father...also, old Helge crashing into middle-aged Helge prevents him from giving his interview to Egon about the missing kids, which in turn causes middle-aged Helge to get away scotfree, which in turn causes old Helge to come back in time to stop him...yet another infinite loop. Mikkel goes back to the past and becomes Jonas' dad, only because Jonas opened the wormhole by trying to close it in the first place -- thus without son, father does not exist and without father, son does not exist. Ulrich goes back in time and leaves his mobile phone, which becomes the key to constructing the machine that is used by Jonas to attempt to seal the wormhole, which in turn causes the wormhole to exist. So, if Ulrich hadn't gone back in time, his son Mikkel wouldn't have been lost in the past, since his mobile phone wouldn't have been left there in the past to construct the machine that was used by Jonas to inadvertently open it...and heck, Jonas himself wouldn't have existed. Claudia is the one who goes back in time and gives the plans for building the machine that Jonas gets hold of, something she got after the machine was built.

Of all these, Noah is the only one who seems immune to the trap of the Paradox. He is a mystery character, we will find out more about him soon enough.

If you read what I wrote, I hope you understand the sheer genius of the show. Convoluted it is, nonsense it is not. Lynchian elite.

Yeah the grandfather paradox, 4th dimension, time not having a beginning or an end etc etc it's all based on scientific theory...I'm no expert but it helps having a lay layman's or a passing interest in it(not that I know anything but there you go...). The odd episode of Red Dwarf helps too.
 

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At the end of the day, you have to keep this in mind:

The show is about the time paradox. Time is a closed loop and these characters are just helpless pawns willed on by destiny. Of the 5 time travellers - Jonas, Ulrich, Mikkel, Helge are the ones who are caught in this paradox, while Claudia is aware of what is going on. I thought it was absolutely exquisite how they made use of this paradox to tie up so many loose ends -- Old Jonas takes the Cesium waste from the explosion and uses it to seal the wormhole, only to have caused the explosion in the first place, which in turn opened the wormhole and provided the radioactive cesium for him to use it to try to close it, and it also made him exist as then Mikkel was able to travel back in time to become his father...also, old Helge crashing into middle-aged Helge prevents him from giving his interview to Egon about the missing kids, which in turn causes middle-aged Helge to get away scotfree, which in turn causes old Helge to come back in time to stop him...yet another infinite loop. Mikkel goes back to the past and becomes Jonas' dad, only because Jonas opened the wormhole by trying to close it in the first place -- thus without son, father does not exist and without father, son does not exist. Ulrich goes back in time and leaves his mobile phone, which becomes the key to constructing the machine that is used by Jonas to attempt to seal the wormhole, which in turn causes the wormhole to exist. So, if Ulrich hadn't gone back in time, his son Mikkel wouldn't have been lost in the past, since his mobile phone wouldn't have been left there in the past to construct the machine that was used by Jonas to inadvertently open it...and heck, Jonas himself wouldn't have existed. Claudia is the one who goes back in time and gives the plans for building the machine that Jonas gets hold of, something she got after the machine was built.

Of all these, Noah is the only one who seems immune to the trap of the Paradox. He is a mystery character, we will find out more about him soon enough.

If you read what I wrote, I hope you understand the sheer genius of the show. Convoluted it is, nonsense it is not. Lynchian elite.
Great post.
 

Maagge

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At the end of the day, you have to keep this in mind:

The show is about the time paradox. Time is a closed loop and these characters are just helpless pawns willed on by destiny. Of the 5 time travellers - Jonas, Ulrich, Mikkel, Helge are the ones who are caught in this paradox, while Claudia is aware of what is going on. I thought it was absolutely exquisite how they made use of this paradox to tie up so many loose ends -- Old Jonas takes the Cesium waste from the explosion and uses it to seal the wormhole, only to have caused the explosion in the first place, which in turn opened the wormhole and provided the radioactive cesium for him to use it to try to close it, and it also made him exist as then Mikkel was able to travel back in time to become his father...also, old Helge crashing into middle-aged Helge prevents him from giving his interview to Egon about the missing kids, which in turn causes middle-aged Helge to get away scotfree, which in turn causes old Helge to come back in time to stop him...yet another infinite loop. Mikkel goes back to the past and becomes Jonas' dad, only because Jonas opened the wormhole by trying to close it in the first place -- thus without son, father does not exist and without father, son does not exist. Ulrich goes back in time and leaves his mobile phone, which becomes the key to constructing the machine that is used by Jonas to attempt to seal the wormhole, which in turn causes the wormhole to exist. So, if Ulrich hadn't gone back in time, his son Mikkel wouldn't have been lost in the past, since his mobile phone wouldn't have been left there in the past to construct the machine that was used by Jonas to inadvertently open it...and heck, Jonas himself wouldn't have existed. Claudia is the one who goes back in time and gives the plans for building the machine that Jonas gets hold of, something she got after the machine was built.

Of all these, Noah is the only one who seems immune to the trap of the Paradox. He is a mystery character, we will find out more about him soon enough.

If you read what I wrote, I hope you understand the sheer genius of the show. Convoluted it is, nonsense it is not. Lynchian elite.
Surely Bartosz is Noah?
 

Bobski

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This might have the worst dubbing I have encountered in years, entirely unsuited to the tone of the show. Probably lost a lot of viewers by not automatically enabling subtitles.
 

Iron Stove

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Dubbing? Would have completely ruined the whole thing, we got subs.

Love the show by the way, best new series I've seen this year probably.
 

MadMike

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Here's what I didn't really like..

The gate in the caves only allowed jumping of 33 years back and forward. The whole spiel about past, present and future as a triumvirate or sth. But from any neutral observer's point, his/her time is the present. Thus you could daisy chain the passing of the gates to navigate, well into the past or well into future. Which is how Ulrich does a double jump backwards to end up in 1953 from 2019. So in theory not only 3 moving timelines, but an infinite number of.

Yet the only time we observe someone travel beyond 2019 is right at the end by Jonas and only by accident (i.e. not using the gate) and we never observe someone go further back than 1953. Which basically strikes as a major omission. Because by the end of the series there's like at least 5-6 people contemporary to 2019 who are in awareness of a time portal in the Winden caves, yet no one goes like "feck, let me see what the world is like a century down the line". Which would instinctively be the biggest curiosity of any human, rather than visiting the past.

The whole possibility of Bartosz being Noah is a complete mindfeck too.
 

Kapardin

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Here's what I didn't really like..

The gate in the caves only allowed jumping of 33 years back and forward. The whole spiel about past, present and future as a triumvirate or sth. But from any neutral observer's point, his/her time is the present. Thus you could daisy chain the passing of the gates to navigate, well into the past or well into future. Which is how Ulrich does a double jump backwards to end up in 1953 from 2019. So in theory not only 3 moving timelines, but an infinite number of.

Yet the only time we observe someone travel beyond 2019 is right at the end by Jonas and only by accident (i.e. not using the gate) and we never observe someone go further back than 1953. Which basically strikes as a major omission. Because by the end of the series there's like at least 5-6 people contemporary to 2019 who are in awareness of a time portal in the Winden caves, yet no one goes like "feck, let me see what the world is like a century down the line". Which would instinctively be the biggest curiosity of any human, rather than visiting the past.

The whole possibility of Bartosz being Noah is a complete mindfeck too.
There is an explanation for that as well:

The interconnectedness of the 4 families such as Mikkel being Jonah's father is due to Mikkel, Helge etc travelling 33/66 years back and no more, no less in the first place. So, if anyone travelled beyond 33/66 years into the past, it would have been reflected in the present. Since it has not, nobody has travelled that far back or ahead. And so, the cave only allows a time period of 33/66 years. This is another closed loop time paradox.
 

SwansonsTache

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Contemplating starting this tonight, but not sure if it is something I'll enjoy.

@Dirty Schwein , @pauldyson1uk - You two have a very sophisticated taste in entertainment, just like me, have you seen it?