Dark (TV series)


Dark is a German science fiction thriller web television series co-created by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese. It ran for three seasons, from 2017 to 2020. Set in the fictional German town of Winden, Dark concerns the aftermath of a child's disappearance, which exposes the secrets of and hidden connections among four estranged families as they slowly unravel a sinister time travel conspiracy which spans several generations. Throughout the series, Dark explores the existential implications of time and its effects upon human nature.
Dark debuted on 1 December 2017 on Netflix; it is the service's first German-language original series. The second season was released on 21 June 2019, while the third and final season was released on 27 June 2020.
Dark received critical acclaim, with praise for its tone, visuals, acting, musical score, and the ambition and complexity of its narrative.

Overview

Children start vanishing from the German town of Winden, bringing to light the fractured relationships, double lives, and dark past of four families living there, and revealing a mystery that spans four generations.
The story begins in 2019, but spreads to include story-lines in 1986 and 1953 via time travel, as certain characters of the show's core families grow aware of the existence of a wormhole in the cave system beneath the local nuclear power plant, which is under the management of the influential Tiedemann family. During the first season, secrets begin to be revealed concerning the Kahnwald, Nielsen, Doppler, and Tiedemann families, and their lives start to crumble as the ties become evident between the missing children and the histories of the town and its citizens.
The second season continues the intertwining families' attempts to reunite with their missing loved ones, several months after the first-season finale, in 2020, 1987 and 1954, respectively. Additional story-lines set in 2053 and 1921 add new aspects to the mysteries, and the secret Sic Mundus fellowship, a major force in an underlying battle for the ultimate fate of the people of Winden, is explored, as the season counts down towards the apocalypse – a destruction of Winden and death of many of its citizens.
The third and final season follows the four families across time in the wake of the apocalypse in 2020, while also introducing a parallel world whose events are interconnected with those of the first world. The season is primarily set in 1888, 1954, 1987, 2020 and 2053 in the first world, and 2019 and 2052 in the second world, as the characters work to find a way out of the repeating cycle of events in Winden across both worlds.

Cast and characters

The first season takes place primarily in 2019 but expands to include stories set in 1986, 1953, and – in the final scene of the first season – 2052, with several characters being portrayed at various ages by multiple actors.
The second season takes place several months after the first, depicting the initial stories in 2020, 1987, and 1954, respectively, while continuing the future-set storyline into 2053, and adding a fifth storyline, set in 1921. The third season introduces a storyline based in 1888 and several parallel realities featuring alternate versions of many main characters.

Main characters

Recurring cast

Season 1 family tree

Season 2 family tree

Season 3 family tree

Complete family tree

Logic of story

Episodes

Season 1 (2017)

Season 2 (2019)

Season 3 (2020)

Production

approved the series in February 2016 for a first season consisting of ten one-hour episodes. Principal photography started on 18 October 2016 in and around Berlin, and ended in March 2017. The church where Jonas meets Noah was filmed at the Südwestkirchhof Cemetery in Stahnsdorf. The high school location was filmed at the Reinfelder Schule in Berlin's Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf neighbourhood. The bridge and the train tracks were filmed the middle of the Düppeler forest near Lake Wannsee.
The series was filmed in 4K resolution. It is the first German-language Netflix original series and follows a trend of internationally produced Netflix originals, including the Mexican series Club de Cuervos in 2015, the Brazilian series 3% in 2016, the Italian series in 2017, and the Indian series Sacred Games in 2018.
Principal photography for the second season took place on location in Berlin from June 2018.
Filming for the third season began in May 2019 and wrapped in December 2019.

Music

Season 1

Track listing

Season 2

Track listing

Season 3

Track listing

Apart from the score, numerous pre-released songs were also used throughout the series. The song "Goodbye" by Apparat was used as the opening theme for the episodes.

Release

The first season of the series was released on 1 December 2017.
A second season was announced with a short teaser on the German Facebook pages of the series and Netflix on 20 December 2017. On 26 April 2019, it was announced that the second season would be released on 21 June 2019.
On 26 May 2020, it was announced that the third and final season would be released on 27 June 2020.

Reception

Critical response

The first season of Dark received mostly positive reviews from critics, with many noting its similarities to the TV series Twin Peaks and the Netflix series Stranger Things. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gave the first season an approval rating of 89%, with an average rating of 7.36 out of 10 based on 45 critics, with the "Certified Fresh" status. The site's critical consensus is "Darks central mystery unfolds slowly, both tense and terrifying, culminating in a creepy, cinematic triumph of sci-fi noir." The series was praised for its tone, the complexity of its narrative, and its pacing. Metacritic reported a score of 61 out of 100 based on 10 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Many claimed that it was darker and more in-depth than Stranger Things. However, there was some criticism by a reviewer for a heavy-handed approach to its message, a lack of sympathetic characters, and unoriginality of certain aspects of the series.
The second season received critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews and ratings from mainstream publications, the season received an average score of 82, based on 4 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". On Rotten Tomatoes, season 2 of the series holds an approval rating of 100% based on 29 reviews, with an average rating of 8.07/10, with the "Certified Fresh" status. The site's critical consensus states, "Darks sumptuous second season descends deeper into the show's meticulously-crafted mythos and cements the series as one of streaming's strongest and strangest science fiction stories." Critics referred to season 2 as ominous and much more bizarre than the first season, and that the series managed to subvert several tropes regarding the concepts of time travel.
The third season received critical acclaim. It holds an approval rating of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 23 reviews, with an average rating of 8.4/10. The site's critical consensus states, "Darks final chapter is as thrilling as it is bewildering, bringing viewers full circle without sacrificing any of the show's narrative complexities." At Metacritic the season received an average score of 92, based on 4 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Awards and nominations

The series was nominated for the Goldene Kamera TV awards 2018 in three categories: best series; best actress: Karoline Eichhorn as Charlotte Doppler; and best actor: Oliver Masucci as Ulrich Nielsen. None of these nominations resulted in awards, but Louis Hofmann received the "Best Newcomer" award in recognition of his lead role in Dark. In August 2018, the series received a nomination in the category Best TV Show in the Brazilian BreakTudo Awards 2018, and actor Louis Hofmann was nominated in the category "International Actor".
The series was awarded the 2018 Grimme-Preis award in the category "fiction", which singled out the following cast and crew for awards:
  1. Jantje Friese
  2. Baran bo Odar
  3. Udo Kramer
  4. Simone Baer
  5. Angela Winkler
  6. Louis Hofmann
  7. Oliver Masucci
The actors named are awarded as "representatives for the full cast".