'Dark' season 2 demands all your attention as it warps together various timelines, multiple relationships and complicated story arcs
Netflix's German production 'Dark' goes beyond being a mere sci-fi thriller. Creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese have created a thrilling, completely insane show that combines maddening time travel and gruesome deaths.
In its essence, 'Dark' is a family saga with a supernatural twist. The show is set in the present day German town of Winden where the disappearance of two young children exposes the double lives and fractured relationships among four families. In 10, hour-long episodes, the story takes on an exciting turn that ties the town to incidents that took place in 1986.
The first season ended with Jonas Kahnwald (played by Louis Hofmann) finding himself in the future in 2052. While he finds himself trapped in the future, he is simultaneously and desperately trying to return to 2020 – his present [considering that the show first aired on December 1, 2017, and the premise is set in 2020, which is still the future].
Meanwhile, his friends Martha, Magnus, and Franziska, are trying to uncover how exactly Bartosz is involved in the mysterious incidents occurring in their small hometown. More and more people are drawn into the events orchestrated by an obscure figure who seemingly controls everything that is connected throughout various time zones.
The second season of 'Dark' premiered on Netflix on June 21, 2019, and since then has its audiences from across the globe raving and more.
It is also in the second season that the apocalypse finally arrives at the small town of Winden – something that we have been waiting since season one. While it was always prophesied, it is now that the nuclear plant experiences a meltdown when the radioactive material hidden away in the cave is finally exposed, syncing with wormholes opening across other timelines.
And that is just the beginning of it.
The second season of 'Dark' features alternate realities that weren't seen in the first season. This could prove to be an important clue for Jonas to figure out the secret of the space-time continuum — to go back into time and solve it. But this is not before things go bad.
Just before his house is blown away, Jonas' future self Adam (played by Dietrich Hollinderbäumer) kills his girlfriend Martha (Lisa Vicari) to put him on the path to becoming a tyrant. But Jonas is rescued from a Martha from another world and they use a time-traveling orb to get the correct dimension. This sets him up in traversing to multiverses and looking for allies.
It's complicated, isn't it?
That is what 'Dark' is. It is safe to say that the second season of the show is much more complicated than the first one. When we say that the show requires all your attention, we don't mean you can't look at your phone when the show is on.
To truly understand 'Dark' and what goes on the show, one needs to be completely invested in its cause. That begins with reading up on time travel because the show delves even deeper than your average time-traveling show. Next, the show is really screwed up with its many incestuous relationships. At one point in the show, there is so much happening that we had to go back and rewatch it – and this was literally the first episode of season two.
Watching 'Dark' is a commitment. It's not a show that you can watch on the couch with the intention of passing out. It is a show the requires homework, group discussions and debates.