'Dark': Time travel has never been so intense as Netflix sci-fi thriller enters second season
The first season of Netflix's German series 'Dark' ended on such a mind-boggling note that audiences spent the next year and a half indulging in the plethora of theories and paradoxes.
The second season, which was out of Netflix on June 21, has now managed to raise the bar even higher.
Amidst the plethora of young adult fantasies and an endless list of mind-numbingly bad shows that Netflix invested in, this time-travel drama sticks out like a sore thumb.
'Dark', in its essence, is a supernatural family saga.
Set in the fictional town of Winden in the present, the show begins with the disappearance of two young children.
This disappearance brings to fore the double, complex lives and broken relationships among four families.
The storyline then shifts back and forth from the present day to 1986 and then 33 years further into the past in 1953.
The second season of the show sees Jonas finding himself trapped in the future and desperately trying to return to 2020.
Meanwhile, his friends Martha, Magnus, and Franziska try to uncover how 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 different time zones.
The series revolves around a cave which acts as a time-traveling tunnel and sends people back in time in periods of 33 years, trapping them in the past.
A lot of the first season of the show is set in 2019, which was the future when the show first released in 2017. The show hops back and forth between 1986 and 1953 following the people who find themselves displaced and living in the wrong era.
Created by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, 'Dark' is not an easy show to watch.
In fact, it is far more complex than many sci-fi time-traveling thrillers you may have watched.
However, that shouldn't keep you away from the show—the effort that you put into understanding and unraveling the story is definitely rewarding.
It is not an easy watch also because it keeps shuffling between time zones and the actors only keep piling up.
The casting team, however, has done a marvelous job of choosing actors who could very well, in reality, be the younger or older versions of each other.
The story gets more and more convoluted with every episode, to say the least. There are new timelines introduced and essential characters added.
Even if you have watched the first season, you'd want to brush up on it because 'Dark' is best enjoyed as a marathon.
Be prepared to let all the paradoxes take you over. What is a time-travel adventure without the confusion that follows?
Makers of 'Dark' have built an entire online encyclopedia explaining their universe. But, of course, it acts more as a referential encyclopedia than an explainer in itself.
After the first season, a lot of critics and viewers compared the show to Netflix's 'Stranger Things'.
One thing that sets both the adventure thrillers apart is that 'Dark' is very slow and 'Stranger Things' is extremely fast-paced.
The first season had many loose ends with most characters completely unaware of the time-traveling shenanigans that Winden is host to.
The second season has everyone trying to figure out what is going on.
Multiple characters are traveling through time, visiting their grandparents, children, their own pasts, and even committing murder.
'Dark' is now streaming on Netflix and is definitely worth binge-watching.
