JUST FINISHED WATCHING: DARK (2017–2020)

A family saga with a supernatural twist, set in a German town where the disappearance of two young children exposes the relationships among four families.

TRIVIA: Many of the forest scenes were filmed at the Fahrtechnikakademie Kallinchen near Berlin. This place is a former military testing area of the German Democratic Republic.

The tattoo on Noah's back, and in a picture in the 1986 version of the local hospital, is of The Emerald Tablet, an ancient text, part of what is known as "Hermetica", a collection of occultist 2nd Century Greco-Egyptian "wisdom texts". It describes, among other things, alchemy experiments, transmutation, and the creation of the universe. More importantly, it discusses the idea that both large and small actions are all connected and influence each other, which is a central theme of the series. Also, conspiracy theorists claim, since according to some people, the text is much older than the language it contains, that it might be from somewhere unknown, some claim aliens, some claim time-travel.

The central motif of the series soundtrack mimics the "Doppler Effect" (a high pitch transitioning to a low pitch), perhaps alluding to the centrality of the Doppler family to the story.

The haunting intro song named 'Goodbye' is from the German musician Apparat. This song has been used for various movie trailers and TV shows. One of the most noteworthy uses of this music is in the background to a climatic scene in the end of Season 4 of Breaking Bad. The episode was called 'Face Off'.

The shape of the nuclear power plant cooling towers is the same shape as the Einstein-Rosen Bridge, which is discussed in the excerpts from H.G. Tannhaus' book, A Journey through Time.

The Raider candy bars that are frequently seen are a real product. In the UK, where they originated, as well as the USA, and much of the rest of the world, they are known by the name Twix.

MY VERDICT: I’m not going to lie, even though I was in from the start and during the first series found the premise interesting, it was soon hard work and felt very repetitive. I can apprciate the work that went into the storytelling but this is not a show to watch when you’re tired and want to relax. There are a lot of characters to keep track of and details to remember. Probably the most annoying thing about watching this on Netflix is that if you watch it dubbed then the english subtitles do not match what the characters are saying. If you like to watch with english subs like me it’s very distracting. So I did watch most of this in German with English subs. It’s whatever your preference is though and I might just be picky.

I would recommend this if you like something like Stranger Things but a bit more adult and if you like mysteries like Lost or From. But if I wasn’t watching it with someone else then I probably wouldn’t have finished it and I don’t feel like the ending was enough pay-off especially as it was such a long journey to get there.

WATCH THIS HERE…

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