Dark (TV series)

Did You Know?

• The song 'Goodbye' by Apparat in collaboration with Soap&Skin was used as the opening theme.
• The series finale features Soap&Skin's cover of 'What a Wonderful World' and Nena's 'Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann'.
• The third movement of Caroline Shaw's Partita for 8 Voices was featured prominently in season one.

Overview

Children begin vanishing from the German town of Winden, exposing fractured relationships, double lives, and dark pasts among four families, unraveling a mystery that spans four generations. The first season starts in 2019 but later includes 1986 and 1953 via time travel, as members of the central families discover a wormhole in the cave system beneath the local nuclear power plant. Secrets concerning the Kahnwald, Nielsen, Doppler, and Tiedemann families come to light, and their lives crumble as ties are exposed. The second season continues the families' attempts to reunite with missing loved ones several months after the first-season finale, set in 2020, 1987, and 1954, with additional storylines in 2053 and 1921. It introduces Sic Mundus Creatus Est, a major faction in the battle for the fate of Winden and the world, and counts down to the apocalypse. The third season follows the four families after the apocalypse in 2020 and introduces a parallel world tethered to the first, adding storylines in 1888 and in the second world's 2019 and 2052.

Cast and characters

The narrative of Dark begins in 2019, but quickly expands across multiple timelines, including 1986, 1953, and a brief glimpse of 2052 at the end of the first season. Many characters are played by different actors at different ages. The second season picks up a few months later, moving the main stories to 2020, 1987, and 1954, while the future storyline continues into 2053 and a new timeline in 1921 is introduced. The third season adds an 1888 storyline and a parallel world with alternate versions of key characters. The supporting cast includes Jennipher Antoni as Ulla Obendorf, Nils Brunkhorst as a science teacher, Lena Dörrie as Clara Schrage, Tara Fischer as a friend of Katharina in the 1980s, Leopold Hornung as Torben Wöller, Tom Jahn as Jürgen Obendorf, Anna König as Edda Heimann, Vico Mücke as Yasin Friese, Henning Peker as Udo Meier, Barbara Philipp as Selma Ahrens, Paul Radom as Erik Obendorf, Anton Rubtsov as Benni/Bernadette, Sammy Scheuritzel as Kilian Obendorf, Anna Schönberg as Donata Kraus, Andreas Schröders as a power plant worker, Mieke Schymura as Justyna Jankowski, Axel Werner as Gustav Tannhaus, Lea Willkowsky as Jasmin Trewen, and Roland Wolf as a police officer.

Production

Netflix approved the series in February 2016 for a first season of ten one-hour episodes. Principal photography began on 18 October 2016 in and around Berlin, including Saarmund and Tremsdorf in Brandenburg, and ended in March 2017. The church where Jonas meets Noah was filmed at the Stahnsdorf South-Western Cemetery in Stahnsdorf. The high school location was the Reinfelder Schule in Berlin's Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf neighbourhood. The bridge and train tracks were filmed on the abandoned Wannsee-Stahnsdorf railway in the Düppeler forest near Lake Wannsee. The power plant gates are those at the Olympic Stadium Bell Tower; the nuclear reactor towers were computer-animated. The bus stop and T-intersection scene was filmed at Fahrtechnik Akademie in Zossen. The truck stop with Benni's caravan is at Zollamt Berlin-Dreilinden. Exterior hospital shots were filmed at Lungenklinik Heckeshorn in Wannsee. Library scenes were filmed at the University of Applied Sciences for Finance in Königs Wusterhausen and Berlin State Library. The series was filmed in 4K resolution. Principal photography for the second season took place in Berlin from June 2018 until November 2018. Filming for the third season began in May 2019 and wrapped in December 2019.

Reception

Dark has been widely praised by critics and frequently appears on lists of the best television series from 2017, 2019, and 2020, as well as among the top shows of the 2010s, the 21st century, and all time. Vulture named it one of the most notable series of the 2010s in its guide to the decade’s TV. The BBC placed it 58th on its list of the best 21st-century series, and BuzzFeed ranked it among the 25 greatest TV shows ever. The first season earned largely positive reviews, with many critics drawing comparisons to Twin Peaks and Stranger Things. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 90% approval rating and an average score of 7.4 out of 10 from 48 reviews, with the site’s consensus calling it a “creepy, cinematic triumph of sci-fi noir.” Metacritic gave it a weighted score of 61 out of 100 based on ten reviews. In The Guardian, Lanre Bakare awarded it four out of five stars, highlighting its tone, complex narrative, and pacing. Steve Greene of IndieWire gave it a “B,” noting the show’s energetic feel despite its clinical setup. Emily St. James of Vox rated it three and a half out of five, describing it as enjoyable to decipher but ultimately hard to care about beyond the puzzle of connections. Ariana Romero of Refinery29 observed that the series is darker and more layered than Stranger Things. Some criticism came from Reason’s Glenn Garvin, who pointed to a heavy-handed message, unsympathetic characters, and a lack of originality in certain elements. The Los Angeles Times listed Dark among the best TV series of 2017, and Thrillist ranked it the 18th best show of that year.