DARK: It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.

Every once in a while comes a series so melodramatic that there is not a single moment of levity in its entire runtime, and yet it’s actually good. Great even.

Dark is a German Sci-fi Thriller TV series produced by Netflix in which the core storytelling device is time traveling, but fear not, they actually managed to make it interesting and well… not stupid. One of the show’s greatest achievements is the way it perfectly takes the viewer and weaves their way around the ridiculously tangled up timeline of the story. We bear witness to events as they unfold at different points in time, events that at first may make us wonder about their meaning or relevance, creating a very dynamic experience that reveals the story’s secrets gradually, never giving away too much, but also not giving you so little so as to leave you wondering why you’re still watching the dumb thing. The show’s attention to detail, pacing and sleek editing are all part of what makes it just so engrossing to watch. That along with the fantastic sound work too, the background music for the show is composed not only of chilling string arrangements but those are accompanied also by these very creative and effective choir segments that really accentuate the drama going on on your screen.

When talking about this show it wouldn’t be right not to bring up just how much it owes to a show like Twin Peaks, right from the very first episode, the story begins with a death that reverberates through the lives of a bunch of small town folk and becomes a catalyst for a whole bunch of strange happenings that begin to occur. Someone ends up going missing and there you have another parallel: Laura and Ronette. And now I understand you might be thinking I’m reaching here, but you’ll be singing a different tune once you hear the first “It is happening again” being uttered. That’s another thing about this show, and it’s something that I’d count as a negative in all fairness, it likes to throw around references to things at times that just come off as a little corny and sometimes downright obnoxious. Not all the time of course, as if that was the case I might not be singing its praises the way I am now, moments like that are few and far between. But do expect them, especially in the third season where you’ll hear the matrix being referenced a whole bunch of times and every time you’re expected to take it dead serious.

That actually takes me back to my initial point! This series just does not let up, at all. As its title so perfectly hints the show creates and maintains a very somber, serious tone from the start, and it carries that tone all the way to the end. To many, lets say, special people this will be great news as the idea of a show not always being a certain way doesn’t sit well with them. But to me it struck as a little odd. I can’t really say that I consider it to be a bad thing at all, but after finishing the show and looking back on it I couldn’t help but realize I didn’t laugh a single time. Now I know what you might be thinking… “Well not everything needs to be funny!” and I hear you! It isn’t that I wanted it to be funny, and it also isn’t that I wanted every character to be a relentless quip-master like they came straight out of a Marvel movie, but lets be real for a second here: In a show that ran for 3 seasons, each comprised of around 8-10 episodes, all which were around an hour each… there is not a single moment where a character has something goofy or amusing happen to them? I feel personally that in life absurdity is a constant, something we can rely on, there’s often something (whether intentional or not) that we can point at and say “Isn’t that ridiculous?”. To me the fact that there is absolutely nothing like that in the show takes just a little bit away from it, as it feels like there’s a bit of humanity missing in there, a bit of truth that is not being accurately portrayed and the result is a show that can at times feel very melodramatic. Everyone’s so intense and serious all the goddamn time.

But perhaps that’s just me, maybe there’s plenty of laughs to be had but it’s all in a foreign German humor that I simply don’t understand. Could be.

Leaving that aside, I want to get to the point I was aiming for with the title I gave this review. Now while I have already said plenty on how much I liked this show, I need to also give out a warning, or I guess just my humble opinion on what a terrible disappointment the third season was. Like, holy shit, I still can’t believe it! It’s almost as if everyone that had worked on the first two seasons had fucked off and left a bunch of clueless people at the helm. Honestly I might be being too harsh undeservedly, but I have to speak my mind with honesty, it felt like such a downgrade somehow. The third season was plagued with tacky transitions between scenes using effects straight out of The Big Bang theory or something, the story somehow lost its charm too, suddenly I just didn’t care about any of it. It took everything that had been built upon previously and threw it away, almost literally, but not quite. It’s really hard to explain. What I’m trying to say is at the end of the day, the show lost its slickness, it lost its impact and the spell it had on me from the start and while being sensible I’d have to say that it’s really not as bad as I make it out to be, in reality my feelings were such that I had made great expectations and they came crumbling down, and now I’m here whining about the series’ finale out of sheer disappointment.

So having come to this point I must now leave you with a final thought or some form of conclusion, but can I do it properly? Or have I built up your expectations to such degree that whatever this paragraph ends up looking like it just won’t cut it? As the title of this article states: It is not the destination that’s important, but the journey. Is the show worth watching despite its awful conclusion? I’m a little on the fence but I’m certainly leaning towards a Yes. I sincerely feel like, despite its few shortcomings (ending included), it’s a show that is worth being experienced just because those first two seasons are really something to behold. A true breath of fresh air for TV storytelling all in all, and a real wild ride.

Thank you so much for reading and I’ll see you next time!