DARK - A Netflix series well worth a watch
I'm pretty sure I've never written a review on a TV show or movie but I feel that the Netflix series, Dark, deserves a mention. If I had to sum this series up in a sentence, I would say this; Dark is like the film Back to the Future mixed with Inception, then mixed again with Steven King's, IT...and a pinch of Romeo & Juliet.
Dark tells the story of a town in Germany, named Winden, and its residents. The year is 2019 and the story opens with the suicide of a reclusive father Named Michael who leaves behind his wife, Hannah, and teenage son, Jonas. Before killing himself, Michael writes a letter intended for his son, Jonas, but mysteriously addresses it to his mother with the request that the letter is not opened until a specific date in the future. The story then moves to the Nielsen family...
On the surface, the Nielsens appear to be the archetypal nuclear family, however, it isn't long before you discover there are skeletons hiding in the shadows. The Father, Ulrich, is the Local Police chief, and when the series begins he is in trying to discover the whereabouts of a local child who has recently vanished. For Ulrich, this case brings back haunting memories from when he was a teenager, as 33-years prior to this case Ulrich's younger brother (Mads Nielsen) also vanished without a trace and has never been found since. The two cases appear to be unrelated so for Ulrich, this is just an uncomfortable coincidence and the task of finding the missing boy is given no extraordinary efforts. But that soon changes when events get a little closer to home...
Winden's Nuclear Power Plant
In 1953 the town of Winden approved the construction of a nuclear power plant, a project championed by a wealthy resident named Bernd Doppler.
Even to the present day, the power plant is still owned by Bernd Doppler's family, with Bernd's daughter (Claudia Tiedermann) running the facility during the 1980's after which she then passed the reigns onto her son-in-law(Aleksander Tiederman). Bernd's introverted son (Helge Doppler) was also employed as a security guard during Claudia's management, which is a fact, and a character, not to be overlooked...
The Cave
Standing between the town of Winden and the power plant is Winden forest and hidden inside this forest is a sinister-looking cave that seems to link the outside world directly to the nuclear facility. It is here that the story begins its twists and turns and it is an event surrounding this cave that draws Ulrich Nielsen deeper and more personally into his investigations...
Where When is Mikkel Nielsen?
When Ulrich's 3 children(Martha, Magnus & Mikkel), accompanied by Bartosz Tiedermann & Franziska Doppler, decide to walk through the forest at night, they soon find themselves outside the cave entrance. It isn't long before they are running scared after strange noises coming from within the cave startle the group. In a blind panic they all take off running, but it isn't until they reach the road that they realise Mikkel has been left behind. After retracing their steps in a fruitless search for Mikkel the group return home and tell their parents that Mikkel has vanished.
The Nielsen parents are frantic and Ulrich uses everything in his power as an inspector to help find his son. Suspicions begin to rise about the powerplant and when Aleksander Tiederman refuses to let Ulrich search the facility it just amplifies his fears.
Whilst all this is going on the show opens the door to its viewers watching and this is when we see not where, but when young Mikkel has gone...
Appearing out of the cave, Mikkel stands alone. It is daylight and the young boy is obviously bewildered by what's just happened. He leaves the woods and walks back into town, not noticing all the slight differences around him. Arriving at his own front door, Mikkel is left confused when it is opened by a young teenage boy he doesn't recognise...His confusion is then compounded when a person from inside the house addresses the teenage boy answering the door by the name, Ulrich...
Sic mundus creatus est
Somehow Mikkel has traveled back in time to the year 1986 and with no idea how he arrived there, it looks like he is trapped forever. However, this is only the beginning, or is it the end? Only time will tell...
As the story develops and secrets are discovered and uncovered Mikkel isn't the only person to travel through time. By the end of this 3-series long suspenseful thriller, the people of Windon are as interwoven as the events that lead them to who and where they are today. This brilliantly scripted and amazingly produced TV series is a must-watch for anyone. The layers that overlap are ingenious in their design and execution and the characters develop with every twist and turn. There are so many references to all manner of theories and this show will have you guessing, wondering, and speculating the whole way through. The Greek tale of Ariadne also runs through the core of this spell-binding story but the analogies don't stop there. This is an inter-dimensional tale of secret societies, good vs evil, and the future working together with the past in order to find its origin...
Enjoy the show, ladies and gentlemen. This series is one that's not to be overlooked, even if it does mean you have to read the subtitles(or learn to speak German?). Anyone who has already watched this, I would love to hear what you thought about it, so please leave a comment. For those of you ready to begin the journey, hold onto your thinking caps and break out the popcorn!
