After the letdown of Stranger Things' finale, I discovered a television masterpiece that deserves far more attention: Netflix's German thriller Dark. This dark, twisting series offers some of the most gripping and intellectually satisfying viewing I have ever experienced.
A Disappointing Climax Leads to a Brilliant Discovery
Like countless viewers, I devoted my New Year's Day to watching the concluding episode of Stranger Things, where nearly a decade of anticipation culminated in what felt like a disappointing, cheesy, effects-laden conclusion. Storylines were abandoned, character arcs were thrown aside, and loose threads proliferated like holes in a second-hand jumper. Feeling thoroughly let down, I began hunting for something to bridge the entertainment gap, which led me directly to Dark.
The Underappreciated German Gem
This German drama initially launched in December 2017, merely twelve months after Stranger Things' debut series aired, yet it never quite achieved the widespread recognition it truly merited. Dark begins in the small community of Winden, where a boy vanishes without a trace, and the hunt for him exposes dark secrets and mysteries that have plagued this German settlement throughout multiple generations.
Jonas and the Central Mystery
The central figure, Jonas, is battling to manage his life following his father's suicide. He ventures into the forest with his friends to locate a drug stash belonging to the vanished teenager Erik Obendorf. Nevertheless, whilst there, circumstances shift dramatically and another young boy disappears completely, setting in motion events that will unravel reality itself.
A Brain-Twisting, Intellectual Thriller
What unfolds is a genuinely brain-twisting, intellectual thriller as Jonas frantically attempts to reverse history and bring stability back to Winden. Where Stranger Things stumbled at the final fence, Dark maintains its vice-like grip right through to its astonishing conclusion. The series is intricately woven, connecting timelines and paradoxes that make viewers feel like noir sleuths stood before a massive conspiracy board, frantically searching for missing links.
Characters Trapped in Time
The characters find themselves ensnared whilst attempting to work out how to alter tomorrow by tampering with yesterday – often doomed to replay the same mistakes repeatedly as doomsday approaches. Daughters birth their own mothers, weathered detectives get locked up for offences they didn't commit, and destiny's crimson thread snakes through the decades binding everyone together in an inescapable web, all tied together by a brilliant, foreboding musical score.
Critical Acclaim Without Mainstream Recognition
Despite all three seasons of Dark boasting approval ratings between 90% and 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, it never quite cracked the big time. Perhaps because it's entirely in German, perhaps because it echoes some of Stranger Things' themes and got overshadowed, but in my view, absolutely everyone should watch this programme. Viewers who caught it branded it an "all time masterpiece" in Rotten Tomatoes critiques, with the opening season scoring 90%, the second hitting 100%, and the third achieving 97%.
The Ultimate Viewer's Regret
My sole disappointment from experiencing Dark is that I cannot wipe my memory and experience it fresh once more. I devoured it across several weeks – each episode left me craving more, and in a thousand lifetimes I never could have predicted how this remarkable series concludes. This German thriller represents television storytelling at its most ambitious and successful, proving that sometimes the best gems remain hidden in plain sight on our streaming services.
