New Series - Dark - on Netflix

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by dgstrat, Dec 6, 2017.

  1. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Ulrich didn't exist at all at the end of the series. All the characters descended from Jonas and Martha ceased to be, hence Ulrich's absence from the dinner scene at the very end.
     
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  2. MikeInFla

    MikeInFla Glad to be out of Florida

    Location:
    Kalamazoo, MI
    I didn't catch that, thanks for pointing it out. I think I was more focused on the guy who lost an eye.
     
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  3. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Katharina tries to get the key card from her mother specifically to help Ulrich escape. That, of course, does not go well. A couple of videos I watched on YouTube last night offer some half-baked explanations about why Noah built the "electric chair" time machine and had Helge kidnap boys (why always boys?) to put in it. To me, that plot line is almost a McGuffin ... it gets everything started but doesn't make much sense.
     
  4. JackBnimble

    JackBnimble Forum Resident

    True but remember the Hannah we saw for 3 seasons was not the same Hannah we saw at the dinner table.
     
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  5. JackBnimble

    JackBnimble Forum Resident

     
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  6. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Ah, thanks for explaining. I had absolutely no idea. We need a narrator to explain what the F is happening in this show.

    Yeah, that was yet another "WTF" issue in the show that went absolutely nowhere. I liked the show, but there was no real payoff for the kidnapped/blinded children plotline.
     
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  7. JackBnimble

    JackBnimble Forum Resident

    The entire Noah time machine plot made no sense. We did not find out why only boys were used or what happened to them or to the flocks of birds that fell dead from the sky and exhibited the same symptoms as the kids. I understand that Noah was trying to find his daughter Charlotte and that the chair was an early attempt at time travel but that whole story line pretty much disappeared after season 1 . If there was some explanation for what happened I missed it.
     
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  8. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    You and me both! I was baffled with that aspect of the show. I totally got that Jonah was obsessed with trying to reset time so that both he and Martha could exist.
     
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  9. thegage

    thegage Forum Currency Nerd

    I got halfway through the first season before bailing, mostly because of the pace—and I usually don’t mind slow series—but I have to admit also because it takes way more than the usual amount of attention to follow. It’s a series that I think would benefit from knowing what the end is, and all of the twists along the way, before getting into it.

    JohnK
     
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  10. JackBnimble

    JackBnimble Forum Resident

    There are a number of channels devoted to Dark on YouTube that explain the ending and various plot twists if you want to try out your theory. I watched all 3 seasons and I agree you had to pay closer attention to what was going on. I also watched a couple of the You Tube channels and they were a lot of help. Having said that I'm not sure I would have enjoyed the show as much if I knew what was coming up next ,how all the twists played out, and especially how it ends. But that's just me.
     
  11. Etienne Hanratty

    Etienne Hanratty Forum Resident

    Location:
    uk
    As someone who inadvertently stumbled across a massive, series defining
    i.e. Adam’s true identity
    by checking
    The cast list
    on Wikipedia, I’d caution against that approach.
     
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  12. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Maybe I'm a masochist, but my favorite aspect of watching this show was the very fact that it required active engagement in every episode. It reminds me a bit of watching silent films - if you're not asking yourself "Who is this guy?" or noticing subtle things like wedding rings and black arm bands to indicate life changes over time, you have a good chance of being lost. I avoided all the online sources until I finished the entire series. I was honestly surprised at how satisfying the ending was, I was some how expecting less.

    I still think there is large, unexplained gap between teenaged Jonas and Martha, who were good, caring people with consciences, and Adam and Eve, who were cruel, self-centered, manipulative and violent.
     
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  13. JackBnimble

    JackBnimble Forum Resident

    I too avoided all the online stuff until I was done. In between teenagers Jonas and the two? Marthas and Adam and Eva there were older versions of both although the older version of Martha was not seen until season 3 Jonas was there from season 1. Agree that we did not really see what led Jonas to become what he became since the older bearded Jonas still seemed like a good guy. Liked the ending too even though at first I had a WTF moment or two.
     
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  14. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Yes, I completely agree: you couldn't "casually" watch this show -- you had to really pay attention and note which character was which, where the scene was happening, when the scene was happening, and what went on in the previous episode. I kind of wish we had a "recap" promo prior to each episode so we'd be reminded "Previously on Dark" before the episode started.
     
  15. Cokelike-

    Cokelike- Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, Oh
    It's unclear to me why Jonas/Adam has all that scarring. I know it was said that the body isn't made for time travel and all that but what was he doing in all this traveling that was apparently so much that he ended up this way? How come Eva wasn't scarred? She was just smarter to figure out the things she needed to with less time traveling? I really thought there was going to be some reveal that Adam wasn't Jonas. That seemed to me to be the only reason this guy needed to be so unrecognizable. Sort of shades of the ending of Lost in there. With the whole idea of Jonas and Martha needing to "Let Go" of their obsessions. Their endless cycles. Once again, the solution to everything is the need to "Let Go". I loved the mystery of the show. Picking up on little connections, figuring things out. The actors and actresses were all very strong, even if some of the younger ones weren't altogether 100% completely convincing. I think the most difficult thing about the show was there were possibly just too many characters. I spent a lot of time wondering why I was really supposed to care so much about Jonas and Martha and whether or not they were going to be together. Really, I can only remember about 2 or 3 major scenes they had together, as teenagers. I feel like there should have been a lot more time devoted to building this relationship on the screen. Making the viewer actually care about them. Instead, just when something was getting interesting between them, it would cut away to Helge sitting there going "tick, tock" or some other character doing whatever. I mean, there were a lot of characters! Regina, Charlotte, Claudia... I'm not even sure I could tell you which did what. Anyways, excellent show. Inventive concept, executed very well. Great acting, editing, sound, scenery. Many, many good things going for it. I really only have minor issues.
     
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  16. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Claudia seemed to do as much, if not more, time traveling than Jonas. Not that it provides an explanation within the plot, but I think Adam was horribly scarred to reflect the rotting of his interior self, and also simply to hide his true identity from the audience for a period of time. Kind of funny, in retrospect, that Jonas wanted to end his relationship with Martha when he realized that she was his aunt. Small potatoes compared to being his own great-great grand son, or two characters being each other's mothers!
     
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  17. joombo

    joombo Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    it's one of my favorite shows on Netflix, anyway. I even started using vpn to unblock us netflix and watch my favorite shows from everywhere. That's convy and helps to bypass all restictions. I'm on season 2, ep 4 right now. Awesome show.
     
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  18. noname74

    noname74 Allegedly Canadian

    Location:
    .
    I just binged the three seasons over the last couple of weeks. I haven’t watched a show like this in awhile where I had to actively think about almost every scene to try to figure out where and when they were happening. I enjoyed it however it’s not something you can watch while doing something else..it demands your full attention to understand each scene. Even then there were some scenes that would end and I would have no idea who was on it and where it was happening.
     
  19. unclefred

    unclefred Coastie with the Moastie

    Location:
    Oregon Coast
    And what a dark hint for the world future when she reappears to birth a new Jonas at the end of the series
     
    Last edited: Jul 23, 2020
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  20. LarsO

    LarsO Forum Resident

    I’ve heard that electronic scary sound effect (deep long note that goes bwooooah) in many movies /series lately. But when did it start? One of Nolan’s movies?
     
  21. vegafleet

    vegafleet Forum Resident

    I watched the whole thing back to back and I am not sure it hangs together. Why the electric chair thing? That and the killing of the kids is dropped after the first season. I think that existed only as a creepy audience hook, but went nowhere.

    My question: when Martha visits the gang in the 1890's (why?), there is a scene where Bartoz tells Martha there is something he wants to show her and they leave the bedroom they are in. Do we ever get to see what he shows her? I kept waiting for that next scene but it never happened that I can remember.

    I think a lot of seasons 2 and 3 was almost all padding and filler around the final ending. Too many Jonases, Marthas, Adams, Claudias, Evas flying around time and space with no discernible purpose for much of it. They go somewhere to do something, get there and change their minds, and they are off to somewhere or sometime else to do something else with no obvious purpose. Over and Over and Over. And everybody speaking in riddles when they want somebody else to do something. Just tell them what is it that you want! A little mystery is OK but even young Jonas and young Martha seem ready to kill themselves over all this verbal obfuscation, never mind the apocalypse.

    The last scene was cool IF (a big if) you happen to realize in the moment who is missing and why. Otherwise it just seems like another random alternate universe gathering.
    I did not get it until I saw an explanation in YouTube.
     
  22. vegafleet

    vegafleet Forum Resident

    Exactly my experience. Too much running around in circles between places and times, every one of the "olds" going around and around to tell lies to the "youngs" ad infinitum for most of S02 and S03 to pad out the series. I still cannot figure out why they had to kill the kids and dump them where they would be found. I guess the writers were trying to hook the audience into thinking this was a serial-killer mystery, not an inscrutable sci-fy show.

    At the end, I don't think the internal logic of the show holds all the way through. And I think it changes with each season. We are never sure if the goal is to assure or to stop the apocalypse. Apparently the answer is neither one.
     
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  23. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    I agree that the killer "time travel chair" mystery was never adequately explained. I think the motivation for it was to have pinpoint time travel, rather than being limited to the 33-year windows through the portal.

    Claudia's goal was to stop the apocalypse. Adam's goal was to ensure it. Adam's point of view was a rather demented twist on Hinduism/Buddhism - to stop suffering the cycle needed to be broken, and the only way to break it was annihilation of everyone. Claudia knew the correct "origin" (the death of the professor's family) and Adam had the wrong "origin" (the birth of his son with Eve). So Claudia knew the cycle could be broken and the apocalypse could be avoided. In the end Adam got his wish as well, as he ceased to be.
     
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  24. vegafleet

    vegafleet Forum Resident

    To Ray's point: Adam's, Eva's and Claudia's motivations and endgames seem unclear and ever-shifting over the 3 seasons.

    But to the point of the "origin" being the death of HG Tannhaus's family and that being the spark for the creation of the first time machine, they seem to have tried to mitigate that by giving him the baby Charlotte to raise. Tannhaus tells Charlotte that the night his family died two women (presumably a combination of Claudia, Elizabeth and/or Charlotte herself) left him the baby girl that grows up as Charlotte. Presumably this was done (but not stated) to mitigate his pain and loneliness and not to be inspired to build the time machine. But if the goal is to stop Tannhaus from building the time machine, why not just kill him at anytime before he does it. Seems to me that is the simpler, surest way, and these people have no compunction about murdering others. There seems to be decades between the death of his family and when he turns on his time machine. I think it is there that the series logic falls apart.


    Other questions:

    1) Why does Adam look like that?
    2) Where does Jonas spend the time between being teen Jonas and middle aged Jonas? Same for Martha.
    3) Why does Eva cut Martha's face?
    4) Who created the blueprints for the suitcase time machine that Tannhaus builts?
    5) What does Bartoz show Martha in the 1890's?
    and most importantly,
    6) How, when and where does the hare-lipped guy meet and impregnate Agnes? Wouldn't that be the "origin"?

    I think the best part of the series was what happens to the lesser characters in their time travels. The cosmic battle of good vs. evil of Adam and Eva just seems to go around in circles for far too long.
     
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  25. Veltri

    Veltri ♪♫♫♪♪♫♫♪

    Location:
    Canada
    Just finished this series. A lot to digest, but this one seems clear.
    Adam got the first scar on his arm trying to adjust the 1890 time machine. The time machine must have needed so many adjustments or malfunctions that he got completely scarred.
     

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