Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann – discussion about the series “Dark”

JOANNA BIERNACIK : Dear friend, everything indicates that the next end of the world is behind us. And what!

JARKA TROCKA : My brain has exploded at least several times during these last episodes. I absolutely did not expect how this story would turn out.

JOANNA : I still smell burnt hair – no history has allowed me to burn so much, heat up my brain ganglia to such an extent… and after all “brainbusters” are my specialty! Maybe, for a good start, let’s summarize what we actually saw: we have Jonas Kahnwald, an ordinary teenager living in Winden – a town in an undefined part of Germany. A few months earlier his father had taken his life, and now, to make matters worse, the kid of a friendly family melts into the air. That’s how it started, quite intimate and rather clichéd, and we ended up with… ah, does it make sense to summarize the plot here?

JARKA : You can try, but no one will understand it without listing family trees (which are fortunately available on the internet). I myself, while watching season 2 and 3, had a permanent connection graph, who with whom, so that I would not miss anything by accident and, of course, to appreciate even more how comprehensively these relationships were planned by the creators. But okay, we have to start somewhere here. So we have the start of Season Three: Jonas is taken to an alternate world. There, too, things are bad, and we – the audience – wonder what the beginning of these complexities will turn out to be, and who is ultimately the “good ones”.

JOANNA : This cheat sheet is not such a bad idea. I admit that at the beginning I felt a bit lost, and the faces (especially the more advanced heroes) merged into one. At one point, I even considered taking notes, although in the end I did not have them. In anticipation of the third season, however, I repeated the previous two and I feel that it will not be my last time. I am very impressed with the lace work that the creators did at the stage of designing the threads and connections (it is worth mentioning that Dark was planned as a trilogy from the beginning). I tried to drill down, I waited for some stumble, some inconsistency … I did not notice. Chapeau bass .

It’s interesting that you mention the “good guys”. In my interpretation, there are no clearly positive or negative characters in Dark – there are people who sometimes do bad things for good intentions (like Ulrich, who is willing to sacrifice one child to prevent future harm, and finally Adam and Eve, who allow various shadowy deeds in the name of – according to them – a higher necessity). How many heroes, so many motivations. I like this ambivalence, this inquisitiveness, this accuracy in building not only connections and paradoxical genealogical flavors, but also psychological portraits. In my opinion, the plot, although addictive and engaging, is a secondary issue here for the reception of the whole. Certainly, a lot is lost by focusing only on the most obvious aspect during the screening.

JARKA : I agree, it’s hard to find any discrepancy in this story (although in my case I would take into account that I simply might not understand something). Regarding the characters, I liked some of them and I strongly supported them mentally during the following events, which is why I felt so sad when many of them lost their lives in the last two episodes. Although, well, maybe we should first clearly establish one thing: whether they lost this life at all, or are they still alive, because after our private conversation I already know that we have different interpretations of what happened in the series.

JOANNA : I guess a completely different approach as well! The vast majority of plots have been closed in a way that leaves little room for discussion: those Winden residents who were somehow entangled in various quantum paradoxes disappeared along with the desire to travel in time and the accidental creation of the multiverse by HG Tannhaus (by the way, I greatly appreciate the reference to HG Wells and his “Time Machine”!). However, this situation in itself gave birth to another paradox: in order to prevent travel in time and between worlds, it was necessary … travel in time. The electricity failure (which accompanied the opening of portals before) in the last scene and the deja vu that Hannah suffers tell me that perhaps (not) reality that we saw in Dark, was just one variant, one of the threads of the multiverse – the one in which the Time Machine either didn’t come into existence or was made, only the heroes aren’t aware of it yet. How do you interpret it?

JARKA: I have this thought, however, that the loop that existed was broken and destroyed. With Claudia gathering the right amount of information and getting Jonas and Martha to move to the right moment, the reality was changed, erasing everything that had happened before… and after that. Multiverse removed. An independent timeline has been established that is not known how it will turn out since this is her debut. However, it will not repeat itself again because there is no time travel. The blinking of the light in Hannah’s apartment is just winking from the creators to the viewers, but… nothing more. Another option is to treat the ending through the prism of an explanation already included in the series, the one based on quantum physics. My man tried to explain it to me in detail, but since I am a man who displaces everything, which even stumbles over physics, I am not quite able to understand it. My version seems more human to me, and I think it allows me to come to terms with the ending in some way. Because, after all, I feel a little bad about the show’s over.

JOANNA : The most beautiful thing about it all is that both interpretations can be equally probable! I just wonder if such considerations are the most important here? I admit that remembering the first two seasons, I was much less interested in the plot itself (although the second time it was not less engaging!), I devoted more attention to the symbolic layer of the series. In the case of the third, I decided to let the creators lead me by the hand and devote myself to reflections on human nature, religion, destiny, free will, the place and importance of the individual in the universe. In this respect, the inherent and inevitable comparisons to Stranger Things seem to me to be very unfair. Harming, because (despite the present elements of weirdness) completely different beasts. Dark is definitely closer to Twin Peaks , which also somehow tried to find the genesis of evil, multiplying examples of small-town villainy. And while David Lynch seems to see its source in undefined intangible entities (BOB?), Aries Bo Odar and Jantje Friese collide different visions and attitudes, without giving a clear answer. With Stranger Things just have so much fun and I showed another finger pop culture references, Darkinstead, it encourages a return to classical philosophical writings. Traveling in time and space are only a pretext here, an invitation to question the rightness of the existing order. It is a casket with several bottoms, and under each subsequent one there is another layer of complexity and symbolism. Certainly, you cannot watch with one eye and be relaxed, which probably discouraged many people. It is a pity, because it is not only a narrative gem, but also a craftsmanship that is sensational in terms of technology.

JARKA : Oh yes! This is where you found it again, because when it comes to technical aspects, it’s a wonder. I am delighted that Dark was filmed in Germany and that it is a German series. After seeing many different productions from this country (German philology obliges), it seems to me that in terms of creating the atmosphere, they could not have chosen better. The Germans have something naturally dark in their productions, which in this case perfectly matched the atmosphere of the series. Although I was betting that the series was shot in the forests of the Black Forest, I read in the depths of the Internet that it was Brandenburg and the vicinity of Berlin. Another private plus for choosing the soundtrack that accompanies the events, emphasizing their pace and emotionality (a masterpiece is the idea of ​​dragging the cult Nena to it).

JOANNA:… Matching here not only climatically, but also in terms of the content of the song used – a bit of a spoiler! 🙂 I was also surprised by the choice of location; it is quite a feat – to create a small town from scratch in the suburbs of a large European capital. I do not know to what extent it actually trumps the “Germanness” of production – although in fact drenched in heavy, nihilistic sauce and realized with stereotypical German precision, it is a universal story that could as well happen in any other corner of the Earth. You can certainly see its “non-Hollywoodness” – despite the narrative verve, what we finally see on the screen is rather intimate and economical in means. This shows how much can be done with the work of the camera, sound, lighting, location selection and scenery alone; how much can be achieved before going into post-production. Of course, there are special effects, but always for a specific purpose – without the typical American gimmickiness, and that always makes me happy. I would also like to emphasize and distinguish the absolutely flawless work of specialists who complete the cast. There are almost 80 significant characters appearing through these 26 episodes, the vast majority of them are observed at various stages of development, and yet at first glance we can guess who we are dealing with – even if a given “variant” appears on the screen for the first time. This is very important for keeping the viewer’s attention and helpful if you want to avoid unnecessarily pathological exposure. Here, as I’ve already figured out who’s who, I had no problem recognizing the characters thanks to casting alone, with a little help of characterization. The same applies to the editing and coloring of frames, especially in the last few episodes, when the characters move not only between different points in time, but also parallel worlds. Each of these planes has a different palette of colors and their saturation, which makes it much easier to follow a complicated plot. Okay, so far we praised it, but maybe there is something that you judge a bit less positively?

JARKA: The third season is, for me, a bit overwhelming moments. These protracted scenes of Martha or Jonas’ bewilderment, or their final journey and meeting each other as children. I won’t say, sometimes I felt like yawning. I’m not talking about the slow pace of the events, because it seems to me to be adequate and well-distributed in the context of all three seasons, but more about the camera shots themselves and showing the characters and how hard they digest and live. Ok. I get it. They have a hard time. Next. On average, I was also interested in the events in Martha’s world, so I found it unnecessary to dwell on, for example, Ulrich’s romance or Hannah’s blackmail. I know that it was about showing that despite the existence of other worlds, decisions of certain people still led to similar situations, but … well, I liked this “alpha” world (let’s call it that way) so much that its alternative version did not appeal to me. In terms of not fictional, and more technical, I did not find anything that I could criticize. I got everything that I like in good series. Okay, I’m not good at remembering names and names, and there were a lot of them here, so, as I mentioned at the beginning, I used cheat sheets.

JOANNA: And I had a slight problem with this pace of action and the distribution of the points of gravity. Perhaps Martha’s world didn’t interest you because it was simply not properly exposed – the alpha world, as you called it, the reality of Jonas, finally got two whole seasons of exposure, so you had time to get attached to the characters and get used to the world presented. The “beta” world, Martha’s reality, was handled a bit neglected, in its case limited to the minimum necessary. It can be summed up in a few words – “the same, just a little different”. Maybe if we devoted a little more time and attention to him … for example, at the expense of Adam and Eve constantly conspiring, repeating subsequent threads, emphasizing the infinity of the loop in which the characters found themselves. I’m probably looking for a hole in all Perhaps the intention of the creators was precisely to emphasize the futility and sterility of their actions, but it was a thread that made me a bit weary. From the very beginning, I compared dealing withDark to an itchy place that cannot be scratched. It is a puzzle in which some elements are still missing, and the next cards are revealed rather slowly, gradually stacking up a pile of meanings and contexts. Therefore, the dizzying pace of the last stages and the accumulation of twists on the final straight seemed to me at first at least unusual, although the more I think about it, the better I understand it. After all, this is a series perfectly tailored to binge watching , the kind to catch details and flavors. I cannot imagine that it could be broadcast on television, in the traditional mode of one episode per week – the constant lack of key information would probably scare most of the less engaged viewers, and the viewership results could turn out to be tragic. DarkIn such a situation, it would probably repeat the fate of the aforementioned Twin Peaks or the great Arrested Development (broadcast in Poland as Rich Bankruci ) – a series completely different thematically, but very similar in its box structure, requiring equally much concentration and attention. Of course, I’m picking on a bit, because Dark simply stands out against the background of the information noise and the deluge of average content. I give it a strong 9.5 out of 10. It is by far the most demanding title in the Netflix catalog, and at the same time one of the most ambitious projects of recent years. Moreover, there is not only a method in this madness, but also a moral!

JARKA : From me, 9/10 mainly because of what I described. If I were to summarize it as a whole, I would probably say something like “it will appeal to people who like to think while watching and reach for multi-threaded stories where everything is connected ” (ah, Dirku, why only two seasons ?!). Outstanding cast, scenery and soundtrack. Very good ending, adequate to the content. Is there anything else we should talk about? Perhaps, to loosen up the atmosphere, let’s finally touch on the subject of poor Wöller? It is his eye / hand that is probably the biggest mystery of this series!

JOANNA : How did it happen, I don’t know … I don’t even want to speculate about the hand, and when it comes to the eye – I’m convinced that he suffered this injury in super mundane circumstances. Grandma always warned me to take the teaspoon out of the cup after stirring up the tea.

JARKA : I, on the other hand, think that he must have mixed things up in some way! And we didn’t just discover how! You know, something like: he pushed two important characters at himself, who got to know each other because of it, and he himself flipped over and lost an eye. However, in order to lose his hand, he would have to fall under an ax …

JOANNA : I put a fiver on a spoon!

You can watch all Dark seasons on Netflix.