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Welcome to Dayle Loves This, wherein I recommend books, TV, and movies (and maybe other things) that rocked my world.
If they don’t rock your world, that’s okay. We all have reader/watcher cookies as well as triggers. If you have questions, go ahead and ask. And please make your own suggestions, and discuss!
We live in a time of bounty when it comes to visual media. I remember the days of three TV channels (four if you could get PBS on UHF or something), and you had to watch it when it aired and run to the bathroom or get snacks during commercials. I know I ended up watching a fair amount of dreck just because it was the only thing on—especially if it had a SF or fantasy element, which was by comparison rare in the 1970s and 1980s. (I’m looking at you, Manimal.)
One of the things I love even more now is the ability to watch TV and movies from around the globe. Netflix in particular has partnered with a number of countries for their content, and it’s a refreshing change.
Much of our television offerings, especially that on regular ol’ cable, is kind of dumbed down. Did you miss it when the camera lingered on a clue to make it super-obvious it was important? Well, let’s show you again. Whereas the foreign shows are more likely to assume you caught it, you remember it, and if you don’t, you will when the mystery is revealed.
Or, just, it’s assumed you’re following along and noticing details.
With Dark, an amazing show from Germany, there’s a cave. I’m not really giving away spoilers to say the show deals with time travel, as that becomes obvious very early on. What they do is have different things outside the cave at different times. That old beat-up sofa? Boom, we know what time we’re in. We don’t need a year splashed across the screen in big letters.
But that’s not the only reason Dark is amazing.
It’s hard to say much about it without giving too much away. Set in a somewhat remote town surrounded by forest, the show starts in the current time when a nuclear power plant that started in the 1980s is being decommissioned. Is the power plant responsible for the strange things that are happening? Is someone their own grandpa? Is there a wide cast of characters each with their own strong backstories and problems and motivations? Will there be women’s power suits from the 1980s? Does anyone really know what time it is?
The show is dark (hence the name) and a bit creepy, but it’s not horror, and the few truly awful moments are there for a reason, not gratuitous (and no real gore that I recall).
I watched the first couple of episodes, realized Ken would like it, and then we watched the first season together. When the second season came out, we roped our lodger into watching the first season with us, and then we all were glued to the TV for the second and third seasons.
Two important notes:
1. IMO, the best way to watch this is in German, with English subtitles. Ken and I watched the first season dubbed into English, and it was kind of awful. The voiceover actors were flat, with little inflection, and they all sounded alike—which made it really hard to remember who was who. I’ve read reviews from people who preferred it that way, but having watched it both ways, I strongly suggest the subtitles.
2. When rewatching the first season, I found a website with a flow chart of all the characters, which helped immensely. The particular site I found had two for the first season: one with spoilers and one without. Obviously, use the non-spoiler one if you’re watching this for the first time. (Because I was rewatching it, I used the spoiler one and picked up some stuff I’d missed the first time around. Hell, just watch it twice like we did! It’s worth it!)
Dark is on Netflix, and Dayle says if you like time travel and weirdness and shows that make you think, you should check it out.
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