Dark

Has anyone watched the series, Dark, on Netflix? It is a German production, apparently the first original—in German specifically or in general any—foreign language property created for the streaming service. While its premise involving missing children in a small town is quite interesting in design, taking the time travel trope to an extreme, it is also maddening in its complexity and in the need to track the main characters as they appear throughout different generations of their lives. Despite the inherent difficulties posed by the concept, Dark does succeed in presenting, so far, a seemingly paradox-free construction of time travel as not simply a mere narrative device, but as a convincing framework upon which to build a story. The only detractor in the tightly plotted storyline has nothing to do with the story itself. The voice actors used for the dubbed version do not match in tone the characters they voice. In other words, the characters do not sound like they look. I would watch without dubbing in the original German, but then everyone would likely just sound angry and belligerent.

Additionally, I don’t quite know what it is about the show that keeps me thinking of Jorge Luis Borges’ short story, “The Garden of Forking Paths.” Perhaps it is merely the labyrinthine way the storyline continually turns in on itself.

Nevertheless, if you are able to tolerate less-than-optimal dubbing (though definitely nothing as egregious as dialogue from a Japanese Godzilla film dubbed for American consumption), I would give it a gander. I believe there is to be a second season in the works, as well.