With the sci-fi series Dark, Netflix landed an international hit that plunged fans worldwide into abysses of puzzles with its intricate time loops. The streamer has not produced a comparable series event since then. The Dark Team’s follow-up project, 1899, was canceled after just one season and without a conclusion. But now there is light at the end of the mystery tunnel.
In just a few weeks, Netflix will be launching the British sci-fi crime series Bodies, which already has what it takes to become the next series obsession for mystery-loving dark fans. Why? There are three spoiler-free reasons for this:
Reason 1: The sci-fi crime series is as mysterious as Dark
Even in the first teaser, Bodies presents itself as a dark Netflix series that is impossible to predict. It’s about four London investigators from four different years: 1890, 1941, 2023 and 2053. They all come across a corpse in their respective times. The highlight: It is always exactly the same corpse. How is it all connected? This is already a fascinating puzzle.
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Four timelines, one murder
The crime thriller concept with a sci-fi twist offers enormous mystery potential, which can only be guessed at based on the sparse information about the actual plot. Dark also initially presented itself as a mysterious kidnapping crime story, with much more to it than initially assumed.
The original premise of Bodies is enough to keep series fans wondering whether the 150-year time travel murder case works like in Dark, The Time Traveler’s Wife or Shining Girls – or has a completely different resolution.
Reason 2: Bodies has a fantastic comic book from DC
The basis for the new Netflix series is an eight-part comic series by the author Si Spencer, who died in 2021, which was published in 2014 by the DC imprint Vertigo. The template is impressive ambitious puzzle that presents no simple answers and invites you to analyze, interpret and puzzle. Only those who put together individual pieces, cryptic symbols and hidden clues themselves can come closer to a solution.
Netflix
Shira Haas and Stephen Graham in Bodies
The streamer’s offering includes countless easy-to-digest originals that are designed to be easily consumed or binged by the masses. With the complexity of the graphic novel behind it, the Netflix adaptation has the best prerequisites a demanding series experience to offer.
And without spoiling the original: As long as Bodies doesn’t completely alienate the comic base, we can expect an exciting series mystery full of crazy twists that will close the gaping sci-fi gap left by Dark.
Reason 3: Bodies is much more than just another Netflix crime drama
There are plenty of conspiracy thrillers and crime series on Netflix. With Bodies we don’t just get one, but the same one four different crime series in one presents. Each of the four time periods shown has its own unique visual and narrative style.
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Andor star Kyle Soller in Bodies
Even in the comic template, the four stories serve different aspects of the crime genre – which is hopefully also reflected in the series. So we follow a classic detective story with secret society intrigues and dirty back alleys in the era of Victorian London – with Andor star Kyle Soller.
Based on film noir, the 1940s tell the story of a corrupt police officer (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) in the tensions of the Second World War. In the present we are experiencing a modern police thriller between hate crimes and attack plans. And in the future vision of 2053 at the latest, Bodies takes a completely new direction as a sci-fi thriller (starring Shira Haas).
Now the new Netflix series just has to prove that it can keep all of these promises and turn the exciting basic idea into a clever and surprising story. Then we could really expect a new mystery hit like Dark.
When does Bodies start on Netflix?
Bodies is coming on October 19, 2023 to the streaming service. All eight episodes are available at launch. According to Netflix, it is a miniseries. So we can hope for a completed story that is not prematurely ended by a cancellation.