Dark is one of my favorite series of all time and I firmly believe that there will never be a more immersive yet epic time loop series. In our ranking of the best sci-fi series since 2000, Dark takes second place, between the two space discoveries The Expanse and For All Mankind. Dark is smaller and rainier than the blockbuster competition and yet a masterpiece unfolds in three seasons that left me speechless.
Dark combines the best of two worlds: German noir thriller meets American sci-fi entertainment
This is what Dark is about (spoiler-free): Children have disappeared in the small town of Winden and the four connected families of Doppler, Tiedemann, Kahnwald and Nielsen are somehow involved. The first season begins in 2019 with Jonas Kahnwald (Louis Hofmann), who returns to school after his father’s suicide and a long break. When he finds a way to 1986 in the Winden caves, his reality slowly begins to crumble.
The enigmatic trailer for the first season of Dark aroused curiosity:
Dark – S01 Teaser Trailer 2 (English) HD
In 2017, Dark was not only the first German sci-fi series to receive a major world stage on Netflix. Dark was generally the first Netflix original from Germany and is still unmatched by the Moviepilot community with an extremely strong 7.9 out of 10 points.
When I watched the first episodes, I almost had to laugh at them Crime scene DNA, which even a sci-fi epic can’t or won’t shake. Gray houses, pithy investigators, missing children. But after just a few episodes, the series doesn’t just lean out of the window, it tears the whole house down. It becomes a sci-fi mystery of the caliber of Lost and Fringe – borderline cases of the FBI.
The best mystery series on Netflix and in general: My Lost heart cheered with every episode
Since the 2010 Lost finale, fans like me have had a black hole in our hearts that we’ve already fed dozens of series into. Nothing could do that Satisfy your desire for puzzles. Dark was the only series so far that really satisfied me in that way – much more satisfied than Lost. Dark doesn’t weigh a single gram too much. No story and no character frays or is unnecessarily broadened. Every single scene contributes to the overarching story, which is played out perfectly over 3 seasons.
Of course, like everything else in the world, certain sci-fi subgenres are a matter of taste. To a highly complex time loop drama Perhaps not as many people can agree on this as a light-hearted action bombast. And yet, in its own niche of sci-fi mystery, Dark managed to impress so much that the euphoria quickly spread.
You can find out more about Dark and the 10 best sci-fi series since 2000 in the podcast:
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Dark creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese had their sci-fi masterpiece designed as a three-act play from the start. You can tell from the series that the entire story was already written before the beginning of season 1. The fact that the two of them executed their time loop epic so purposefully, atmospherically and with constant puzzle fodder makes Dark a unique stroke of genius. If it were up to me, Dark would also be number one among the best sci-fi series since 2000.