Netflix has done it again, and come out with another dark epic. This time it is the German based series named Dark.  A dark, gritty drama, Dark takes viewers on a mind bending ride through familiar and yet foreign science fiction territory.  Here are my thoughts on season 1.

Dark is a Netflix original television show from Germany.  Seeing the quality of shows that Netflix has been putting out lately, I decided to give this foreign thriller a try.  And I was very pleasantly surprised.  I thoroughly enjoyed this show.  Before I get too much into my thoughts of the first season, check out the trailer:

Here are my spoiler free thoughts on this first season.  First I want to talk about the stellar acting in this series.  The series has a wide age range of actors and each of them put on a very convincing performance.  I could feel Ulrich’s terror as he ran through the forest looking for his son.  I watched the dubbed version of the show, and I have to say that I was immensely impressed with the German actors in the show and their english voice actor counterparts.

I watch a lot of subtitled shows.  Very rarely do I watch dubbed shows because of just how horrible they tend to be due to the fact that either the voice actor’s voice acting does not match up with the emotion seen in the scene or they overact it.  In this series, the voice actors did an excellent job matching up the emotional drama that the onscreen actors portrayed so well.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

I also love the atmospheric dark nature of the series.  Many people compare it to Strangers Things and I can see how some people may see some similarities, but it is definitely its own entity.  The things that may seem similar is the fact that kids go missing in the series, but, unlike Stranger Things which focuses on the children, Dark focuses on the dramas of the adults.  It is definitely a much darker story and has less of a nostalgic feeling to it that Stranger Things has.  I personally liked Dark more, but that is my personal preference.  I think the reason why I liked it was because of the time traveling aspect in the series and I have so many ideas and questions and excitement for season 2.

What I also liked about this series is that it focused on the very human monsters in Dark versus the fantastical monster in Stranger Things.  I liked the development of the characters and how every character has good and bad sides to them making them very believable.  You find yourself rooting for Ulrich and, at times, hating some of the things he is capable of doing. And the same could be said about so many of the characters.  I liked Jonas and the conflict that he goes through throughout the first season.

As for the story, I loved the twists and turns and how well they divulged the mysteries in the story.  I liked that as one question of mine was answered, more questions sprung up.  I like that in the end I wasn’t sure which side was really good.  I definitely got a bad vibe from the priest, but I also wasn’t sure what Claudia’s motivations were either.  Will Jonas be able to break the cycle?

I don’t want to say too much more on this series as this is a series you really don’t want to be spoiled on.  I will say that it is definitely worth watching even if you are not a fan of reading subtitles or watching something dubbed.  And I would also say not to go in thinking it will be like Stranger Things because it really isn’t.  I also want to say that this is a show that you really have to pay attention to because there is so much going on that is important, which may not seem important at first, and so many things you could miss.  I give this show an A+ and suggest that everyone give it a viewing!