9.5 / 10. A tightly woven and mind-boggling time travel tale with a haunting soundtrack and atmospheric setting

Netflix’s Dark is set in fictional German small-town, Winden, which is a perfect moody setting where different spates of disappearing children affect the town and its inhabitants. Generations of dark secrets, lies and connections between four families are revealed in this mind-boggling time travelling odyssey through past and present, seemingly kicking off in 1986…

It’s difficult to make a time travel series appear new and unique, but Dark does so with finesse. It’s a well-paced, subtle and intriguing time travel epic, with tightly woven threads connecting the Kahnwald, Nielsen, Doppler, and Tiedemann families together, with a focus on the characters’ histories, lives and emotions. The drama unfolds primarily in 2019 but hold on to your DeLorean seats.

This complicated and entangled web of characters can be hard to follow. However, one character has a web diagram on the wall of their room, which shows who everyone is, what they look like in each timeline, and how they connect to each other, which also serves as a reminder for the audience.

The casting is excellent for familial similarities and all the performances are strong. Jonas Kahnwald (Louis Hofmann) and Ulrich Nielsen (Oliver Masucci) are stand out characters and performances, being entwined in this tale in more ways than one.

Season one ties up some threads, but leaves many questions as to character’s motives and allegiances unanswered

One of the top new shows this year, featuring a haunting soundtrack and a great cliff-hanger season ending. Thankfully, Dark has been officially renewed for a second season, to air in 2019.