Dark (TV series)

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Television series
Original title Dark
Dark logo.png
Country of production Germany
original language German
Year (s) 2017-2020
Production
company		 Wiedemann & Berg film production
length 44-73 minutes
Episodes 26 in 3 seasons ( list )
genre Science fiction , mystery , thriller
Theme music Apparat (with soap & skin ) - Goodbye
Director Baran bo Odar
idea Jantje Friese ,
Baran bo Odar
script Jantje Friese,
Marc O. Seng ,
Martin Behnke ,
Ronny Schalk ,
Daphne Ferraro
production Quirin Berg ,
Max Wiedemann ,
Baran bo Odar,
Jantje Friese
music Ben Frost
camera Nikolaus Summerer
Initial release December 1, 2017 on Netflix
occupation

Dark is a German science fiction - Mystery series of video-on-demand -Anbieters Netflix . It is the first Netflix series to be developed, produced and filmed in Germany. The ten episode first season was released on December 1, 2017 in German and in dubbed versions on Netflix. The second and third season (eight episodes each) followed on June 21, 2019 and June 27, 2020, respectively. In 2018, it was awarded the Grimme Prize in the fiction category.

The series was developed jointly by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese . Baran bo Odar directed all 26 episodes, while Jantje Friese wrote the script for the series. Other authors are Marc O. Seng , Martin Behnke , Ronny Schalk and Daphne Ferraro . The shooting took place mainly in Berlin and the Brandenburg area as well as in the film studios of CCC-Film and later Babelsberg .

The plot of the series takes place in the fictional small German town of Winden, in which the disappearance of two children initially causes a stir, but then the dark stories, secrets and relationships of four closely linked families are cleared up through a complicated sequence of time travel and other conspiracies linked over generations. The series explores the origins of these connections and the philosophical implications of time and their consequences for human life.

action

season 1

The story takes place in the fictional German town of Winden. After his father Michael Kahnwald's suicide , Jonas returns to his school after several months of psychological treatment. Erik Obendorf has been missing there for several weeks and Jonas has to discover that his best school friend Bartosz Tiedemann is with his ex-girlfriend Martha Nielsen. While searching for Erik's drug stash near the Windener Höhlen not far from the local nuclear power plant, Jonas, Bartosz, Franziska Doppler and the three Nielsen siblings Magnus, Martha and Mikkel are startled by terrifying noises from the cave. On their escape back to the meeting point, Mikkel disappears without a trace. The next morning a child's body is found who turns out to be Mads Nielsen, the brother of the police officer Ulrich Nielsen who disappeared in 1986, the father of Martha, Magnus and Mikkel and the husband of Katharina. Ulrich tries to solve the missing persons cases together with his colleague Charlotte Doppler. Charlotte is the mother of Franziska and Elisabeth and the wife of Peter Doppler, Jonas' therapist. Their marriage, however, has broken up since Charlotte found out that Peter was dating the trans * sex worker Bernadette Wöller. Ulrich meanwhile has an affair with Jonas's mother, Hannah Kahnwald. In the following days and weeks, more and more secrets about the past and history of the four families Doppler, Tiedemann, Kahnwald and Nielsen came to light. It turns out that Mikkel traveled back to 1986 through a passage in the Windener Höhlen. There he is adopted by Ines Kahnwald and meets Hannah Kahnwald, his future wife. The passage allows several characters to travel in time, so that the action takes place simultaneously in 2019 as well as 1986 and 1953. In 2019, Ulrich tries to connect the three missing children and suspects them to be in the local nuclear power plant, which is run by Aleksander Tiedemann, Regina's husband and Bartosz's father.

It turns out that Erik is being held in an old bunker and is part of a strange-looking experiment that previously failed in Mads' death. Meanwhile, a stranger comes to Winden and checks into Regina's hotel. He ensures that Jonas has access to the portal with which one can travel through time. Jonas travels to 1986 and finds Mikkel. Before he can reach him, he is stopped by the stranger, who explains to him that intervening in the past changes the future and that Mikkel is actually Michael Kahnwald and thus his father. In the same year Claudia Tiedemann takes over the management of the local nuclear power plant from her predecessor, Bernd Doppler. He had the nuclear power plant built in 1953. At that time, his son Helge also disappeared for a short time. Egon Tiedemann, Claudia's father, was responsible for the investigation at the time. Responsible for the disappearance of the children in 1986 and 2019 is Noah, who forces Helge to cooperate. Noah is part of an organization of time travelers called Sic Mundus Creatus Est (Latin: This is how the world was created ). After Ulrich had long suspected Helge - in 2019 with dementia in a nursing home - one day he followed him into the caves. There he discovers the passage. While old Helge travels to 1986, Ulrich unintentionally ends up in 1953. There, his attempt to kill young Helge and undo the disappearance of Mads and Mikkel fails, whereupon he is arrested. Old Helge, in turn, dies trying to kill himself in 1986. A number of circumstances mean that HG Tannhaus, a watchmaker, builds a portable time machine. In 2019, Noah recruits Bartosz by correctly predicting what will happen in the future. A little later, Noah and Helge kidnap Jonas, who traveled back to 1986 and finds himself in the same bunker as Erik before. There the stranger reveals to him that he is really himself from the future. The adult Jonas wants to close the passage with the time machine in 1986, but this is how the passage comes into being. Through the appearance of a wormhole, young Jonas can see young Helge, who wakes up in the bunker after Ulrich's failed murder attempt in 1953. Both touch each other through the wormhole, which brings Jonas into the post-apocalyptic winds of the year 2052.

Pedigree of the central families Doppler, Tiedemann, Kahnwald and Nielsen at the end of the first season. Dashed lines indicate adoptive relationships.

season 2

The action of the second season begins in 1921. Young Noah and another man dig up the passage in the Windener Caves together before Noah kills the man. A large part of the main and subplots shifts to the years 1954, 1987 and 2020. Noah is looking for the missing pages from Claudia's notebook, in which all events are written down in the various timelines. He reveals to Charlotte that he is her father. In 2053, Elisabeth leads a group of resistance fighters who control the area around the destroyed nuclear power plant. Inside the control room is a wormhole that Jonas uses to travel back to 1921. There he meets Adam, the leader of Sic Mundus . He reveals himself as Jonas, who is 66 years his senior, who sends his younger self into 2019 with the wormhole with the task of preventing his father from killing himself. There he has to find out that he himself is the trigger for his suicide and also the disappearance of Mikkel, because it was Jonas who showed him the way through the passage to 1986. In the meantime, Ulrich has been housed in a closed facility for 34 years in 1987 , where he learns of Mikkel's arrival from Egon. After a successful outbreak, he fails in an attempt to travel back to 2019 through the passage with Mikkel. Egon begins to understand that time travel is behind the disappearance of Mads and the appearance of Mikkel and Ulrich, but before he can share this knowledge with others, his daughter Claudia kills him in a fall in an argument. She was informed about time travel by her older self and Jonas and travels through time several times to make things happen as they have always happened. She is later shot by Noah. Adam reveals that he wants to destroy the world and that no one is free from guilt. As an example, he mentions that Charlotte is Noah's and Elisabeth's daughter and also Elisabeth's mother. After Noah realizes Adam's true aim and tries in vain to kill him, Noah is shot by his sister Agnes. To convince his friends of the existence of time travel, Bartosz travels to 1987 with Martha, Magnus, Franziska and Elisabeth.

The by task force led -directors Clausen opening the nuclear waste barrels that nuclear chief Aleksander Tiedemann nuclear power plant has made in concrete, dissolves in 2020 the Apocalypse from where the 1986 resulting in an incident in the NPP God particle is released, the wormhole the creates. Through the wormhole that opens, Charlotte can see her daughter Elisabeth, who is also standing in front of this wormhole in 2053. The two touch. The grown-up Jonas saves Bartosz, Magnus and Franziska from the apocalypse by traveling back in time with the time machine. Meanwhile, Peter Doppler with his daughter Elisabeth, Claudia with her daughter Regina and the young Noah have taken to safety in the bunker. Before the young Jonas can convince Martha to get himself to safety with him, she is shot by Adam, who is arriving from 1921 for it. Shortly before the pressure wave of the apocalypse reaches Jonas, another Martha suddenly appears in the room. She carries a small, spherical device with which she and Jonas seem to vanish into thin air at the last moment.

Pedigree of the central families Doppler, Tiedemann, Kahnwald and Nielsen at the end of the second season. Dashed lines indicate adoptive relationships.

season 3

The third season connects and ends the storylines started in the previous seasons, introduces the year 1888 in addition to the years 1921, 1954, 1987, 2020 and 2053 and also shows several events between these years. In addition, a parallel universe is shown (“Eva's World” as opposed to “Adam's World” from seasons 1 and 2). For the most part, the same characters live in this world as in Adam's world, but some of them have different relationships to one another. In this world Ulrich is already divorced from his ex-wife Katharina and is expecting a child with his new wife Hannah - whom he is cheating with Charlotte. Jonas soon realizes that he does not exist in this world himself, since Mikkel does not travel back in time in Eva's world and thus does not become Michael Kahnwald either. In this world Eve takes on the role of Adam in Jonah's world. She is the elder Martha and leader of the secret society Erit Lux (lat. Let there be light ). In contrast to Adam, she does not want to break through the eternal circle of things, but rather to maintain it. Unlike Adam, she is also able to travel between the two worlds through the use of the spherical apparatus carried by Martha. She also instructs the stranger, who always appears in threes with his younger and older self, to let things happen as they should happen. He cares u. a. The fact that the nuclear power plant in Winden was built in 1953 was the reason for the accident in the nuclear power plant in 1986 and the author of the notebook Claudia carried with her. The stranger is the son of Jonas (from Adam's world) and Martha (from Eva's world) and thus the connection between both worlds.

The grown-up Jonas unintentionally traveled to 1888 with Magnus, Franziska and Bartosz. There they tried for years to create the wormhole with a machine. During this time Hannah, who had previously traveled to 1954 and had an affair with Egon there, travels with her daughter Silja to the four time travelers, where she is killed by Jonas, who is gradually becoming Adam. Silja is later sent by Adam to the year 2052 to receive Jonas there and to travel back later. She becomes Bartosz's wife and together they have children Agnes and Hanno, who later becomes Noah. In 2053 Elisabeth explains to her mother Charlotte who her parents are: they are Noah and she herself, Elisabeth. Meanwhile Claudia decides to kill her own self from Eva's world in order to act as a spy between the worlds and to influence the course of events. She is determined to save her daughter Regina, who has cancer, by destroying the endless time warp. However, both Adam and Eve fail in trying to win against the other. After Adam kills the pregnant Martha from Eva's world in vain, he has to find out that the erasure of the supposed origin does not resolve the time loop. Claudia explains to him that quantum entanglement has resulted in another Martha and another Jonas. At the time of the apocalypse, time stood still for a moment, which is why it was possible that Jonas was both saved by Martha and had to bring himself to safety, while Martha both saved him and traveled back to Eva's world with Bartosz . This makes it possible to destroy the real origin of the time loop. This lies in another, a third world ( Triqueta ). In this "original world", HG Tannhaus loses his son Marek, his wife Sonja and their child in a traffic accident. In order to reverse this event, he built a time machine with which he caused the division of his world into Adam and Eve's world in 1986, thus triggering the infinite time loop. Jonas and Martha manage to travel to this original world and convince Marek and Sonja to return to HG Tannhaus. They do not die, as a result of which Jonas and Martha and Adam and Eve's world completely dissolve. Without knowing it, HG Tannhaus actually changed the past with the construction of the time machine.

Pedigree of the central families Doppler, Tiedemann, Kahnwald and Nielsen at the end of the third season. Dashed lines indicate adoptive relationships. Figures that appear multiple times due to quantum entanglement (Jonas and Martha) are not listed separately.

occupation

main characters

Louis Hofmann.jpg
MJK30683 Andreas Pietschmann (Berlinale 2017) .jpg
Dietrich Hollinderbäumer 01 (22876754384) (cropped) .jpg


Gina Stiebitz (2019) Carina Wiese (2016)
Gina Stiebitz (2019)
Carina Wiese (2016)
Sandra Borgmann (2016)
Stephan Kampwirth (2012)
Jördis Triebel (2015)
Oliver Masucci (2014)
Mark Waschke (2015)

Dark mainly plays at a total of six different times and the following months. The first season mostly takes place in 2019. Additional storylines take place in 1953, 1986 and 2052. The second season takes place several months after the first and thus in the years 1954, 1987, 2020 and 2053. In addition, a storyline is introduced in 1921. The third and final season also takes place in 1888 and connects the previously shown storylines over the different times. In addition to Jona's world, which was shown in the first two seasons, it also introduces Martha's world and the original world as parallel worlds into the plot. Since many of the characters in Dark appear in several of the years mentioned, they are portrayed by different actors depending on their age, which are listed in the table below.

Sorting: first the four main families are listed according to surname; Within families, older people take precedence over younger people, and women take precedence over men; Finally, other roles are mentioned. A = Adam's world, E = Eve's world.

Main characters and their actors in Dark
role Phase of life background actor Season
1 2 3
Doppler family
Greta Doppler

(born 1917)

Adults Helge's mother, Bernd's wife Cordelia ways head Next guest
Bernd Doppler

(born 1913)

older man former head of the local nuclear power plant Michael Mendl Next guest
Adult Nuclear power plant builder; Helge's father, Greta's wife Anatole Taubman head guest
Helge Doppler

(born 1944)

older man dementia in nursing home (A) / in home care (E) Hermann Beyer head head
Adult Nuclear power plant employees; Father of peter Peter Schneider head Next guest
child Son of Bernd and Greta Tom Philipp head Next
Charlotte Doppler

(J: born 2041, M: born 1971)

Adults Policewoman ; Wife of Peter, mother of Elisabeth and Franziska Karoline Eichhorn head
Teenagers Adoptive granddaughter of HG Tannhaus Stephanie Amarell head guest
infant Daughter of Hanno and Elisabeth guest
Peter Doppler

(born 1970)

Adult Psychotherapist (A) / pastor (E); Charlotte's husband, Elisabeth and Franziska's father Stephan Kampwirth head
Teenager Son of Helge and Ulla Pablo Striebeck guest
Franziska Doppler

(born 2003)

Adults Wife of Magnus Carina Wiese head
Teenagers Daughter of Charlotte and Peter, sister of Elisabeth Gina Stiebitz head
Elisabeth Doppler

(born 2011)

Adults Mother of Charlotte, wife of Hanno Sandra Borgmann head
child Daughter of Charlotte and Peter Carlotta von Falkenhayn head
Kahnwald family
Daniel Kahnwald

(born 1915)

Adults Police chief; Father of Ines Florian Panzner head guest
Ines Kahnwald

(born 1940)

older woman (not biological) grandmother of Jonas Angela Winkler head
Adults Nurse, adoptive mother of Mikkel Anne Rat-Polle head guest
Teenagers Daughter of Daniel Lena Urzendowsky Next guest
Hannah Kahnwald

(born 1972)

Adults Masseuse ; Mother of Jonas and wife of Michael (A) / wife of Ulrich (E) Maja Schöne head
Teenagers Daughter of Sebastian Ella Lee head guest
Jonas Kahnwald
"Adam"

(born 2003)

older man known as "Adam", leader of Sic Mundus (A) Dietrich Hollinderbäumer head
Adult "The Stranger" (E) Andreas Pietschmann head
Teenager Son of Michael and Hannah (A, father of the unknown (E) Louis Hofmann head
child Jonas Gerzabek guest
Nielsen family
Agnes Nielsen

(born 1910)

Adults Mother of Tronte, sister of Noah Antje Traue head Next
child Daughter of Silja and Bartosz, sister of Hanno Helena Pieske guest
Jana Nielsen

(born 1942)

older woman Grandmother of Magnus, Martha and Mikkel Tatja Seibt head guest
Adults Mrs. von Tronte, mother of Ulrich and Mads Anne Lebinsky head guest
child grows up together with her friends Ines and Claudia Rike Sindler Next guest
Tronte Nielsen

(born 1941)

older man works with Claudia Walter Kreye head guest
Adult Journalist ; Jana's husband, Ulrich and Mads's father Felix Kramer head Next
child Son of Agnes and the Stranger Joshio Marlon Next guest
Katharina Nielsen

(born 1970)

Adults School principal ; Mother of Magnus, Martha and Mikkel, wife of Ulrich (A) / divorced from Ulrich (E) Jördis Triebel head
Teenagers Daughter of Helene and Hermann Nele Trebs head guest Next
Ulrich Nielsen

(born 1971)

older man housed in a closed facility Winfried Glatzeder head Next
Adult Policeman ; Father of Magnus, Martha and Mikkel, husband of Katharina (A) / husband of Hannah (E) Oliver Masucci head
Teenager Son of Tronte and Jana, brother of Mads Ludger Bökelmann head guest
Magnus Nielsen

(born 2001)

Adult Franziska's husband Wolfram Koch Next head
Teenager Son of Ulrich and Katharina, brother of Martha and Mikkel Moritz Jahn head
Martha Nielsen
"Eva"

(born 2003)

older woman known as "Eva", leader of Erit Lux (E) Barbara nuts head
Adults Mother of the Unknown (E) Nina Kronjäger head
Teenagers Daughter of Ulrich and Katharina, sister of Magnus and Mikkel Lisa Vicari head
child Luna Arwen Kruger guest
Mikkel Nielsen
Michael Kahnwald

(born 2008)

Adult Father of Jonas, husband of Hannah Sebastian Rudolph head guest
child Son of Ulrich and Katharina, brother of Magnus and Martha Daan Lennard Liebrenz head
Tiedemann family
Doris Tiedemann

(born 1922)

Adults Egon's wife and Claudia's mother Luise Heyer head guest
Egon Tiedemann

(born 1922)

older man police officer Christian Pätzold head Next
Adult Police officer; Doris's husband, Claudia and Silja's father Sebastian Hulk head Next
Claudia Thiedemann

(born 1942)

older woman travels between Jonas and Martha's world, discoverer of the original world Lisa Kreuzer Next head Next
Adults Nuclear power plant chief; Mother of Regina Julika Jenkins head
child Daughter of Egon and Doris Gwendolyn Goebel Next guest
Regina Tiedemann

(born 1971)

Adults Hotel manager; Bartosz's mother, Aleksander's wife Deborah Kaufmann head
Teenagers Daughter of Claudia Lydia Maria Makrides head guest
Aleksander Tiedemann
Boris Niewald

(born 1966)

Adult AKW boss, father of Bartosz, husband of Regina Peter Benedict head
Teenager is really Boris Niewald, takes the name Aleksander Köhler Béla Gabor Lenz guest
Silja Tiedemann

(born 1988)

Adults Frau von Bartosz, mother of Hanno and Agnes Lissy Pernthaler guest
Teenagers Elisabeth's interpreter Lea van Acken guest head
child Daughter of Hannah and Egon Aurora Dervisi guest
Bartosz Tiedemann

(born 2003)

Adult Silja’s husband, Hanno and Agnes’s father Roman Knižka guest Next
Teenager Son of Aleksander and Regina Paul Lux head
other
Hanno Tauber
"Noah"

(born 1904)

Adult known as "Noah"; Father of Charlotte, husband of Elisabeth, brother of Agnes Mark Waschke head
Teenager Son of Bartosz and Silja Max Schimmelpfennig head
"The unknown" older man works with his younger selves for Eva Hans Diehl head
Adult Father of Tronte Jakob Diehl head
child Son of Martha and Jonas Claude Heinrich head
Gustav Tannhaus

(born 1813)

older man Grandfather of HG Tannhaus Axel Werner Next
child Son of Heinrich Tannhaus Linus Fischer guest
HG Tannhaus

(born 1913)

older man Watchmaker and book author; (not biological) grandfather of Charlotte Christian Steyer head guest head
Adult Watchmaker, build the time machine Arnd Klawitter head guest Next
Torben Wöller

(born 1981)

Adult Policeman, brother of Bernadette Leopold Hornung head
Bernadette Wöller

(born 1987)

Adults trans * sex worker ; Sister of Torben Anton Rubtsov head Next Next
Jasmin Trewen Adults Secretary of the nuclear power plant Lea Willkowsky Next head Next

Minor characters

Other supporting roles include Jennipher Antoni (Ulla Obendorf, mother of Erik), Tom Jahn (Jürgen Obendorf, father of Erik), Paul Radom (Erik Obendorf), Sammy Scheuritzel (Kilian Obendorf, brother of Erik), Katharina Spiering and Mariella Auman (both as Helene Albers, mother of Katharina Nielsen), Sylvester Groth (Clausen, head of SoKo Winden), Mieke Schymura (police officer), Roland Wolf (police officer), Vico Mücke (Yasin Friese), Denis Schmidt (father of Hannah Kahnwald ), Nils Brunkhorst (teacher), Lena Dörrie (nurse), Tara Fischer (student), Anna König (pathologist), Henning Peker (pathologist), Barbara Philipp (employee youth welfare office), Anna Schönberg (nurse), Andreas Schröders (AKW- Employees), Valentin Oppermann (Mads Nielsen), Marlin Rose (Marek Tannhaus, son of HG Tannhaus) and Svenja Jung (Sonja Tannhaus, Marek's wife).

Episode list

production

Project development and pre-production

Production designer Udo Kramer , screenwriter Jantje Friese , director Baran bo Odar and casting director Simone Bär at the 2018 Grimme Prize .

The idea for the series comes from Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar . The couple had previously developed the films The Last Silence (2010) and Who Am I - No System is Safe (2014) together. For Dark , Baran bo Odar took on the role of director for all episodes, while Jantje Friese developed the plot and was the main writer of the script for all 26 episodes. As co-authors were Marc O. Seng (seven episodes), Ronny Schalk , Martin Behnke (five episodes) and Daphne Ferraro (two episodes) involved in the scripts. Netflix gave the green light for the production of a first ten episode season in February 2016.

In a phase in which Netflix was for the first time increasingly promoting projects that were produced outside the USA and therefore not in the main English language (such as Haus des Geldes , Club de Cuervos , 3% , Suburra: Blood on Rome or The Godfather of Bombay ) Dark the first series by Netflix that was developed, produced and filmed in Germany. Due to the satisfactory number of hits from worldwide users, Netflix announced on December 20 that a second season had been ordered. Even before the second season was released, a third and final season was commissioned, with showrunners Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar developing and conceiving the series for three seasons from the start. The series was produced by Wiedemann & Berg Filmproduktion and executive producers Baran bo Odar, Jantje Friese, Quirin Berg and Max Wiedemann . The casting was done by Simone Bär , who had to cast many of the more than 30 frequently occurring characters several times in different phases of life.

The Design was created by Udo Kramer develops leading. It took around four to five days to rearrange a set for filming in a different time frame. For the look of the post-apocalyptic winds in 2053 after the nuclear power plant disaster, inspiration was drawn from the images of the nuclear disasters in Fukushima and Chernobyl .

Filming

The shooting of the first season took place between October 2016 and April 2017, interrupted by a four-week Christmas break. The second season was shot between June and November 2018, the third season between June and December 2019. To prepare Dietrich Hollinderbäumer for his role as Adam, the costume designers around Andrea Pirchner , Astrid Stebich and Christina Wagner needed about four hours. Adam's mask was designed by Morten Jakobsen . The make-up and costume for Adam and the characters Regina (as an older woman suffering from cancer) and Elisabeth (scarred, with a wig and contact lenses) required most of the preparation time before the respective shooting days. Nikolaus Summerer was responsible for the camera and had previously worked several times with Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese. The film was shot in native 4K with a total of three ARRI Rental ALEXA 65 and one ALEXA Mini in large format . The visual design should be based on the work of the American photographer Gregory Crewdson . The image design is also almost the same in all the time levels shown, so that a visual distinction can only be made through optical features of the figures and the sets . The series was not shot episodically, so each location was completely shot and not revisited for later episodes. This enabled the budget for the shooting to be reduced. At the end of the filming of the ten-hour long first season, around 400 hours of material with a data size of 656 TB had been recorded. According to director Baran bo Odar, all three seasons were shot on a total of 438 days with 95 actors and 549 employees.

For all three seasons was mainly in Berlin and the surrounding Brandenburg and in the studios of the CCC Film and later Babelsberg rotated. Almost all studio recordings of the first season took place in the first studio. The southern Harz unicorn cave near Scharzfeld was chosen as the backdrop for the few shots inside the cave and some outside shots in the forest . Other exterior shots and scenes in front of the entrance to the cave and the forest hut of the Doppler family were shot in the forest between Tremsdorf and Saarmund in Brandenburg. The entrance to the cave was set up at the original location, while most of the interior shots took place in the studio. The bridge and the old rail route where Jonas meets his friends in the first episode are located near Dreilinden in the Düppeler Forest , on the former Wannsee – Stahnsdorf railway line . The Stahnsdorf south-west cemetery with its wooden cemetery chapel served as the backdrop for the Winden cemetery. The lake in which Martha, Jonas, Franziska and Magnus go swimming in the second season was staged at the Nudower fishponds. The former Dreilinden checkpoint and the Teltow Canal Bridge served as the filming location for Bernadette Wöller's parked caravan. The former Krampnitz barracks is located on the northern outskirts of Potsdam . It served as the backdrop for the post-apocalyptic curling. The destroyed nuclear power plant was staged by the former chemical plant in Rüdersdorf near Berlin . The scenes in front of and in the Windener school were recorded at the Reinfeld school in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf . A house built around 1930 on the northern outskirts of Berlin served as the backdrop for the purple house of the Kahnwalds. The film was also shot in the adjacent forests and fields. The Schloss Lanke in Wandlitz and the Schlosshotel im Grunewald served as locations for the hotel by Regina Tiedemann. Parts of the nuclear power plant were recreated in the Tempodrom in Berlin. Other locations were the city ​​library in Königs Wusterhausen , the Unter den Linden State Library and the Academy of Arts in Berlin, a former lung clinic on Wannsee , a forest area near Kallinchen near Zossen , the Berlin Olympic Stadium and other locations in the Nuthetal , Sacrow and Kladow .

For Eva's world, which is shown in the third season, all sets were mirrored in order to make it recognizable as a parallel world to Adams. Many features of the characters, such as Jonas' head or Martha's scar on the face, were also reflected as soon as they moved between the two worlds. Since this mirror effect was only carried out afterwards, props such as books had to be used on the set with mirror-inverted covers and actors had to open doors with their left hand.

Post production

Editing

The editing of the series comes from a total of seven chief editors . Anja Siemens was the only one involved in the creation of all three seasons. The senior editor for the first two seasons was Robert Rzesacz . Boris Gromatzki and Simon Gstöttmayr joined the team for the second season, while Sven Budelmann , Denis Bachter and Ann-Carolin Biesenbach participated in the last season. The editor Roan Densimbor mentioned in the opening credits of the 18th episode is an anagram of the name parts of the five editors involved in this episode, as these were divided into five parts due to the high time pressure, but there was not enough space for five names in the intro of the episode. The rough cut already took place during the ongoing shooting, so that a first cut version of each episode was available after the end of the shooting. These were then discussed with director Baran bo Odar and screenwriter Jantje Friese and revised over the course of the following weeks. To make it clear to the viewer when there was a time jump between two scenes, a sound effect was used in the first two seasons. Since the third season also jumps between Eva's and Adam's world, a visual aid was used to identify this change of scene, in which the image briefly collapses between the cut and is rebuilt. In addition, year numbers were displayed more frequently in the third season than in the previous seasons.

Soundtrack

Composer Ben Frost at the Denovali Swingfest Festival 2014.

The title song of the series is from Apparat (in collaboration with Soap & Skin ) and is called Goodbye . The original soundtrack of Dark was the Australians Frost Ben composes and produces. He combines styles from the genres of dark ambient , minimal music and classical compositions . He was inspired by pieces by Morton Feldman , Brian Eno and Harold Budd . An approximately 45-minute long soundtrack album was released for each season. In addition, songs by other artists can be heard in each episode. These often come from the time in which the scenes shown take place. You can hear u. a. Peter Gabriel , Raury , Asaf Avidan , Kim Carnes , Belinda Carlisle ( Heaven Is a Place on Earth ) , Alev Lenz , Bonaparte , Ry X , Elvis Presley ( Suspicious Minds ) , Human League ( Being Boiled ) , Rick Astley ( Never Gonna Give You Up ) , Falco ( Jeanny ) , Teho Teardo , Blixa Bargeld , Nana Gualdi , Detlev Lais , A Flock of Seagulls ( I Ran ) , Sol Seppy , Soap & Skin, Fever Ray , Agnes Obel , ABC ( The Look of Love ) , Kreator , Tears for Fears ( Shout ) , Nena ( Irgendwie, somewhere, sometime ) , Dead or Alive ( You Spin Me Round ) , The Stooges , Bloc Party , Meredith Monk , Hozier , Survivor , Robot Koch and Cher .

Visual effects

The visual effects come from the Berlin film studio Rise FX . In addition to the CG effects for the wormhole, the portable time machine, the apocalypse, the god particle or the animation of the time travelers themselves, the nuclear power plant with the two striking cooling towers, except for the main gate, was created entirely as a 3D model in the computer. For the post-apocalyptic winding, numerous previously used sets were digitally changed or partially destroyed. The same procedure was used for scenes in the early time levels in 1921 and 1888, for which the previously used sets were digitally changed so that they showed an older version, for example a church still under construction on the Windener Friedhof.

The intro to the series was designed by Lutz Lemke . Under the title song Goodbye , scenes from the respective season are shown as if viewed through a kaleidoscope , with close-ups being predominantly used.

publication

The series premiered on September 9, 2017 at the 42nd Toronto International Film Festival . The first two episodes ran there in the “Primetime” section, in which series with serial storytelling are shown. The entire season was then released on Netflix on December 1, 2017. On June 21, 2019, a central day in the plot of the first season (on this day the plot of the series begins with the suicide of Jonas Kahnwald's father), Netflix released the second season. The third and final season finally started on June 27, 2020 - the day of the apocalypse at the end of the second season - also on Netflix.

reception

criticism

source rating
Rotten Tomatoes (critic)
season 1
season 2
season 3
Rotten Tomatoes (audience)
season 1
season 2
season 3
IMDb (audience)
season 1
season 2
season 3
Metacritic
critic
audience

The series was received very positively overall. On the film database IMDb , the series received a rating of 8.8 / 10 from a total of more than 238,000 audience ratings. This puts Dark in 56th place of the TV series with the best ratings on IMDb, in 8th place in the science fiction category (as of August 13, 2020). Critics also rated the series mostly positive and emphasized its importance for non-English-language series productions in the modern streaming market. The series was particularly popular internationally, although according to Netflix only one in ten viewers of the first season came from Germany.

Henriette Rodenwald from kino-zeit.de described the series as successful in her review of the first season. She compared Dark with the Stranger Things series, also produced by Netflix , but said Dark was "a few degrees darker" and the 1980s had a "threatening aftertaste". The setting for the series described Rodenwald as "perfect". Overall, Dark is a successful German series format "with addictive potential". Anne Burgmer from the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger was more critical . She found it annoying that "pretty much every scene is overwhelmed by meaningful music", as if the creators of the series had no confidence in the audience to see for themselves when the tension was increased. She also found that the series "looks great" but has "too little soul". Seldom has a series shown such an ambitious plot in its first season, said Nick Schager for Daily Beast . Mike Hale praised the ingenuity of showrunners Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese in his first season review for The New York Times .

Ron Stoklas from the Berlin radio station Flux FM was similarly positive . He rated the complex development within the second season of Dark as positive. Therefore, the series is "not a sideline series", but demands the complete attention of the audience, which it "deserves from the first to the last minute". Kaitlin Thomas praised the sequel to Dark as great for the American TV Guide . The series poses complex questions about determinism and free will , always paired with overtly religious undertones, and masters every turn of the plot with its high narrative claim. Hanh Nguyen found the second season in his criticism for IndieWire confusing at times, but nevertheless emphasized the addictive potential and the quality of the series. Due to the complex plot, it is essential to know the stories and characters of the first season, as no time is used for further explanations. Jack Seale criticized in The Guardian , Dark had a problem similar to many other works that revolve around time travel : "The characters usually have no conflicts or goals that go beyond finding out what is going on." However, this search is According to answers, this is also the only dramaturgical motivation that a series like Dark needs, as the plot is intentionally structured in a threateningly complex way.

In his review of the final third season, Seale wrote that from his point of view it is sometimes impossible for the average viewer to fully follow the complex plot, in which the characters appear several times in numerous time levels and two parallel worlds. This complexity describe Dark but just as perfect, "a mixture of epic philosophical arguments and sad vignettes about loss and betrayal, packed in, everything is möglich' science fiction and wonderful Design delivers the icy ideas and images." Even media analysis is the great success of Dark met with interest. On Sozialtheoristen.de , Marcel Schütz interpreted the success of the series by portraying a “gruesomely beautiful” portrait of Germany. The series also reveals its certain Netflix-American signature: "The level of detail in the intellectual and moral FRG interior speaks volumes, including ironic-satirical playfulness." The diffuse material meets the taste in contemporary Germany. Dark has managed the tightrope act to deliver three of the most exciting science fiction TV seasons of all time, judged Steve Greene for IndieWire . To bring the last season - in contrast to so many series before - to the stage with a coherent and exciting finale is worth remembering. Dais Johnston for Inverse agrees . The most complex Netflix series has managed to tie its loose threads and put down perhaps the best series finale in science fiction history. Oliver Kaever praised Dark in his review for Der Spiegel as "still a surprising television phenomenon". The complex story of the series is “material that, with its long narrative breath and ambition, breaks the narrowness of German TV standards.” Even if the third season loses momentum, Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese have “a surprise in the finale conclusive outcome ”found. In conclusion, Kaever predicted that the German television world would never be the same again after Dark .

Between April and May 2020, Netflix's own productions could be rated on the Rotten Tomatoes rating portal . Of the 64 series available for selection, Dark prevailed against Netflix originals such as Peaky Blinders , Black Mirror , Stranger Things , Narcos and House of Cards with a total of over 2.5 million votes and was named the best Netflix series in the final round rated.

Awards and nominations

Bambi

  • 2018
    • Nomination: Best Series

Golden camera

Grimme Prize

  • 2018
    • Award : fiction

Award from the German Academy for Television

  • 2019
  • 2018
    • Award : Best image design for Nikolaus Summerer
    • Award : Best production design for Udo Kramer
    • Nomination: Best Supporting Actress for Karoline Eichhorn
    • Nomination: Best image design for Nikolaus Summerer
    • Nomination: Best makeup image for Christina Wagner
    • Nomination: Best Music for Ben Frost
    • Nomination: Best VFX / Animation for Sven Pannicke

Romy

  • 2018
    • Nomination: Best TV Series

Award from the Motion Picture Sound Editors

  • 2020
    • Nomination: Best Sound Editing: Music Score and Musical for Episodic Long Form Broadcast Media for Lewis Morison
  • 2018
    • Nomination: Best Sound Editing: Music Score and Musical for Episodic Long Form Broadcast Media for Lewis Morison

Aftermath

The very good international reception prompted Netflix to order other series produced in Germany, including How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast) , Skylines , Tribes of Europe and Die Barbaren . Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar signed an exclusive series contract with Netflix before the release of the third season. The 1889 series and Tyll were announced as the first resulting projects .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Scott Roxborough: Netflix Confirms First German Series 'Dark' From Baran bo Odar. In: The Hollywood Reporter. February 24, 2016, accessed August 10, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b Start of shooting the first German Netflix original: "Dark". Press release. In: media.netflix.com. October 18, 2016, accessed June 29, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Alexander Krei: German Netflix series "Dark" gets second season. In: DWDL.de . DWDL.de GmbH, December 20, 2017, accessed on December 21, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Jan Friday: "Dark" Makers: "I prefer to go where it hurts". In: DWDL.de. July 3, 2019, accessed August 12, 2020 .
  5. ^ Rüdiger Meyer: "Dark" 2nd season: Netflix and the five time levels. In: TV feature film. June 22, 2019, accessed August 12, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Nikolaus Summerer: Netflix Original "Dark": The team and the visual concept. In: kameramann.de. January 16, 2018, accessed August 22, 2020 .
  7. ^ "Dark" Season 2: Shooting begins, first page of the script published. In: chip.de. June 25, 2018, accessed September 25, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Baran bo Odar: We finished shooting Dark Season 2. In: Instagram. November 29, 2018, accessed August 10, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Baran bo Odar: And we are back! Shooting Dark Season 3. On our 1st shooting day. In: Instagram. June 24, 2019, accessed on August 10, 2020 .
  10. ↑ a b Baran bo Odar: And that'sa wrap for Dark! In: Instagram. December 15, 2019, accessed on August 10, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Sushri Sahu: Exclusive: MUA Christina Wagner On 'Dark' Being Shot Like '4 Movies', How Beginning Was The End And More. In: Mashable India. July 2020, accessed on August 12, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Timo Landsiedel: Netflix original “Dark”: DoP Nikolaus Summerer about Alexa 65 and lenses. In: Kameramann.de. January 15, 2018, accessed August 10, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Surendhar MK: 'Ensuring Dark's continuity was a challenge': Cinematographer Nikolaus Summerer discusses jumping through time. In: Firstpost. July 23, 2020, accessed on August 10, 2020 .
  14. ↑ a b c d e f Timo Landsiedel: Netflix original “Dark”: The team and the visual concept. In: Kameramann.de. January 16, 2018, accessed August 10, 2020 .
  15. ↑ a b c d Andrea David: On the trail of Netflix '"Dark". In: filmtourismus.de. Retrieved August 11, 2020 .
  16. ↑ "Dark" was also shot in the unicorn cave. In: Harzkurier. December 20, 2017, accessed August 10, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Ricarda Nowak: It's getting "dark" in Brandenburg. In: Märkische Allgemeine. October 18, 2016, accessed August 10, 2020 .
  18. ↑ Ra Moon: Welcome to Winden: Dark Filming Locations Guide - Where was Dark filmed? In: Atlas of Wonders. July 8, 2020, accessed on August 31, 2020 .
  19. ↑ a b Christine Bunish: 'Dark' Visual Effects. In: cgw.com. September 20, 2018, accessed August 12, 2020 .
  20. ↑ Steve Greene: 'Dark': The Netflix Show's Creators Discuss the Impossibility of Saying Goodbye. In: IndieWire. June 3, 2020, accessed on August 12, 2020 .
  21. ↑ Pramit Chatterjee: Exclusive: Simon Gstöttmayr, Boris Gromatzki On The Mind-Boiling Process Of Editing 'Dark'. In: Mashable India. August 10, 2020, accessed on August 11, 2020 .
  22. ↑ Susanne Rakowitz: New Netflix series "Dark": Every idyll is deceptive. In: kleinezeitung.at . December 1, 2017, accessed June 26, 2020.
  23. ↑ Pramit Chatterjee: Exclusive: 'Dark' Composer Ben Frost On Crafting The Sound Of Winden, Working With Baran bo Odar, And More. In: Mashable India. July 24, 2020, accessed on August 11, 2020 .
  24. ↑ Dark - Season 1. In: risefx.com. Retrieved on August 12, 2020 .
  25. ↑ Dark - Season 2. In: risefx.com. Retrieved on August 12, 2020 .
  26. ↑ Dark - Season 3. In: risefx.com. Retrieved on August 12, 2020 .
  27. ↑ Vanessa Schneider: "The Politician" and how really good series intros are created - with Lutz Lemke (title designer "Dark"). In: Skip Intro - The Puls series podcast. October 4, 2019, accessed August 12, 2020 .
  28. ↑ Toronto International Film Festival 2017. Official Film Schedule. (PDF; 852 kB) In: tiff.net. Toronto International Film Festival , accessed August 23, 2017 .
  29. ↑ Kevin Hennings: German Netflix series celebrates world premiere in Canada. In: DWDL.de . DWDL.de GmbH, August 15, 2017, accessed on December 21, 2017 .
  30. ↑ a b Dark: Season 1 (2017). Rotten Tomatoes , accessed August 13, 2020 .
  31. ↑ a b Dark: Season 2 (2019). Rotten Tomatoes , accessed August 13, 2020 .
  32. ↑ a b Dark: Season 3 (2020). Rotten Tomatoes , accessed August 13, 2020 .
  33. ↑ Dark: Season 1. IMDb , accessed on August 13, 2020 .
  34. ↑ Dark: Season 2. IMDb , accessed on August 13, 2020 .
  35. ↑ Dark: Season 3.IMDb , accessed on August 13, 2020 .
  36. ↑ a b Dark. Metacritic , accessed August 13, 2020 .
  37. ↑ Dark. In: IMDb. Retrieved August 13, 2020 .
  38. ↑ Top Rated TV Shows. In: IMDb. Retrieved August 13, 2020 .
  39. ↑ TV Series / TV Mini-Series, Rating Count at least 5,000, Sci-Fi. In: IMDb. Retrieved August 13, 2020 .
  40. ↑ Janko Roettgers: Netflix's drama 'Dark' May Be From Germany, but 90% of Its Viewers Are Not. In: Variety. May 6, 2018, accessed on August 13, 2020 .
  41. ↑ Henriette Rodenwald: Time is only an illusion - For the Netflix series "DARK". In: kino-zeit.de. Kurz & Spiegel GbR, December 1, 2017, accessed December 3, 2017 .
  42. ^ Anne Burgmer: The new "Stranger Things"? The German Netflix series "Dark" is really that good. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. DuMont Media Group, December 1, 2017, accessed December 21, 2017 .
  43. ↑ Nick Schager: Netflix's 'Dark': Come for the 'Stranger Things' Vibes, Stay for the Time-Travel Insanity. In: Daily Beast. December 1, 2017, accessed on August 13, 2020 .
  44. ↑ Mike Hale: Review: With 'Dark,' Netflix Delivers Science Fiction With European Roots. In: The New York Times. December 5, 2017, accessed August 13, 2020 .
  45. ↑ Ron Stoklas: DARK Season 2 | Widescreen. In: fluxfm.de. FluxFM Berlin, platform for regional music industry, accessed on July 16, 2019 .
  46. ↑ Kaitlin Thomas: Dark Season 2 Review: Still Great, but We Can't Say Why Without Netflix Killing Us. In: TV Guide. June 21, 2019, accessed on August 13, 2020 .
  47. ↑ Hanh Nguyen: 'Dark' Review: Season 2 Is Defiantly Bizarre, Twisty, and More Addictive Than Ever. In: IndieWire. June 21, 2019, accessed on August 13, 2020 .
  48. ↑ Jack Seale: Dark season two review - willfully confusing and deliciously creepy. In: The Guardian. June 21, 2019, accessed on August 13, 2020 .
  49. ↑ Jack Seale: Dark season three review - a thrilling, brain-scrambling sci-fi finale. In: The Guardian. June 27, 2020, accessed on August 13, 2020 .
  50. ↑ Marcel Schütz: Between Adenauer and Apocalypse: Evil children's games in the darkroom of the old republic. In: Sozialtheoristen.de. June 26, 2020, accessed June 27, 2020 .
  51. ↑ Steve Greene: 'Dark' Season 3 Review: Brilliant Netflix Sci-Fi Series Gets a Masterful Farewell Season Remix. In: IndieWire. June 27, 2020, accessed on August 13, 2020 .
  52. ↑ Dais Johnston: Dark Season 3 Might Be The Best Series Finale In Sci-Fi History. In: Iverse.com. June 25, 2020, accessed on August 13, 2020 .
  53. ↑ Oliver Kaever: Last season "Dark": From winds to the world. In: Spiegel. June 26, 2020, accessed August 13, 2020 .
  54. ↑ Marc Mensch: "Dark" voted the most popular Netflix original. In: Blickpunkt: Film. May 5, 2020, accessed August 10, 2020 .
  55. ↑ RT Users Crown Dark The Greatest Netflix Original Series. In: Rotten Tomatoes. May 4, 2020, accessed on August 13, 2020 .
  56. ↑ German series: Netflix commissions five new projects. In: Spiegel. October 25, 2018, accessed August 10, 2020 .
  57. ↑ Netflix: Dark creators Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar announce the next Netflix project in 1889. In: media.netflix.com. November 14, 2018, accessed August 10, 2020 .
  58. ↑ "Tyll" on Netflix - "Dark" makers shoot a series based on the Kehlmann bestseller. In: Spiegel Online . October 16, 2019, accessed August 10, 2020 .