Dark, or, Neflix Goes German

[selenak]

Starting to feel the Yuletide ants of the "what will my recipients say, and will anyone else read it" type. Which means it's time for the "you're writing in rare fandoms, don't expect too much" mantra. :)

In other news, I watched the new Netflix show Dark not least since it's the first German Netflix production and I feel a bit of an urge to support the hometeam, so to speak. Alas, I have mixed feelings about the show. Not, I hasten to add, because it's badly made. Nor is it simply a "a German Stranger Things" which is a description I've read more than once; it has "odd things going on in and around small town" and "young characters in key roles" as a factor in common, but if anything, I was occasionally reminded of Twin Peaks. Mostly, though, it's its own thing, and laudably enough, it doesn't import US stereotypes where they don't fit. Which is to say: no jocks, nerds and cheerleaders in high school. And if there's an 80s theme going on strongly, it's the fear of nuclear energy, which I don't think any of the US shows and movies currently pitched at invoking said time are thematizing. (Honestly, I have no idea how strong or weak the anti-nuclear energy (not just anti atom bombs, but anti nuclear energy) movement was in the US in the 80s. When I visited for the first time, it was in the middle of Reagan's reelection campaign, and I don't recall it being a subject at all. Whereas in Germany this was the era where the Greens got traction and started to emerge as the new political party.) The nuclear power plant whom most of the small town of Winden depends on for their work is a major thematic factor in the story the show ends up telling, from its beginning to it being put ouf commission, though not in chronological order.

While we're at general themes, I was also impressed when it turned out what I thought at first was over the top - the terrible weather in the 2019 era of the show, where it seems to be raining all the time - actually had a plot point. (The weather gets better in 1986, not coincidentally the aftermath of Chernobyl time, and it's downright sunny in 1953. This isn't used to signal an idyllic past, btw. But it has a point.) Also, while the show has a huge ensemble, meaning one spends the first episodes learning who is who and trying not to confuse especially the various male teenagers (the female teenagers and all the adults of both genders look sufficiently unlike each other), there aren't any superfluous characters. And I like how it handles its look at several different eras in terms of characterisation. People change,while maintaining some traits. For example: Regina might be a high strung business woman in 2019, but in 1986 she was a bullied teenager. And not just people but wealth changes; the Doppler family is wealthy in 1953, but by 2019 is anything but, while a 1986 penniless young man is in 2019 the manager of the (closing) nuclear power plant, and so forth. (That the audience meets characters at different stages of their lives really shows up that you should never make quick judgments about someone.) Some things might be the same in Winden through the decades, but it's not a static community.

On the other hand, here's why I couldn't love the show: for starters, the dialogue occasionally sounds incredibly stilted and pretentious. (Arguably I might notice this more when it's said in my own language?) Secondly, none of the romances strikes me as remotely convincing and/or interesting. Thirdly, my favourite character, Charlotte the police chief, while being shown as a dogged investigator, is constantly denied finding out the big truths. Instead, these are given to two men, once of whom is her suspended sidekick (erranously referred to as chief of police in at least one professional review I've seen), Ulrich, whom I not only disliked but loathed. It's been a while since I have so thoroughly disliked a character whom I don't think the show meant me to despise to that degree (I think the last one was later season Bill Adama in BSG). Basically I quickly came to boo and hiss as soon as Ulrich showed up on screen, which unfortunately he does pretty often. The other man who finds out most truths along with the audience is young Jonas whom I don't have negative feelings about, and again, if we spend a lot of time at the start on his angst it turns out this is plot relevant later on, but unfortunately the young actor only seems to have that one brooding, angsty expression. And lastly, while we do find out some of what's been going on, there are still a lot of loose ends by the time the show wraps up and one big cliffhanger, and given I have no idea whether there will be a second season, I find that frustrating.

Trivia: was amused by the "Raider" thing, as I'm old enough to know that was what Twix was called in Germany in the 80s. And wow, early 1950s police uniforms still looked a lot like the ones from the, err, previous era.

In conclusion: can't rec this wholeheartedly, but there's enough interesting stuff in it that I would watch a second season. I can always hope Ulrich will be killed in the first five minutes of same.

Comments

[monanotlisa]

You and me both. Ulrich is such an asshole of such epic proportions.

As I said in my review, toward the end, the women of older generations seemed to emerge more from the shadows. Perhaps the second season will see a shift to them (and will see Ulrich get what's coming to him)? Fine; the latter is unlikely...but the first may well happen.

[selenak]

I'm really curious about Claudia, but so far we've only got hints; here's hoping!

Ulrich - bah. May he disappear into the maelstrom of time, or something like that.

[monanotlisa]

Oh, and on the topic of Yuletide -- haha, I know no one but my recipient and 3 other people will read it. The upside, its ratio of kudos and hits will be great; the downside, there's only 2 kudos. ;)

[sovay]

It's been a while since I have so thoroughly disliked a character whom I don't think the show meant me to despise to that degree

What went wrong between the show's conception of him and their actual presentation?

[selenak]

I think they were going for "flawed noir hero driven to extremes by terrible situation, which is a tragedy since he's at core good". But for such a character to work, we need to see his virtues along with his flaws. Whereas Ulrich is bearable for about three minutes interacting with his kids early on in the first episode. Otherwise, he's obnoxious to everyone - his wife, his mistress, his collague from work, and in the past the old cop - and then, near the end, he does something utterly vile. Again, for this to come across as a tragedy, as "essentially good character does something evil", we should have seen Ulrich do something good before, or be at least endearing and charming so we could care despite ourselves. Nope.

[labingi]

Thanks for the review. Chiming in randomly to say that I don't think nuclear fear was a big issue in the US in the '80s (from my vantage point as a kid). We did talk about it, but I think as we came into the era of Glasnost, several decades of Cold War fatigue gave way to just not worrying about nuclear war as much--and frankly the US has never worried much about pollution in energy generation.

[selenak]

Yes, I think there was a bit of a cultural divide, not least because Germany would have been Ground Zero in any Russia/US war, I suppose, and Chernobyl was that much closer. In that year, a classmate of mine refused to jump into the sand during the annual multi discipline sports event, argueing that there was the possibility it contained radio active Caesium, and the sports teacher accepted this. (The rest of us, though, proceeded to jump into the potential nuclear waste. :)) Mushrooms were off the menu in both restaurants and at home, which peeved teenage me because they were favourites. And of course Helmut Schmidt agreeing to the US stationing Pershing II missiles in Germany eventually cost him his chancellorship. Plus as I said, that was when the Greens became a force to be reckoned with, until in the 90s they were able to form a governing coalition with the SDP.

Flash forward a few decades, and one of Angela Merkel's smartest power moves was to respond to Fukushima by immediately pushing a nuclear exit for all of Germany through as part of her (conservative) party's program. It robbed the Greens of what would have been their big subject, and they haven't found another that really struck a chord with voters since.

[labingi]

Thanks for that background. It's so interesting to hear that perspective. All that felt very remote from us. I don't think people in my generation really thought the US would be ground zero for any serious threat until 9/11. And 9/11, tragic though it was, was so tiny in comparison to things like the threat of nuclear war, yet the US went so crazy over it, I think it really shows how unprepared we were (and are) to be at risk, to have skin in the game, like most of the rest of the world.

[bimo]

Starting to feel the Yuletide ants of the "what will my recipients say, and will anyone else read it" type. Which means it's time for the "you're writing in rare fandoms, don't expect too much" mantra. :)

Aw, I feel your pain!

I participated in an extremely small exchange this year, and the request I picked was so unusual (yet hitting all my "I want to try and make this thing work" buttons) that I'm wondering whether anyone except my recipient will even bother to click...

Oh, and Cavendish and I found something in our mailbox! :)

[selenak]

That's good to know about the mailbox. And alas for the eternal dilemma of one the one hand really wanting to write in a fandom of one's heart and/or a truly intriguing/challenging prompt - and on the other thus limiting the potential readers severely.

[kernezelda]

Ah, thank you for the link to your reviews.

I found Dark just after Netflix dropped the third season, so was able to view the whole series over a couple of weeks.

Ulrich was a jerk throughout, and I don't know that he was meant to be viewed all that sympathetically; in his first appearance, he came across as far less caring for Hannah than she for him. He undermined his wife's attempts to keep their children disciplined, too. During his frantic search for and pursuit of Helge, I could sympathize, but I was kind of amazed we were shown an adult violently assaulting a child. We know where Ulrich comes down on the question of baby Hitler!

Josef and Martha as a couple didn't strike me as particularly significant, although I felt the show wanted me to focus on them--Joseph and Martha, really, very pointedly paired Christian names.

It was a little difficult to tell Katharina Nielsen and Charlotte Doppler apart for most of the first season, and I had a little trouble following the plot because of it, but eventually was able to discern which one was which. Charlotte was the most sympathetic of the adult characters, and I really, really wanted her to figure out what was going on and be a part of the solution.

Another thing that I found neat was that Torben Woller's injury had no significance to the plot--it was random, and unimportant, when usually injuries in a show like this Mean Something.

Oh, and the same with Bernadette's sexuality/gender--it was just background info, like Torben's injury, and not written as an Issue.

[selenak]

Ulrich: yes, in retrospect, knowing how his story goes, I think the show and I are roughly on the same page. But when there was just s1 to have an opinion about, I thought they meant him to come across as some tragic noir hero, and his actions (all those you listed, specially the child assault) were far too revolting for me for this.

Jonas and Martha, not Josef and Martha. (Or does the English dubbing call him Josef? He's definitely Jonas in German.) I was only so-so on them in s1 and developed sympathy for Jonas in s2 while losing it for Martha, but s3 actually did give me interest for both of them. Claudia (in any time line) is still my most interesting time traveller of choice.

Charlotte: agreed, and it frustrated me throughout the show that she wasn't.

Bernadette: yes. It felt like a part of life, not "there will be a special episode about this aspect", which is how it should be.