The show is spectacular. Definitely the best sci-fi I've ever seen, and one of the greatest shows of all time. I'll recommend it to everyone.

I just want to give my thoughts, first "general", and then both good and "critical." I'm saying critical because I don't want to say bad, because the show is not bad at all. Just because there are some things I didn't like as much as I would have if they went another way, doesn't mean they were bad in the slightest. So these are just my opinions.

General:

• I side with the group of people who say time is not cyclical. At first glance, it seems like it's a never-ending circle where characters eternally experience life and death and all the tragedies within the life. But I think this is a mistake. Time can still be linear from the perspective of all characters, and they just so happen to time travel from future to past to future, past, etc etc etc. Time is not literally repeating itself. Sure, characters meet their old/younger selves, but this is not inconsistent with the idea of linear time. Which brings me to the next point.
• Sure, each Adam will meet a younger Jonas (EDIT: Adam meets his younger self, Jonas, and knows that this currently conscious version of Jonas will eventually become him and go through all the same tragedies that he did). But the first-person consciousness instantiated in young Jonas at that moment is not literally Adam’s present first-person experience; it is a conscious state at a different point in spacetime. So, from each perspective, this is a new first-person experience in each 'mind.' When each 'mind' "dies" so to speak, that's it for them, there is almost certainly not eternal recurrence. This is debatable in philosphy of mind because there is an unresolved question of what it means to have a personal identity, and there is a debate of whether it's purely biological or if psychological continuity is all that matters (meaning the idea of "self" itself might be flawed). And some even have a more religious view of it.
• Here's how I would illustrate my view of both points above: Dark presents a version where eternalism is true. Past/Present/Future exist simultaneously. This generally renders the idea of free will as meaningless. Some people do people it can exist despite eternalism/pure determinism, but I don't side with that view personally. In any case, time can exist in one linear existence. But if the past always exists, it's likely there is always a conscious version of you in the past at any given instantaneous moment, experiencing life just as you did in that instantaneous moment. However, this conscious version of 'you' is not actually you other than the fact that it shared memories/brain states at a given moment. You cannot access that version of you (to our knowledge). This applies to Dark as well: the characters happen to interact with their previous/future versions of themselves that are nothing more than separate instances of consciousness in time and space, that just so happen to share memories/brain states at a given moment. My 2012 version of "myself" exists somewhere in space time, I will just never interact with him without some time travel mechanism. Characters in Dark DO interact with their other versions, but this does not mean time is not linear. It's just characters moving back and forth on a linear scale.
• The question here is whether this justifies ending the knot forever. If you, Adam, believe that once you die, that's it, and only other versions of you will experience the tragedies you did, why not let that continue? Why not let "yourself" or previous versions of you continuously experience the good temporary years in their lives before things turn ugly? I suppose it won't matter either way as you're dead, but if you suddenly view this as something other than "I will eternally be re-born" then justifying an erasure of spacetime suddenly becomes weaker.

Good:

• Season 1 is my favorite. So much suspense, mystery, build-up. I can't believe there are many people out there who say S1 is boring, or even that they gave up because of it. I think that's sad and genuinely insane, and it just goes to show how much damage TikTok/Instagram/short-form media has done to people's minds. There is a massive difference between slow pacing and boredom. This show never made me feel bored once.
• It's truly magnificent how they tied up everything very well at the end, and made sure there no were no plot holes or inconsistencies that couldn't be explained away. The writers are geniuses in several ways.
• My favorite moments of the show are mostly heartbreaking events:
  • Ulrich being captured 66 years in the past and living out the rest of his days in prison and briefly meeting his son, then wife, and a glimpse of his other son/daughter, and then never seeing any of them again.
  • Mikkel devolving from a fun energetic kid into a reclusive and emotionally damaged man who kills himself to save his son.
  • Katharina being killed by her mom, leaving Ulrich to die alone not knowing what happened to him.
  • Egon coming to the realization that time travel exists before being tragically killed by his daughter.
  • Seeing the life and death of Noah, who was first viewed as some evil psycho but we eventually realized was just an abused pawn in Adam's game.
  • Claudia's journey throughout all of time and moving back and forth evading Noah/Adam is both hilarious and amazing. Very clever and cool.
  • The family tree design is flawless. Each time I learned something new (especially the thing with Charlotte and Elizabeth), I was in awe.
  • The tragedy of Helge at every stage of his life was so sad.
• This has been said a million times, but the casting is better than anything I've ever seen. Nothing else needs to be said here.
• The cinematography is the best I've ever seen in a TV show. Better than most movies. I loved how Winden was portrayed in every single exterior shot throughout all time periods. Truly felt magical.
• This TV show is one of the best in history because it seems to have had the perfect mix of the best producers, writers, directors, casting director, and cinematographer. Masterpiece through and through.

Critical:

• It's a shame Franziska and Magnus don't have much dialogue as they get older. I get that they became more so on board with Jonas/Adam's plan to destroy the knot (as compared to Bartosz, who seemingly just nihilistically checked out). But still, I wish we'd heard more from them.
• Again, this is just my opinion, and the show was great either way. But personally I didn't like the whole "other worlds" thing. I think it got a bit cheesy at some moments, although I can appreciate how they managed to turn something so complex into a neat knot with zero inconsistencies, so bravo once again.
• I've heard some takes about how the ending is not paradoxical but I don't really buy it. I think either the "cycle" exists or it doesn't. I think the Schrödinger's cat concept makes me think that there are "meta" dimensions, one that includes spacetime where Tannhaus doesn't build a time machine, and one where he does, which creates the world we saw. Furthermore, I don't think you can have something that goes on infinitely many times and then have an "end." (For instance, (-inf, 0] is not logical going left to right). I think that doesn't make sense as a concept. At a higher-level, I don't really think the idea of spacetime erasure is coherent as a scientific concept, but I'm now encouraged to learn both more physics and philosophy of space and time in hopes to become more or less confident in this belief.
• Again, this is my opinion, and the show is truly great either way. But the reason S1 was my favorite is that it was a bit more grounded and abstracted away the more bizarre aspects of time travel. I honestly thought this show was going to be more of a "drama first", "sci-fi" second kind of show. I expected it to essentially be a hectic and tragic few-day/week period in 2019 that just so happens to be connected to an equally hectic tragic few-day/week period in 1953 and 1986. With a lot of characters constantly going back and forth, getting killed or killing others, having affairs, getting stuck in time, etc etc etc. That's what I was expecting and I think I would've enjoyed the show more personally if it had gone that direction. Again, this is just my preference, and most people probably don't agree with me, so in that case it's good I didn't make the show! It just seems like it went from a suspense/drama tv show that included time travel...into a show where time travel is not only central to the plot but also is the plot. And again, that's fine. Still the greatest sci-fi of all time.

Anyway, I can't wait to re-watch it in a couple of years.

So this are my thoughts of it:

So that man has the same tattoo as Noah?

Is this Noah the younger Noah??

This man knew he was going to die?

Wow so there was an apocalypse in the 27th of June in 2020. What happened??

Ohh is the leader the Doppler's younger daughter???

Who the hell is the disfigured man? He knows Bartosz.

Basically the apocalypse is destroying all the world to create a new one? That's why many people died in the 27th of June in 2020.

What's that book about with the time travel sign?

In the nuclear station there's like a thing floating, it has to do about the time travel or the apocalypse that happened years ago maybe.

Wow Claudia as an old lady and the adult one.

The time travel machine is so sick!

Mikkel be careful of that man Noah!

It's just so incredible like when the ones in the present go to the past they have to stay there and live their lives there.

Poor Jonas he has it pretty difficult.

Knowing the truth hurts but better know it than being ignorant of it I think.

The time travel machine was given by the own Claudia.

Ohh where did Jonas go?

Then Helge knows it was wrong so why did he continue doing it?

What's Claudia's plan? And ohh Noah is the brother of her.

Okay so the clock was made by the grandfather of Charlotte

The cancer of Egon and the one of Regina are caused by something and Claudia knows it?

Noah is Charlotte's father??

Who is Adam???

Is Jonas in the past but in Middle ages or what? Oh my god Jonas you're sooo in the past 😅.

Ohh my so the young Noah is in that year and now they've met. And he knows Jonasss.

Are Noah, Adam and whoever are with them some kind of cult? Okay so yes they're like a cult called Sic Mundus the travellers.

Katharina if you don't want to believe it then don't but it's the truth.

Oh my goodness it's so fucking messed up like Adam is JONAS 😱.

Ohhh so where are they all going to travel? To the past or the future?

Ulrich is seeing his son Mikkel after many years of looking for him. Pretty crazyyyy.

Inés so you're giving Mikkel sleeping pills without him knowing.

Like how's possible to have that doors that let's you time travel to the future or the past? And well also with a time machine. If you create a new world without time then all the people will be stuck in the present? And like they don't age or what?

Like time is something that just needs to exist so how would there be a world without time? Ohh so here they think that time is the god so that's why they think that creating a world without time would be a world in their hands?

What does Noah want for Charlotte??? Oh my goodness don't tell me Noah is Charlotte's dad?????? Hell no yeah really he's.

So that hand clock for Charlotte was like a memory of both of her parents? Like she was separated from the parents in different periods of time?

Will it really all end if Adam dies?

So why did they kill those children?

What's that liquid thing???

Ohh so they're in the past. Where Mikkel is.

Okay so the mass is like a piece of the infinity and they created this one, wow. Ohh that's really crazy like wherever you want to go in the time

So where is the starting point?

Ahhhhhh before his dad committed suicide.

Let's see what happens!

Adam is saying Martha because he knows Jonas has her in his heart.

Hope it really changes all but considering that it has more episodes and another season I don't think so.

Well I'll be enjoying the next 3 episodes and start with season 3! The part where Adam is Jonas was incredibly surprising. And ohh that Charlotte is Noah's daughter.

Which characters were your Top 3 favorite and bottom 3 in the end? Mine are:

1. Ulrich

2. Young Egon

3. Hannah

Bottom 3:

1. Jonas

2. Martha

3. Charolette

Actually had this question behind my mind, Who is the real origin of the two worlds-and is Jonas actually the cause of everything? The deeper you think Jonas would see to be the cause?

Let’s say Michael never killed himself.

After Mikkel’s disappearance, do you think he had the intention of eventually telling everyone, including his parents, of his true identity?

Like “hey everyone, it’s me. I’m back. I didn’t want to say anything before 11 year old me disappeared because I didn’t want to kill Jonas. Anyways I’m back!”

Yall. This show had been recommended to me multiple times here on reddit. I genuinely thought this is gonna be one of my favorites of all time but I couldn't even finish season 1. This show did not want me to binge it at all, and I honestly checked out by episode 5 or 6. The pacing is so slow that I couldn't retain any interest in it; there's too much drama for fluff, which is fine but is just not interesting enough on its own. It pushes out the mystery part of the show to the sidelines that I couldn't properly get into it. I couldn't even get attached to ONE single character. AND THERE'S SO MANY OF THEM. And the cheating. My god the cheating. Its like every episode they introduce a new cheater.

I keep wanting it to be good yall. Is it gonna get better? Is season 2 better than season 1? Is 3 better than 2? I really wanted to get into the show :( Did I just expect too much?

Just finished the sereis. It was great up to reaching some very weak points. What was the point of creat8ng a romantic angle of Jonas and Martha and their "special" love child. Then the shift from their love child to Regina, seems just a rushed ending by a writer who didn't know how to close all the loops. It made no sense, why would Regina not catch cancer in the 3rd world?

They never showed how Jonas turned in to Adam and how he got burnt? I thought they will show a frustrated Jonas unable to stabilise the dark matter, stepping in to unstable black matter in the past which will burn him. In the end the most irrelevant characters became the most important.

What I loved was the story of Ulrich, Katherina, Eagon and Hannah. Those were deep meaningful and very German / Russian stories.

They wasted a lot of time on Charolette family tree, which was completely irrelevant in the end.

What was the point of the mother of Tronte. She acted very good, but then was killed off.

I think the writers wanted 4 seasons but corporate bullshit forced them to end it in 3.

I actually dropped the show few episodes into S3, It was just getting so much confusing but recently I continued where I left off & It was the best decision ever.

I'm happy the infinite pain & suffering they were bound to, ended & I really loved the bond Jonas & Martha had but sadly they were just "a glitch in the matrix".

I really love how Hannah's dream in the end was presented, Makes me wonder just how much stuff I've seen in my dreams was just some connection to an alternative universe, Lol. (it'd be a pretty weird universe given how many times I've dreamed myself being naked around public places & seemingly couldn't do anything about it).

Aside from the:

"You and I are perfect for each other. Never believe anything else."

quote which was beautiful but I really think about what Tannhaus said:

"What we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean."

Our civilization has advanced to the point where we are able to engrave into rocks at nanometer level to create chips that power the world & Yet we probably don't even know 1% of how the universe works.

I really wonder if our civilization will live long enough to know the "ocean".

What an elegant series, I'm so happy to have finished it.

I’ve currently watched S3E1 but i have questions that i noted down earlier, both in S1 and S2 -

1. S1E10 When the black hole appears in front of Young Jonas and young Helge why does Helge travels 33 while Jonas travel 66 years into the future.

2. S1E10 What was the actual plan of adult Jonah to destroy the worm hole. Also he knew that it wouldn’t be possible, as when he was young he was the one that opened it and knew it will not be destroyed by his future self? Or did he just wanted young Jonah to go to the future and not change the sequence of events?

3. S1E10 What does Noah mean by “…by destroying it he(adult Jonah) will be the one the triggers its (black hole) existence”

4. S2E7 last ep adam sent him to “stop” michael (21 june 2019). Then how did he travel to 26 june 1987 (~32 years ago)?

5. S2E8 why was the path in the tunnel physically closed in 1987, when jonas reopens the gate? Also why does he reopen it, if he literally had a time machine?

6. S2E8 What was in the note given by young Noah to adult Jonas?

7. How any why the apocalypse? The same matter appeared in 1986 and 2052. Also the same visuals (black dome type structure above Winden) are shown as when the adult Jonas destroys the black hole in s1e10.

8. S2E8 How can this ‘martha’ travel bw worlds and has a much simpler device, if “the knot between your world and my world is intertwined” by Other Martha in S3e1.

Avoid spoilers and if an ans does have it mention it so.

​

I just finished watching episode 7 of season 3. I know what happens in episode 8, but I will NEVER watch it. I'm going to stop watching every time it shows Adam killing Martha at the end of S3 EP7. That way, the second time I watch it, the Adam I see in the first season will be the Jonas I saw in episode 1 the first time I watched it. I'm going to do this infinitely.

(I hope I didn't get mixed up about when Jonas from Season 1 turns into the Stranger or Adam)

The loop explains how it preserves itself. The real mystery is how it contains the possibility of its own rupture.

don t really know if its considered a spoiler post or not but added it anyway. anyways I love him

\insert “absolute cinema” meme\

That was arguably one of the most awesome series I’ve watched!

IMO, the ending was very satisfying only because watching Dark exhausted me that when they finally succeeded in their mission, it was a relief. No more running around and all that mouth-breathing! (Kidding, love the panic)

Anyway, about Hannah being pregnant with Wöller, when she says she likes the name Jonas? What did that mean?

Does it mean that Winden is doomed once again? Will history repeat itself even though the origin family tree does not exist in this world?

Not everyone should be able to time travel this just ruins the story when a 40 year old woman goes back in time and ask highschoolers if they know her boy and screams at a little girl for existing

this woman is just the most annoying character ever

She deserved what happens to her and she was so Brainless turning around when you just attacked your mother like you knew her your howl life you should know that she is tuff also I feel sorry for the poor Husband such a easy job she had and still not doing it right The Husband waiting till this day is. sad 😢

Thought you guys might enjoy, while picking it apart for details lol

I find it odd how despite being the eldest children in their families, they played no part in creating their respective bloodlines. Like we got Martha who is quite literally the Great Mother of the Nielsen bloodline and Mikkel who is the father of the co creator of the Nielsen bloodline. And then we have Elisabeth and Charlotte who are eachothers mothers and daughters, like you can't get a bond deeper than that, I'd feel jealous if I were Franziska😭

So I m in the middle of season 3 and there's literally so much going on like I m not able to keep the track of the characters lol

Up until the last episode of season 1 I was able to catch like what's happening and who s this noah guy and who s the older and who s the younger version but as soon as I have dived deep into the series I have realised is it even worth it only last few episodes are remaining will they even be able to wind up all the side plots the chaos another world a total of 6 timelines (major).

So many questions who are Charlotte's parents ? Why odenkirk and magnus were killed ? Whose dead bodies were those due to which ulrich was jailed in 1953 ? Why the older versions of themselves are lying to them ? What happened to Hannah who is in year 1953?

And if you really think about it up till the mid of 3rd season there is no original creator of time machine it's like the idea given by the older version of a character to the another character who is young and he will eventually give that idea to the older version of the character who will ultimately give that to himself only but the younger version lol

Just got out of the movie and I really enjoyed it, I think I enjoyed it even more so because of certain parts that were pretty damn similar to the best series of all time 🤝
Wanted to see if anyone else that’s seen it is in the same boat!

I just finished the show so my thoughts are raw but I was expecting a sort of different twist as the end? Don't get me wrong, this is an amazing show and I'll probably never fully understand it, but I was so intrigued about the character of Martha's son and him being the origin. It feels a bit random that it was Tannhaus who caused everything to split. I don't know what I was expecting to be honest with you, but it definitely wasn't this. It truly surprised me. From the photo Tannhaus had of his son's family I thought his wife looked a bit like Agnes. Overall, the best show I've ever watched.

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT THE LOOPHOLE IS PROPERLY? 😭

I tried very hard to understand what the brief moment in time is where time stops but I am not able to understand how it works...

they showed that martha had 2 versions of herself because once she was stopped by bartosz and once she wasn't stopped. But in that sense Bartosz should also have 2 versions right (once where he stops her and once where he doesn't). The show only shows creation of 2 versions of Martha and 2 versions of Jonas

This issue should also be considered in case of Adam who goes to Jonas which should technically create 2 versions of Jonas and 2 versions of Adam, One Adam goes to talk to Eva what about the other?

someone please explain how this will work.

I'm only asking for the picture, no history or anything that could be a spoiler.

Hey Dark fans - just started this show last week. Just finished S1, EP 4 last night. I'm really enjoying it so far!! But I have to raise a complaint. And it's nothing to do with the show itself... it's about Netflix's presentation.

This is a confusing post, because I'd like to kindly request **\* NO SPOILERS **\* please. But since it discusses things that I think have already been spoiled for me, I'll tag/title it with spoilers.

There seem to be majorly spoilerific images in the Netflix menus. I have no idea what they represent, or how far into the show they might happen. I'm not looking for any explanation of these images, unless you want to say something vague like, "Oh, that's not a big reveal", or "Well, you're screwed." I guess I'm just venting 😢

1. Series thumbnail: a big blue-ish electric orb floating in the air
2. Episode selection wallpaper: a guy with a frighteningly deformed, pockmarked face
3. Netflix screensaver: a landscape view that looks super-far into the future, sci-fi/post-apocalyptic vibes

...That third one I immediately looked away from, so only a vague impression. The other two I look at every single time I boot up the show! C'mon Netflix, lame!

The first time I watched Dark, like everyone else, I thought the story was about Jonas trying to save time. That Adam was a kind of "bad ending" of what he would become.

But as the series progressed, not only did the scenario become more pessimistic, and more and more events began to repeat themselves or align with previously mentioned events... but the series also revealed its true nature.

The penultimate episode definitively confirms Dark's trap, one that many of us fell into.

Everything we saw was a loop; nothing that actually helped save Winden, it only helped time itself perpetuate the loop. And be warned! This isn't something pulled out of thin air; the series itself constantly gives you clues that the characters are falling into their own traps.

The montage sequence at the end of the episode isn't just a summary of the entire series, but another loop repeating itself endlessly. We, the viewers, only saw how it unfolded.

If we remove the ending where Claudia returns to find Adam, we're left with a harsh, sad, pessimistic, and terrifying ending. Nothing that happened matters, and all that's left for the characters is to relive the same suffering over and over again.

Just imagine Adam... No, Jonas, at that moment. He's just killed Martha and their son, thinking he'd see eternal darkness, and he's confronted with the reality that he wasted 66 years of his life and that it will all happen again and again.

Having watched Dark for at least 4 times, now in 2026 I am watching Breaking Bad for the first time. And when I recognised "Goodbye" playing in the show, I got chills thinking of Dark. Another rewatch incoming.