Netflix’s Dark: Season 3

OP here, I wanted to include this article, but it was grey boxing and I didn’t want the thread to be burdened with a blank image. This is from The Guardian and discusses the three actors playing Jonas, who is really the emotional center of the show and the young adult Jonas is a cutie!

Here’s a image of the beautiful young adult Jonas and a recap of season two.

Louis Hofmann has thick big long dong, I approve of everything he does.

R3 The article mentions some Danish German film he did prior, is it something you see there? Are we talking Josh O’Connor Gods Own County type showing?

Louis has presented dong in the White Crow (2018), Center of My World (2016) and Prelude (2019). This gif was from the White Crow.

I'm looking forward to seeing him present dong again soon, maybe in DARK S03.

R5 Damn, really nice, thanks for showing. Those German actors never seem to be shy and usually for good reasons.

Two episodes in and really enjoying it. There’s a segment that’s in 1987 and they are using great music. They did open the whole season with a very sly side by having Cher’s If I Could Turn Back Time playing in a kitchen scene, lol.

There’s travel back to 1888 and the very origins of the time travel that’s adding a nice element to the show. This website has great scene for scene recaps of episodes that has been extremely helpful in following along with the story.

I went back and watched the first two seasons before watching season 3, which I finished this morning.

I'm glad I did the rewatch, as even so there were moments in Season 3, as the story grew ever more convoluted, that I was like, "Wait! What?"

One episode jumped back and forth in time constantly, utilizing a old-fashioned digital clock effect to indicate what year we were it. I started to think, "How are they ever going to pull this all together, and have it make sense."

They did it though. Overall, I would say that this is one of the best series I have ever seen. It is entertaining, lots of action, rewards attention, and doesn't overstay its welcome, and doesn't have any glaring plot holes that I could point out.

3 seasons was perfect - past, present, future. 3 worlds, 3 seasons.

I'm sad it's over, but everything was wrapped up nicely - with just enough of an "it's over - or is it?" moment at the very end.

I'm halfway through Season Two and really like it, for the reasons OP mentioned and for being really gorgeous at times.

R8 I wish I had the fortitude to go back and watch the first two seasons too. But I think in the not to far future I will rewatch all three seasons again. I too thought it was about as perfect a show as one could hope for and I’m putting it up there beside The Americans as one of the best.

It really had so many elements of Fringe, but was tighter and didn’t go off the rails stretching out seasons. It was also more subtle by choosing to focus just on Winden and go for the exponential in one town. And the choice to go back in time to 1888 and the repercussions of that was a stunning addition. Also, maybe it was the complexity, but usually there are holes in the plot of time travel narratives, but there was nothing glaring here if there were any.

R9 There are so many beautiful scenes in this and the cinematography it top notch. I found this great article looking at many of the locations they used for filming, apparently mainly from just outside Berlin. Every time a character rode a bike down the path or walked through the woods with the straightest trees ever it was breath taking, like they were all shot on the quintessential most beautiful day in autumn each time. Even something like the yellow raincoat carried through with an important visual motif, or how that main house fluctuated throughout the series was stunning.

I just finished it. Wow, what an ending. This is one of the best scifi series I had the pleasure to watch. I love the scientific aspect but also the philosophical and religious aspects that were used. The actors are superb, the set design is stunning, the music, camera work and special effects (the ending scene was downright poetic) are perfect. I am greatful, that's all I want to say. I will re-watch it someday. It is worth it.

Excellent interview with Louis Hoffman, his British inflected English is impeccable.

Loved the first two seasons, then got to season 3 episode 1 and got confused. Maybe I'm not smart enough to watch? lol

R14, the beginning of season 3 was indeed confusing. I rewatched 1 and 2 right before starting 3, and I was still confused, as the addition of the alternate world greatly increased the complexity. Stick with it though as the gaps do start to fill themselves in. Pay attention to hairstyles, scars, and specific characters that occur in specific worlds. That will help to keep things straight.

It all came together and made sense in the end. This is a show that absolutely rewards paying close attention. I tend to web surf, or do other things while watching TV, but it just can't be done while watching Dark.

SPOILER:

How do they resolve the paradox that in the new uninterrupted timeline, two randos appear to save son et al.? Does that mean that those lives were not completely erased and those two other worlds live in perpetual cycle?

R14 Above is a link to the site that has the best episode recaps, read it after each episode it will help clarify what happened and reenforce who is who and from which world. I actually saw season three as a reset and was easier to just let go and say new world, new stories. I will say as mentioned in some articles I didn’t notice or follow when the screen aspect ratio changed to delineate different worlds or saw the boy/man/grandpa’s cleft lip scar flip sides.

R16 This reviewer has done numerous summation videos, but this one might answer your question.

I need a map to follow which version of which character is in which universe and in which timeline.

I binged the first two seasons and enjoyed them, but I'm probably the only one who could barely get thru season 3.

PHEW! Just finished! I didn't want to open this thread until I was done with the entire series. What a ride! I concur with everyone else about the stellar cast and cinematography. I loved how the sets were flipped in the second world (brilliant) -- I've never before paid closer attention to a staircase orientation before.

And I especially enjoyed the ongoing mystery of the eye patch.

But I have SO MANY questions!

WARNING: SPOILER-Y STUFF BELOW FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T FINISHED ALL THE EPISODES YET...

For starters, am I imagining things or did the scars on the mouths of the harelipped trio keep flipping from the left side to the right side?! Same with the scratch on Martha's face?

Or were there two versions of the harelipped trio, the same way there were two (or more) versions of everyone else?

Given that some of the characters in the third new world (at the end) remain from worlds one and two, what of the other children/characters? Ulrich, Magnus, Bartosz et al.?

Was that final dinner scene supposed to be 2019?

And, most frustratingly, WHO was the dark-haired woman folded out of the family photo of Michael, Hannah and Jonas?!?!

The fourth person in that photo, who was never identified? Or was that just another of the show's myriad red herrings????

R21 OP here, glad you enjoyed the ride as so many of us did here. I can chime in on a few of your questions mainly because I had them too and searched myself getting the most answers from the R18 Youtuber.

Your whole staircase allusion extends to the scars on the lip of the three ages of the “Unknown” as well. When they are in Jonas world they are on one side, in Martha’s they are flipped. The same for Martha’s cut and the cooling towers of the power plant too. One theory was that they filmed the exact sets then mirror reversed the video, but there was a scene in Magnus’s bedroom with the walls covered in posters and the wording would have to have been reversed on it to make it work when flipped. Maybe they did it with all new sets?

The picture in a Jonas’ house that had the ripped out fourth person was a question I had, and others confirmed it’s Michael’s mother, the nurse who adopted him, and Jonas grandmother who held back the suicide letter. In Adam’s lair the photo is whole. After the suicide Hannah must have ripped her out for some reason.

Not sure of the origin world dinner date at the end, but you should be able to find more info in the explaining the end videos.

You can watch some of the family tree videos out there to explain who is missing in the origin (third, end) world. Basically Jonas and Martha and some of their ancestors are not going to exist in the origin world because they were only created through time travel.

Ahhhh, of course! The dark-haired woman is Ines. Duh. I guess I should have hit “pause” to look at the photo more closely. Thanks for solving that mystery for me.

Also, Googling “dark netflix season 3 questions” yields many more unanswered questions/unexplained mysteries. There’s a lot left to figure out!

R23 It’s a rabbit hole, or I guess maybe a worm hole.

Hoping more DLers watch the series and join this thread to discuss. There's so much to dissect.

For example: what did other people make of Hannah's creepy final speech about her dream, and how comforting she found the idea of nothingness?

Given how "dark" her character's actions were throughout every timeline and world, it felt a bit like the showrunners were hinting at something... but I'm not sure what. Even in her presumably "happy" (light) ending, Hannah is focused on darkness.

As an aside, I found her character one of the most compelling, both as a girl and as an adult.

Agreed about Hannah, R25. Like a few other few characters, her acting was so arresting that I couldn't take my eyes off her, even if her scenes were often quite silent and static. Jonas, The Stranger, (the unnervingly raw-nerved) Claudia, Michael, Torben...even Elisabeth and some of the younger actors were all really compelling simply on a visual level: they would hold my interest with the volume or subtitles off.

The performances were pretty roundly excellent, and so well framed by the visual style that lingered on things to give time to consider nuances. The series was at so many points startlingly beautiful.

very good show!

will there be season 4?

what other shows are you guys watching?

I think S3 is it for the series, R27. I actually hope they *don't* continue with another season -- it ended so well that trying to squeeze more out of it would feel wrong.

That said, I would LOVE it if the cast and showrunners formed a company (the same way Ryan Murphy does with his AHS cast) and returned together for an all new series with all new characters.

i'm still confused why they need to kill those innocent kids. Towards the end- i'm not really sure who are the morally good guys. Jonas killed so many seemingly innocent people and relatives.

R25 Not for nothing, especially in something like SciFi or Fantasy, when a character is given a name that is a palindrome, such as Hannah is, I think the author/creator is signaling something about them. Hannah is the same forward as she is backward, she not going to escape her destiny.

R27 In terms of other shows, as I mentioned in the thread original posting I think there’s much overlap with the series Fringe that ran for about five seasons on regular TV and had one of the best reveals about its parallel world using something in recent history and NYC that was a literal gasp out loud moment. Also, the reveal about who one of the main characters was and why was so heartbreaking. Not going to lie, I think it went off the rails by the end in extending it so long, which is why I think Dark and three seasons is perfect. I do like someone’s suggestion, that all involved be a repertory group and do more together.

I also mentioned OA, which I think was on Netflix too, and if anything surpasses Dark in its visual beauty. It only had two seasons and was begging for a third to really finish telling the story, especially with the reveal at the end of season two. There is also a handsome blond young Irish actor named Patrick Gibson who could rival Jonas’ beauty and I wish he would not more film and TV, but it looks like his career has stalled.

One that I didn’t mention was Counterpart, which had two recent seasons on Starz, which I think is why it didn’t get much notice. It stars the always mesmerizing J.K. Simmons, but ironically is also set in German in Berlin and uses the Cold War as an important element. The two worlds are at war with each other and in one world a deadly virus has killed off a chunk of the population making it even more timely than when it was broadcast.

For what it’s worth, I‘ll also throw in Sense8 as a cousin to all of this, it is a visual stunning show with international settings and one of the most physically beautiful cast who have the most sex with each other and it’s led by finally out gay actor Brian J. Smith as a hot cop.

I would suggesgt as a (distant) cousin of sorts The Leftovers, for its glints of real human beauty in mad times, and for its existential subject.

I want Noah in me quite deeply.

Jonah, Noah, and Magnus (who looks even better with black hair) are all hot. It's a shame that saving the lives of the clock maker's family wiped out about 90% of the characters from existence.

Several things they never explained was the murder Regina's husband committed in his youth or what the deal was with the one eyed cop and his sister or how the teacher in the parallel universe knew Jonah's name even though he never told anyone in the classroom what his name was after he barged in looking for an earlier version of Alternate Martha or how Old Claudia came back from the dead after Noah shot her and then found out about the origin world in the first place.

I noticed that the actor playing Mikkel grew noticeably taller in season 3 which was probably why he didn't have that many scenes.

*Turns out Jonas did say his own name. Bah. My hypothyroidism screws up my short term memory sometimes.