Another ten episodes of the time-bending supernatural mystery series with shades of "Stranger Things" will be available to stream from today. And with season three on the way, the German series has much more to come.
Image: Netflix
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As the second season of the acclaimed series Dark drops on Netflix today, viewers will again be left to ponder the show's core premise: Can time travelers change the past?
Germany's first ever series on the Netflix streaming service created a global buzz after it premiered in late 2017. The complex narrative strands and rich variety of characters pushed the mystery suspense genre in a compelling new direction. As the US entertainment website Indiewire wrote in a review, there's "an incredible amount of energy coursing through the show … as it thrusts new characters and information into the fray."
It also helped that the series, rightly or wrongly, was often billed by critics as Germany's answer to Stranger Things. But Dark's eerie supernatural plot echoes a host of TV series including the legendary Twin Peaks, directed by David Lynch, which began with the death of a young woman in a forests near an isolated town, and the eight-part German series Das Verschwinden (The Vanishing), also from 2017 and also built around the disappearance of a young girl, this time from a small town in Bavaria.
With Netflix posting all ten episodes of Season Two online on June 21, fans will be wondering how the time-bending mystery will evolve. What is known it that it begins a few months after the first season and traverses the years 1954, 1987 and 2020. In the new episodes, the characters travel even further into the past — and the future — but always in the 33-year cycle.
'Dark' and other German TV series to watch worldwide
'Dark' was Netflix's first German-language production; here are more German series that have reached an international audience.
Image: Netflix
Netflix German series 'Dark'
The first German language TV series produced by Netflix for the international market, "Dark" was released on December 1, 2017. The first season consists of 10 episodes and tells the story of four families living in a small German town. The disappearance of two young children in surrounding forest leads to investigations revealing that something shady has been happening there since the 1980s.
Image: Netflix
Dark worlds
The series was directed by Baran bo Odar and his wife, Jantje Friese, wrote the screenplay. The Swiss director filmed a similar story with the 2010 feature film, "The Silence," another thriller that interconnects two generations of a family in a small provincial German town. As the title suggests, his latest offering is a lot darker and claustrophobic.
Image: Netflix
Ambitious production: 'Babylon Berlin'
The most expensive non-English drama series ever produced, "Babylon Berlin" started airing in Germany last October. Netflix purchased broadcast rights for the US. Three directors, including Tom Tykwer, recreated the atmosphere of Berlin in the 1920s for this period drama.
Image: 2017 X Filme/Frédéric Batier
Amazon's German series 'You Are Wanted'
The first German series to be produced by Amazon, "You Are Wanted" started airing in March 2017 and was also made available worldwide through the Amazon Prime streaming service. It was directed by Matthias Schweighöfer, who also plays the lead role in this series dealing with cyber crime. Despite dividing the critics, the show's second season is already in production.
Image: picture alliance / Stephan Rabold/Amazon/dpa
A sequel for 'Deutschland 83'
Broadcast on SundanceTV, "Deutschland 83" was the first German-language series to air on a US network with English subtitles. The show obtained a number of accolades, including an International Emmy Award. The second season of this Cold War spy thriller, titled "Deutschland 86," has just been released on Amazon Prime.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/R. Hirschberger
Berlin mafia: '4 Blocks'
"4 Blocks," directed by Marvin Kren, is set in the Berlin district of Neukölln and is centered on different organized crime family clans. The series obtained rave reviews, with some critics comparing it to the US TV hit "The Sopranos." Since October 2017, it is available in over 150 countries on Amazon Video. A second season is in the making.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Handout/2017 Turner Broadcasting System Europe Limited & Wiedemann & Berg Television GmbH & Co.
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Turning back time?
Jördis Triebel, who also stars in the highly praised German series Babylon Berlin, again plays the mother mourning the loss of her missing son, Michael.
But be sure the denouement will be highly complex, introduce numerous extra characters and leave many unanswered questions. As the series explores why Michael might have killed himself, it asks whether people might have behaved differently if they had met their future self. And whether time travelers can intervene in the past.
"Dark" is not just for lovers of physics and wormholes. It will likely demand, like few other series, the attention and imagination of the viewer.
