The Cinemawala

I’ve always been fascinated with the concept of time travel. Not that I claim to fully understand the intricacies of the laws of physics that involves travelling through time. But the fact that the human mind is capable of thinking that one day, it can travel forwards or backwards in time, intrigues me. The men and women of science have always been interested in space and time fabric and how they interact with each other. Many have been curious about travelling backwards in time and altering the course of action, thus changing the future. The ones who counter this theory, claim that altering the past, doesn’t change the future, it just creates a different timeline of events. So there could be multiple timelines of events, occurring from the same origin point. Mind-boggling, isn’t it? The point that I am trying to make, is the ability of the human brain and its innumerable capabilities to challenge the laws of nature. Netflix’s ‘Dark’ which had taken time travel to the levels of bizarre, finally concludes with a genre-defining third season. Not only it answers every question on its way to the end, but it also tells the viewer, that love and loss are the factors that drive people to do the unthinkable. For love, they can cross any boundaries. For loss, they can get to any possible end. The end is the beginning. And the beginning is the end.

The small town of Winden, where the disappearance of Mikel Nielsen set the ball rolling, is a cauldron in which love, hate, caring, pain, suffering are amalgamated together to create an unending loop. The lives of the four families – Kahnwald, Nielsen, Doppler and Tiedemann are intertwined together, with each of the family holding nerve-wracking secrets of their own. An apocalyptic event triggers a wormhole, through which people can travel back and forth in time. Thus begins a complicated journey through time that forces events to reoccur every thirty-three years. In order to stop that from happening, people make more mistakes which eventually cause further detriments. Cause and effect. Each follows the other, creating an unending loop. And this the loop that binds everyone in a knot, that seems impossible to break. Until now.

If season two had introduced Adam, the man behind everything, then season three introduces Eva, the yang to his yin. Along with Eva, we get to see the three unknowns, the past, the present and the future. With Adam’s fight to have the apocalypse consume the world to break the unending loop and Eva’s tryst to keep the loop happening, the show makes the viewer take the plunge in time, between a timeline of the years 1888 to 2054, across worlds. Every path is retraced, every step is taken again. A labyrinthine journey, eventually leads to the origin, the root cause behind the mayhem. To solve this, the ultimate sacrifice is required. Can Adam and Eva do the unthinkable? 

‘Dark’ is one of its kind show. It doesn’t try to spoon-feed the viewer, about the science that causes the time travel. It simply doesn’t allow the viewers to consume the events, at their own pace. In fact, the shift between different eras become increasingly difficult to follow, if you aren’t paying enough attention. With countless references to mythology and the biblical reference to the first man and woman, starting everything in the garden of Eden or paradise, ‘Dark’ challenges the viewer to go beyond the show and start looking for answers to the questions of our existence. One of the most intellectually stimulating shows, it works primarily because of its writing. The emotional tussle between the characters, the ever so doomed star-crossed lovers, the uncontrollable desire to achieve the unimaginable and the ultimate sacrifice to make everything alright-The writers led by the creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese ensure that the show ends on a high. 

Immerse yourselves in ‘Dark’. Engulf yourselves in the enigma of time. In the final moments, you’re bound to get a lump in the throat, as the knot in the time, finally loosens up. Don’t miss it. 

‘Dark’ – Season 3 – All episodes now streaming on Netflix worldwide.

The Cinemawala Rating:5/5