Dark : we saw the first two episodes of the series, Netflix who wants to compete Stranger Things

Cinema 5 December, 2017

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If it is not yet known if Stranger Things has gained its status as a work of worship by itself or because it had been able to capture the zeitgeist, its impact on the audience and the creation is undeniable. And it is logical, therefore, that in these conditions, everyone is looking to create a series that could dethrone.

It’s always the same problem with Netflix and its principle of binge-watching, we tend to forget that we have also a life beside of the tv series. And when we balance a full season of a single shot, the temptation is great to look at everything at once by making the impasse on the basic things of our daily life. All this to tell you that we have not yet seen the entirety of this first season of Dark, only the first two episodes, but we could not wait to have everything looked at to talk about it.

It is a given capital to be taken into account for what will follow : at the present time WE HAVE NOT SEEN ALL THE EPISODES OF DARK.

TEUTONS ALL HARD

Netflix had decided to play the surprise with Dark, as she had done with Stranger Things. Not a word about the series until the moment where a couple of trailers have appeared on his site and on the web to warn us of the imminence of its release. A technique that is incredibly effective which enables our imagination, and therefore our impatience, from in improbable the mental constructs and expectations that are part of the communication plan and we are already in the frame, without it necessarily account for.

One could say from the outset that Dark is the German response to Stranger Things. Moreover, it includes several elements : a group of kids, a community closed in on itself, a strange experience, a disappearance and a building weird in the surrounding area. In that case, a nuclear power plant, the pride of the city of Winden, who has been in business for over 30 years and that will close soon its reactors following the plan to the state chancellery-out of nuclear power. Ah yes, Dark is going on in 2019 and this is an important detail.

If we don’t say too much about the history of Dark, we should point out that even when we speak of time travel (paradoxes). Don’t have a spoiler, since the “trick” of the series is unveiled as the first seconds of the pilot. Through the tragic disappearance of a child, so it is the past of the community which will be exposed on three generations, with in the background a part of the history of Germany after the war because the scenario covers 50 years. An interesting idea, which is conducive to an in-depth study of the traumas of a country, changes its society, encompassing both an axis of social, economic, and the whole question of the progress and nuclear power, but that takes the feet into the mat in less time than it takes you to say, Stranger Things.

Because it is the main problem of Dark, at least in its first two episodes : this will be much too self-conscious to attack the series of the brothers Duffer on his own ground. From the start, the show arises in the mirror of his model. We find almost the same elements, the same characters, the same situations, without any original process or approach angle a little bit again.

Elf ?

MERKWÜRDIGERE DINGE

This is funded on a recipe that works deprives the series of any notion of identity, at least in its theme. Because, of course, in shape, Dark is much different. European series that tries to show us a society operating on the same springs as the United States, it shall convene a strictly aesthetic point of view all the iconography of the series northern of the moment with their colours washed out, their gray skies and wet weather, their black very marked, and the coldness that emanates from it. A very interesting proposal in itself, but that is not the road for several reasons.

Already, the characters are weak at best and the dialogues of a platitude amazing. It is not every day that we can identify in advance the different replicas of some of the scenes and it is unfortunately the case here. The situations are brought with all the subtlety of a 38-ton and the viewer is knocked out of the characters, places and sub-plots that make it difficult to understand the true challenge of this exposure to the forceps. Unable to attach to a particular character, as no appears to be really sympathetic or identifying marker, and the psychologies are suffering from an orientation of the more cliché.

Another issue, Dark fact proof d’a great rush to create its own mystery and mythology. The strings are much too visible. The different elements that are interwoven very wrong with the human story that is told and do more office stuff of writers who dream they are at the origin of a new world phenomenon.

ICT-DARK, ICT-DARK, …

The big black point of this introduction is due to two aspects directly linked : the rhythm and the music.

Dark takes his time to install his about and this would be a good thing if what he wanted to tell us was interesting. However, it is just the opposite. Suspended at a voltage artificial, the story is a profound ennui, and very badly punctuated. So that you will may be to check Facebook while waiting for that something exciting is happening.

Supposed to support the rhythm, the music of the show is a true horror. We will spend on the songs supposed to represent a time for us to concentrate on the layers of sound : a kind of mermaid hoarse we spin the drum every 5 minutes to alert us that something cool can happen or that the mystery is not far away.

DAMAGE

Despite the flaws apparent in these first two episodes, we still want to believe in the potential of the series. The proposed theme, very interesting, has rarely been exploited to the tv, even less in this way. The show will also rely on other qualities that are undeniable : the acting, the photography, very neat, the decoration is credible and some finds original. But to achieve his objective, the Dark will, however, take the risk out of its american model.

If it is far too early to pronounce on the success of the series, the first two episodes of the Dark, we did not convinced. Too many want to borrow the recipes of success, the opening of the series can’t seem to find its identity and rhythm. We have more the impression that we are dealing with a concept of producers anxious to take their share of the cake in front of a work sincere outcome of the brain of real enthusiasts of fantastic. Hope that the rest of the show will show us the contrary.