While Stranger Things is one of the most popular and successful sci-fi mystery shows in recent memory, it isn’t the best sci-fi mystery show of all time. In fact, it’s not even the best in that subgenre that originally streamed on Netflix in the 21st century. The allure of Stranger Things is easy to see because it hits on the nostalgia that sucks many fans in and then loads the series up with some great young stars and tells a wide-rangingstory with a lot of fan service. However, for anyone who loves hard sci-fi with complicated ideas and a lot more under the hood than just 1980s nostalgia, there is a sci-fi series on Netflix that is even better, with a show where the mystery is masterfully constructed.
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Stranger Things is good and entertaining, but Dark is a better sci-fi mystery show and might be the best in the subgenre’s history.
Dark Is Television’s Best Sci-Fi Mystery Show
Dark remains highly underrated on Netflix because it is a foreign-language original series. The first season arrived in 2017 as a German-language sci-fi mystery thriller by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese. The series then ran for three seasons, with the overarching mystery surrounding four families in a small German town who look for the truth about a child’s disappearance. The disappearance was the opening to a sci-fi time-travel story that then branched off into multiple timelines.
Stranger Things was a nostalgic TV series about kids fighting monsters and corrupt government agencies, making it a perfect entry point for even fans who are not well-versed in sci-fi. However, Dark is a tale of time travel, timelines connected through certain people, and complex ideas that make it a hard sell for anyone but the most hardcore sci-fi fan. That is what makes it such a brilliant and captivating series, and for anyone with the patience to pay attention, it is worth every second of the three seasons and 26 episodes.
What really makes the show stand out as something special is that the same actors play different characters in different time frames. The first season takes place mostly in 2019, which is when the boy disappeared, but then it changes to stories in 1986, 1953, and then, at the end of Season 1, in the future year of 2052. The second season moves the main timeline forward a year in each of the timelines, all while adding a fifth storyline set in 1921. The third season has a new storyline in 1888 and a parallel reality with alternate versions of the characters.
While that seems like a lot, the show was intricately woven together and presented a complex yet satisfying mystery. However, while it is a complex series, it is not inaccessible to mainstream audiences either, as long as they pay attention to what is going on. It has a 95% Rotten Tomatoes score and a 94% audience score, with well over 10,000 ratings. The show is also one that completely changes things in the finale.
Dark Stuck the Landing With Its Finale (Unlike Stranger Things)
As the three seasons of Dark went on, things got more and more complicated, adding new mysteries while working out the storylines in each different timeline. This all played into the final episode of the third season, which showed the theme that the tangled timelines seemed to create an endless cycle for this family. When Stranger Things ended, there were countless complaints that the show ended in a disappointing fashion, which is a problem with many sci-fi mysteries. Lost is a good example of this, and it is very hard to finish these series in a manner that satisfies audiences.
Dark didn’t have that problem. After three seasons of confusing storylines and seemingly confusing coincidences, the final episode has a reveal that makes everything clear, and it is the perfect conclusion. There were moments that happened in the three seasons that didn’t seem to matter at the time, but which turned out to be carefully placed clues that would help tell the full story. That is even better because it highly rewards a repeat viewing, where sci-fi fans can see all the brilliant moments that helped lay out this entire story.
Watching it a second time through is no longer confusing, but eye-opening. While many sci-fi mystery series fall apart upon a rewatch, with plot holes and confusing moments, watching Dark a second time offers a recognition of what is happening, making it one of the best-written shows on television.
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