Netflix’s Dark, a German show steeped in mystery, suspense, and time travel, ended in June after three seasons. When the series first premiered in 2017, it appeared to be about several families in a small German town trying to find two small children who went missing. What the families discovered, to their surprise, was a wormhole which lurks beneath the town’s nuclear power plant and takes them back and forth between past, present, and future.
The families learn how they are mysteriously all connected, and, led by our main protagonists Jonas and Martha, they discover the purpose of the wormhole which was originally used to prevent tragedy from occurring. Eventually it festered into an apocalyptic time loop, as portals are wont to do, that they must find a way to stop.
Hailed for its intelligence and satisfying conclusion, Dark veered into completely fantastical science fiction territory while keeping the emotional stakes high. If you miss the series and want to find something similar that will feed your appetite for travel to alternate dimensions, multiverses, or just small towns with big secrets, we’ve got you covered. Here are seven shows like Dark that you can watch on Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+.
1
‘Stranger Things’
Netflix’s Stranger Things also involves a group of small-town kids trying to solve the mystery of a mysterious portal to another world, this one called The Upside Down. When a young boy named Will Byers goes missing, his friends try to find out where he is. His mother, played by Winona Ryder, and the local police chief played by David Harbour, are the adults they can trust to help, and eventually they venture into the twisted, bizarro world that’s been swallowing kids and housing Demagorgons. Oh, and along the way, they meet a young girl named Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) who’s running from government agents who have been doing experiments on her thanks to her having supernatural powers.
Where to Stream Stranger Things
2
‘Loki’
Sure, Loki takes place within the Marvel Cinematic Universe where superheroes and belligerent aliens are commonplace, but the central theme to both Loki and Dark is “time.” Loki spends most of his… time… working for (and sometimes against) the Time Variance Authority, an agency that claims to be responsible for maintaining the timeline of the one, true universe and prevents the world from fracturing into infinite multiverses. Just like in Dark, Loki asks the question: what happens when multiple timelines are occupied by the same people, and how do we know who belongs where?
3
‘11.22.63’
Hulu’s 11.22.63, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, asks the question, what would you do if you found a portal to the past and could change the course of history? When Jake Epping, a regular guy who lives in Maine (as all Stephen King heroes do), discovers a portal to the past, he decides to relocate there in order to stop the assassination of President Kennedy. Armed with the knowledge of what he knows in the present, he travels the country to prevent tragedies from occurring before finally arriving in Dallas in 1963, but what he doesn’t take into consideration is how his actions might also change the future.
4
‘Curon’
In the moody, Italian series Curon, a woman named Anna returns to her dark, mysterious hometown with her 17-year-old twins Daria and Mauro. Anna’s mother was murdered by… someone, and Anna was sent away after her death, and her father is not thrilled to have her back. But that won’t be a problem because before long, Anna vanishes and her kids must find out what happened to her. The town itself is full of spooky legends and demons, both literal and figurative.
5
‘Diablero’
In Mexico, a “diablero” is a demon hunter. On Netflix, Diablero is the story of a man named Elvis who is the king… of demon hunting in Mexico City. When a young girl named Mariana is kidnapped by some kind of demonic force, her mother, who is dying, asks Elvis and his ragtag team of fellow demon-hunters, who include a Korean man who can bottle the demonic spirits up (you know, to save ’em for later), a priest, and a woman named Nancy who herself is possessed, he makes it his mission to save the girl.
6
‘Russian Doll’
Russian Doll is what happens when a group of writers known for the comedic sensibilities tackle the dark depths of mortality. Created by Leslye Headland, Natasha Lyonne, and Amy Poehler, the story centers on Nadia (Lyonne), a woman who keeps dying on her 36th birthday, only to wake up and repeat the day over and over again. When she meets a man named Alan (Charlie Barnett) who is experiencing the same thing, they try to figure out why they are trapped in these time loops. As they investigate why they keep dying and being, well, reborn, they get to relive their experiences, run into alternate versions of themselves, and reconcile with their pasts as they try and get back to their regular lives.
7
‘The OA’
Brit Marling created and starred in The OA, which was sadly canceled after just two seasons. This Netflix drama is about a blind woman played by Marling, who disappears only to return years later with her sight restored and scars all over her body. Referring to herself as “The O.A.” which stands for “original angel,” she reveals where she was for the last seven years to a group of local high school students and their teacher, and then asks for their help to save others like her who are trapped in another dimension, held there by a captor named Hap, played by Jason Isaacs.
This post first appeared on Nypost.com
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