Dark has been on Netflix since December 1, 2017, and Netflix’s German-language sci-fi drama is still one of the best Stephen King’s IT-style stories around.
It starts in Winden with a missing child, then opens outward into broken families, long-buried secrets, and a wormhole sitting beneath the nuclear plant. Like Stephen King’s IT, it gives you an ordinary town with corruption under the surface, missing children, adults who know more than they’ll admit, and a past that refuses to stay buried. The difference is the monster here isn’t Pennywise. It’s time itself.
Creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese have said outright that IT and Twin Peaks were part of the inspiration, and you can feel that in the way one era bleeds into the next and poisons it. But Dark pushes far past Stephen King’s childhood-versus-adulthood structure, into collapsing timelines, determinism, free will, grief, inherited trauma, and suffering that keeps repeating.
If you’re after the atmosphere of IT but don’t need Pennywise, Dark is an easy recommendation. It premiered on December 1, 2017 as Netflix’s first German-language original series, according to Netflix, ended on June 27, 2020 after three seasons and 26 episodes, earned a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and, according to Netflix, pulled 9 out of 10 season-one viewers from outside Germany. It feels colder, heavier, and more nihilistic than Stranger Things, leaning into puzzle-box plotting instead of adventure, humor, or nostalgia.
You can watch all 26 episodes of Dark on Netflix.
Author: Emmanuel Pina
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