Netflix’s Greatest Sci-Fi Shows Master the Art of Time Travel Storytelling

Netflix is a streaming home for an excellent sci-fi series that seems to have mastered the art of time travel storytelling. The show doesn’t shy away from adopting many existing time travel tropes, but what makes it one of the best additions to the genre is how it depicts time travel as a tightly constructed temporal puzzle.

Time travel shows and movies rarely take their central narrative device too seriously. They treat time travel more as a plot engine or gimmick and end up breaking the rules they themselves created.

Netflix’s best time travel show deals with its own set of inconsistencies. For the most part, though, the film delivers a brilliantly constructed time-travel tale that not only seems narratively sound for most of its running time, but is also deeply human with its themes of grief and generational trauma.

Netflix’s Dark Is A Master Class In Time Travel Storytelling

In most time travel narratives, dynamic timelines are introduced as an “easy escape” for characters to erase the past and trigger a new future. Dark goes against the grain and adheres to determinism by using the Causal Loop. This becomes increasingly clear as the show progresses as almost every event has its own cause.

Dark almost appears as a Greek myth where all the characters are bound by the inexorable nature of time. Often it is their attempts to seek free will that ultimately lead to their terrible fate.

However, at the same time, there is something quite optimistic Darka bleak picture of the times. In its opening moments, the narrator recites the following lines:

“We believe that time is linear. That it goes on forever, uniformly, to infinity. But the distinction between past, present, and future is just an illusion. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow are not sequential, they are connected in a never-ending circle. Everything is connected.”

As the show progresses, these lines remind us of one of Albert Einstein’s most memorable quotes about how “the distinction between past, present, and future is just a persistent illusion.” This allows the show to be a reminder of how we never truly lose something or someone. Every moment and person continues to exist somewhere along the timeline, forever preserved beyond our limited perception.

The cast of the Netflix sci-fi show is also so spot-on that you instinctively recognize young and old versions of the same characters. The show’s deep sci-fi drama is complemented by Ben Frost’s subtle score that adds weight to its sombre atmosphere.

More than anything, Dark allowing viewers to think a lot and appreciate their intelligence. It can be overly convoluted and complicated at times, but brilliantly provides enough clues and details for viewers to decode the complex family tree and timeline.

Dark’s Creators’ Second Netflix Show Deserves a Better Fate

DarkThe critical and commercial success at Netflix proves that its creators, Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, are masters of science fiction storytelling. Because of this, there is a lot of excitement surrounding Netflix’s next show, 1899. Although it is still debatable whether 1899 as good as Darkthe show does have enormous storytelling potential.

As seen in Darkthe two creators only seem to be laying the groundwork for a larger, more twisted narrative 1899season 1.

Sadly, 1899 did not suffer the same fate as Dark on Netflix and was canceled after one season. In hindsight, it’s hard not to see how 1899also, it could develop into something much more innovative and brilliant if given the opportunity to return to it. Hopefully Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese’s creations will receive the same treatment in the future Dark and last longer than 1899.