In our ever ongoing quest to find something new to watch, we finally gave into Netflix advertising and started Dark. I went into it knowing very little, just that it was a German tv show, it was about missing kids, and all of the promotional art has some kid in a yellow rain jacket standing in front of a cave. That’s it. I had no idea it was going to be as well made as it was.

I don’t want to go into the story. It would be near impossible for me to go over even the first three episodes without spoilers (we, by the way, watched the first three episodes, then we watched them again before we moved on. My advice is pay attention to names and relationships). If you liked Stranger Things or HBOs The Outsider, you will definitely like this one. It’s dark, a bit scary and the mystery is so intriguing.

So, yeah, I’m not going to say anything about the story except it’s good. Really good. But what I do want to say is how much I really enjoyed the quality of the filmmaking, especially because it’s not a film, it’s a tv show. But the cinematography and the sound design were amazing. I love the way they have wide shots that makes you feel like the world is huge, even though it is set in such a small town. It helps add to the mystery of the story. The shots are held just long enough to make you feel like you are a part of this world that feels just a little off.

The sound design reminded me a bit of Blade Runner 2049. There were times I didn’t know if the sounds were just heard by us as an audience or also by the characters in the show. Two specific noises that stood out was the almost animalistic growl during an introduction of a character and the crazy sound that comes from the cave. The sound and music is such an important part of the story telling in this show.

The characters are also some of the most real feeling tv characters I have seen in a long time. All of their motives and actions make sense and it doesn’t feel like anyone is doing anything to just to move the plot along. It was simple but one of my favorite things was that no one at the police station told the cop who was way to close to his case to simply “go home,” like they usually do in any other movie or tv show. They all understood why he was doing what he was doing and could relate. So good.

I would also have to say that the opening credits are in my top 5 favorite openings, right up there with The Leftovers, Raised by Wolves, Westworld and True Detective. It’s like you’re looking at a kaleidoscope of horror that makes more and more sense the more episodes you watch.

Tonight we will be watching Falcon and Winter Soldier, but once that is done and I have to wait another week to see the next episode, we’ll be binging the rest of the 3 seasons of Dark already on Netflix. I hope the quality doesn’t wane as the seasons progress because this could end up as one of my favorite tv shows.

Just a note: it is in German. You can watch the show with English dubbing, or with subtitles, which I personally prefer because I can’t handle it when character’s mouths don’t line up with what they are saying.