Dark Matter: A Slick Multiverse Thriller

Dark Matter Uses Its Multiverse In A Different Way

Dark Matter takes a premise I’ve certainly covered before. Everything Everywhere All at Once dealt with relationships across multiple dimensions, and what it means to want a different life than you already have. But, while I will not claim Dark Matter is a better show than All at Once is a movie, I will say that this series presents a fascinating alternative to multiverse fiction—both in the story and in its storytelling.

Basically, Dark Matter leaves it to you to infer information through auditory and visual clues. It’s not a comfort show intended for relaxation. Almost nothing is promptly explained, and the series wants you disoriented. And not only is this achieved by hiding information: it’s in the editing. If a character starts an action, the scene will often jump forward to them finishing that action. This keeps the pacing up but also doesn’t let the audience breathe. And then there’s the really wonky shots. One—a swooping shot across wet ground to simulate running—gave me vertigo. And I can’t say I always enjoyed the random bright lights and weird camera, but it did accomplish its assumed goals. At first, anyway.

But Dark Matter couldn’t maintain its tactics forever. It became less effective as the show went on and had the unfortunate side effect of letting me get ahead of the characters. I started to get frustrated—though not enough to pull me out of the story—over how long it took people to accept things. I got annoyed when I realized a lot of plot points are essentially caused by a lack of communication. Sometimes people lied or were vague when it would’ve been better for everyone if they just outright stated information.

The only reason this doesn’t completely tank the story is because the acting is strong enough that you believe that these people would make these mistakes. Truly, this is a fantastic cast. Because, yes, billions spent on The Cube could’ve been spent on, you know, helping fix the dimensions you’re in, but I do get the sense that these scientists were just too fixated on the project. And, yes, the main character should’ve worked out that he was in a new reality a little sooner—but he was put under immense panic and stress and it’s not the first, second, third, etc. thing someone would think of.

Certain Types Of Scenes Often Repeat Themselves

I suppose the best way to put it is, as you’re watching Dark Matter, it feels like it’s constantly wowing you with the interplay of information. It’s wowing with cool science fiction concepts and different, tense scenes. And then if you allow it time to sit in your head, it’s easy to realize how many ways this story could break.  

It’s also a show with some heavy scenes that only get heavier the longer you think about them. The disturbing content is communicated simply by showing—like everything else in Dark Matter—but there are so many instances of people sleeping with/kissing doppelgangers without them knowing that’s what happening. And, in one case, the main character does know that the woman he’s talking to isn’t actually his wife, and yet cheats on his wife with her. There’s also, just sprinkled throughout, heavy stalking, many violations of autonomy, an instance of fridging to spurn the plot forward, and much, much more. Dark Matter doesn’t present itself as a horror story, but I do hope in later episodes it unpacks, at least a little, the implications of what’s happening to these characters. It’s fine for a thriller to have characters die or get in bad situations, but it better not use—though it arguably already freaking does—the excuse of multiple versions of people to brush past stuff.

I also hope it doesn’t completely fall apart into metaphysical soup as it continues past episode three—but I can’t make that guarantee. Dark Matter is already a confusing show that expects you to remember which dimensions each person is from when there are only two worlds with fairly similar histories. And the ending of episode three—and the puzzle box intro to each episode—hints that the show is only going to pile on more alternative timelines, more locations, and more copies of the same people. I liked Dark Matter well enough as a viewer. It’s a well-made show. The episodes zipped by, the acting was great, and some reveals were potent, but it’s going to take some amazing writing to keep things going. So, venture into it only if you’re prepared for that outcome.   

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