With “Dark”, Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese have landed a worldwide hit. Now the duo’s new Netflix series is ready. But is “1899” also a worthy successor? After six episodes, our answer is pretty clear…
A few years ago, the “Who Am I” team Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese were faced with the task of setting up the first German in-house production of Netflix, which was sanctified as a series mecca at the time. An exciting, albeit probably also terrifying challenge – but one that the two finally mastered with flying colours in 2017 and brought to a close in 2020 with similar virtuosity as they had started it.
The time-travelling confusion game “Dark”, which caused a series of headaches, became a hit with critics and audiences, and not only in Germany – and caused the anticipation and expectations for Odar and Friese’s follow-up project to grow to dizzying heights. And so the pressure for their second Netflix series “1899” was probably no less intense than for their first.
Can such a feat ever be achieved again? After the six episodes that we were able to see in advance of the eight-part first season, we can indeed say yes for the most part: With “1899”, the “Dark” duo finally cements its reputation as masters of modern mystery entertainment – even if it’s not (yet) quite up to the class of the predecessor series…
THE STORY OF “1899” – SPOILER-FREE
Similar to “Dark”, you should know as little as possible about the plot of “1899” in advance, as the twists and revelations are already lurking around every corner from episode 1. That’s why we only want to outline the main features of the story at this point – without spoilers, of course.
In 1899, the year of the title, more than 1,500 passengers from different classes and different parts of Europe set off for America on the ship Kerberos to leave their old lives behind and make a new start. On the crossing, however, it is not long before the crew receives a message from their sister ship Prometheus, which has been missing for months, and Captain Eyk Larsen (“Dark” star Andreas Pietschmann) decides to get to the bottom of it.
What they find on board the apparently deserted steamer, however, turns the world of all the passengers upside down. A nightmare, which seems to be mysteriously connected to the past of each individual, takes its course …
