Twin Things

Every time I think I've seen the most unabashed Twin Peaks homage, another one comes along. Last night I watched the first episode of Dark, a German series that began in December 2017, the same year Twin Peaks: The Return aired. Dark also has a healthy dose of Stranger Things, too, itself a series influenced by Twin Peaks. Sadly, so far Dark doesn't have much to add to the sum of its influences.

It came highly recommended. I watched it because yesterday I saw on Paul Schrader's Facebook he'd posted to say someone had recommended a new European show to him with a title that began with "D" and he couldn't remember what it was. The comments on the post recommended a variety of shows that began with D, and many that began with B for some reason, but it seemed Dark came up more than any other title. I would guess that most of the commenters have never seen Twin Peaks.

Set in a small German town deep in the woods, the first episode of Dark introduces us to many people in the community while everyone's searching for a missing teenage boy. There's the ornery owner of a hotel, there's the 30-something couple hiding their affair (though neither one is married so I don't know why), and there are the teenage kids of them all, and all the kids are doing drugs.

A girl spots a boy smoking a joint in a dark alley. She stops to scold him--for smoking poor quality pot. And I sensed the joke was supposed to function in this way--you're meant to think she's going scold him for doing drugs, but then you're supposed to be surprised and amused that it's actually the quality she wants to chastise him about. Maybe 2017 in Germany was like 1997 in the U.S.

The end of the episode features a kid apparently being experimented on in a scene pretty clearly derived from Stranger Things. Unfortunately, Dark didn't learn from Stranger Things and Twin Peaks that tragedy alone does not interesting characters make. One kid's in therapy because his father killed himself. One kid has a younger brother he argues with. But no-one has any texture. All the kids look like catalogue models.

There is a spooky cave I kind of liked and the guy who committed suicide left a note not to be opened until a specific day and time. I was really curious to see what it said when his trembling mother finally opened the thing at the appointed time. But the show wouldn't let me see. Hopefully that means they're saving it for the next episode. I wonder if that's enough to compel me to watch it.

Dark is available on Netflix.

X Sonnet #1732

The steady sparks displace the jelly night.
But liquid sun salutes the proffered sweet.
A Danish breakfast fuels the easy sight.
But soon the broken cars demand their meat.
A worser thirst decides the victor's rum.
A hunting party packs the steel and glass.
Above the blood, a shark was serving chum.
If not for pie the girl'd be eating bass.
The proper way to think of flame is fast.
Returning time was lost in brittle woods.
Again, the dreamer's mind conducts the past.
Some missing words delayed the crucial goods.
Between the rows of desks or trees they lurk.
The trav'llers, orcs, and oil woodsmen work.