Dark (2017)
Dark is a 2017 German-language crime series created by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese. It stars Louis Hofmann, Lisa Vicari and Andreas Pietschmann.
The small German town of Winden looks ordinary until a child goes missing and the ground beneath four families starts to shift. Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese build a cold, clockwork puzzle where a cave in the woods links 1953, 1986 and 2019, and the same faces recur across generations. This is patient, cerebral science fiction, more interested in causality and dread than in action. The palette is rain-grey and green, the mood suffocating, and the storytelling demands you track names, dates and family trees. Louis Hofmann leads a large ensemble through a mystery about time itself.
Quick answers
What is Dark about?
The small German town of Winden looks ordinary until a child goes missing and the ground beneath four families starts to shift. Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese build a cold, clockwork puzzle where a cave in the woods links 1953, 1986 and 2019, and the same faces recur across generations. This is patient, cerebral science fiction, more interested in causality and dread than in action. The palette is rain-grey and green, the mood suffocating, and the storytelling demands you track names, dates and family trees. Louis Hofmann leads a large ensemble through a mystery about time itself.
When was Dark released?
Dark was released on 1 December 2017.
How many episodes does Dark have?
Dark has 26 episodes across 3 seasons.
Who made Dark?
Dark was created by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese.
Where can I watch Dark?
Dark is available on Netflix.
Where to watch Dark
Stream: Netflix
Official site
Cast
- Louis Hofmann as Jonas Kahnwald
- Lisa Vicari as Martha Nielsen
- Andreas Pietschmann as The Stranger
- Maja Schöne as Hannah Kahnwald
- Stephan Kampwirth as Peter Doppler
- Paul Lux as Bartosz Tiedemann
- Jördis Triebel as Katharina Nielsen
- Karoline Eichhorn as Charlotte Doppler
- Moritz Jahn as Magnus Nielsen
- Oliver Masucci as Ulrich Nielsen
- Peter Benedict as Aleksander Tiedemann
- Gina Stiebitz as Franziska Doppler
Similar series
Explore Dark guides
Dark in our writing
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- Companion guide: Multiverse & Parallel Worlds
- Companion guide: Nordic Noir: The Ultimate Guide to Scandinavian Crime
- Companion guide: Secret Societies
A few thoughts on Dark
Life Is Strange shares the rewind-and-consequence dread wrapped around a small-town disappearance, while Firewatch bottles the same isolation and slow-burning unease. Disco Elysium rewards the same appetite for cerebral, dialogue-heavy mystery. In print, Death Note trades in fate and inevitability, and Dream Theater's concept album Metropolis, Pt. 2 threads reincarnation and past lives across a single haunted timeline.
Mysteries that fold time back on itself
Dark links 1953, 1986, and 2019 through a cave in the woods, and cause chases effect across generations. These picks share that vertigo, sending detectives and drifters through loops and eras where the past will not stay buried and every answer reshapes the question.
Small towns hiding enormous secrets
Winden looks ordinary until Dark peels it open to reveal families bound by a decades-long wound. These stories work the same seam, planting dread in quiet communities and lonely landscapes where a single disappearance unravels everything the neighbors thought they knew.
Obsessive hunts for someone who vanished
A missing child sets Dark in motion and pulls four families into its gravity. These picks turn that search into the whole story, following parents and investigators who cannot let go, chasing a vanished person down every lead no matter the personal cost.
Cerebral stories that reward careful attention
Dark asks you to track names, dates, and family trees, trusting patient viewers over easy thrills. These picks demand the same focus, building philosophical puzzles and moral mazes where the payoff belongs to anyone willing to sit with the dread and think it through.