Empire Australasia — December 2017

VERDICT With its sprightly shooting style, topical
themes and stellar ensemble Godless manages
the near-impossible for a Western: it feels fresh.
A triumph for writer/director Scott Frank. And
Jack O’Connell looks badass on a horse.

the same prairie as Clint Eastwood’s revisionist
masterpiece, 1976’s The Outlaw Josey Wales.
It also echoes elements of the 1953 classic
Shane — an influence that was also reflected
in 2017’s other terrific American Western,
Logan (co-written by Frank). But Godless
feels original and lively in how its shot —
contemporary without being ostentatious
(not as loose and livewire as Soderbergh’s
The Knick but with a similar, ‘whatever works’
energy). And, in its substance, very now
— whether it’s in its depiction of violence
fuelled by pernicious media (Jeremy Bobb
makes a horribly convincingly conniving
newspaperman), or the hopes and challenges
of a town run by women, fighting the elements
but, mostly violent, rapacious men. Whether
it’s appreciated as a characterful Western drama
or a prescient exploration of a country’s bloody
birth, Godless shines its stars and has earned
its stripes. Must watch. NEV PIERCE

She’s got a gun and

she’s not afraid

to use it.

This can’t be the

way to the new

Westfield in Dulwich Hill.

VERDICT Dark is a compelling adult drama,

full of mystery and intrigue, that rises above the

surface-level similarities to other shows. Come

via the Netflix algorithm. Stay for the just-one-

more-episode quality.

HERE’S A QUANDARY: how to discuss

Dark while resisting the urge to call it the

‘German Stranger Things’, as many have in the

lead up to its release. Written in isolation, Dark’s

creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese have

been keen to ward off claims of bandwagon-

jumping — after all, they’d already started shooting

by the time Stranger Things hit Netflix. But the

similarities are undeniable. Both are set in a rural

town, surrounded by woodland and in the shadow

of a mysterious government facility. Both concern

missing children, ripped out of our reality and

into another. And both employ a retro ’80s vibe.

But if the set-up seems to veer remarkably

close, then the reality is markedly different.

Not least the time period. While some of Dark

is set in 1986, the meat of the action actually

takes place in 2019. And it’s a bleaker, more

realistic world. These missing kids leave a hole,

the parents suffering because of their loss —

creating makeshift Ouija boards out of fairy

lights couldn’t be further from their minds.

In many ways (and not just because of the

subtitles) it veers closer to Scandi-noir, both

in its look and eerie electronic soundtrack,

with the first series of The Killing being an

obvious reference point because of the similar

emotional heft caused by the loss of a child.

As if it’s consciously trying to mark itself

as different from the Amblin-aping tone

of its studio-mate, the series begins with

a suicide. A man hangs himself leaving a note

that comes with strict (and very specific)

instructions: “Do not open before 4 November

at 10.13pm”. It’s a date some five months in the

future. We then (post-opening credits) skip

forward to the morning of that day. One child

has already gone missing and, by the end of the

episode, a second child has disappeared, too.

At 10.13pm exactly.

But these children aren’t simply being

taken; they’re vanishing without trace. Police

are baffled, but it soon becomes clear there

are those amongst the town’s inhabitants who

know more than they let on. Not least, that this

has happened before, 33 years ago, in 1986.

The show quickly sets up a number of

intriguing mysteries to turn over in your mind.

What’s actually happening in the nearby nuclear

plant? Why are the management there so

disruptive to the police investigation? What’s

going on with the mysterious stranger that’s

checked into the local hotel? Who’s conducting

experiments in the kitsch, ’80s-styled bedroom?

And why on earth are there so many dead birds

everywhere? But instead of guarding these secrets

(and others), Odar and Friese drip-feed answers

throughout the show’s run, setting up new

mysteries as they go. It’s a well-paced series, one

that never runs out of steam over its 10 episodes.

It’s not entirely accurate, then, but there

are worse things to be called than the ‘German

Stranger Things’. Especially with most of that

show’s fans having sped through its second season

and on the look-out for something to fill that

void. Dark won’t be for all of them. The odd

Flock Of Seagulls track aside, it doesn’t have a

sideline in cute ’80s references — there’s no E.T.

The Extra Terrestrial or Dungeons & Dragons.

But it’s an addictive drama that succeeds on its

own, considerable, merits. JONATHAN PILE

CREATED BY Baran bo Odar, Jantje Friese

CAST Karoline Eichhorn, Louis Hofmann,

Oliver Masucci, Jördis Triebel, Daan Lennard

Liebrenz, Deborah Kaufmann, Angela Winkler

PLOT When children start going missing in a remote

German town, the police are stumped. But all is not

as it seems, and old secrets begin to spill out,

changing the lives of the families living there forever.

NETFLIX

OUT NOW

EPISODES VIEWED ALL

★★★★

DARK