Even though I have watched many sci-fi shows since Netflix’s Dark, I don’t think any of them, except for a new Apple TV+ show, have come remotely close to being as twisted and mind-boggling as the German show. Co-created by the couple Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, Dark premiered on Netflix in December 2017 as the streaming platform’s first German-language original show. Although it took its time to find its audience and did not instantly garner mainstream attention like Stranger Things, it gradually rose in the ranks as one of the best sci-fi shows on the streaming platform.

Owing to the ambitiousness and complexity of its overarching narrative, Dark kept me hooked throughout its runtime, leaving me asking for more after every season. Unfortunately, it eventually ended its run with three seasons, leaving a bittersweet void for viewers like me who constantly crave complex sci-fi shows that do not shy away from adopting convoluted but compelling narratives. Not a lot of sci-fi shows since Dark have made me sit and think about their stories long after their credits roll, but Apple TV+’s new series is starting to have a similar impact.

Dark Matter’s Confusing Multiverse Exploration Is As Complex As Dark’s Timeline

What Dark Achieves With Its Timelines, Dark Matter Presents With Its Parallel Worlds

Even though Apple TV+’s Dark Matter and Netflix’s Dark riff on some similar scientific concepts, the two shows are significantly different when it comes to their story and character beats. However, both initially take time to set the foundation for their sci-fi ideas and then go all out with their exploration of confusing alternate timelines, parallel realities, and paradoxes. Like every sci-fi show and movie, both take many scientific leeways and are not bereft of plot holes. But the fact that they even attempt to execute something that is so conceptually mind-bending elevates them above other sci-fi series.

Although many aspects of Dark‘s overarching story are puzzling, what primarily makes it mind-bendingly suspenseful and thrilling is its complex portrayal of timelines and the distorted family trees they end up creating. Even from a thematic standpoint, Dark is no less intricate. It portrays how its characters travel through time to end their repetitive cycles of death and destruction only to learn they were perpetuating it in the first place. Using a box that allows one to travel to parallel worlds as a narrative device, Dark Matter, too, walks through many “roads not taken” by its characters.

As it progresses, it becomes more and more puzzling when alternate versions of the same character emerge and start wreaking havoc in each other’s lives. Like Dark keeps going back and forth between multiple timelines, Dark Matter keeps shifting between myriad parallel universes. With these complex ideas surrounding parallel universes and time travel, both shows often gave me a headache but also made me think about philosophical questions surrounding free will, determination, and the long-term rippling impact of even the most trivial decisions I make.

How Apple TV+’s Dark Matter Compares To Netflix’s Dark (Based On Rotten Tomatoes)

Dark’s Audience & Critics’ Scores Are Nearly Perfect

Dark had an incredible run on Netflix and still boasts an impressive average Rotten Tomatoes score of 95% across all seasons. Its second season even has a perfect critics’ rating of 100%, which it rightfully earned. Dark Matter‘s score of 81% is relatively less. However, it still ranks among the best sci-fi shows of 2024. Given how both shows are incredible in their own right, it would be unfair to compare them based on their critics’ ratings. However, Dark‘s audience and critics’ scores on RT clearly suggest that it was one of a kind and hardly any sci-fi shows will come close to matching its quality.

Even for me, Dark Matter, at least after season 1, is still far from being the perfect Dark replacement. However, I cannot help but appreciate how, like Dark, Dark Matter is bringing pure sci-fi back by entrancing viewers with its imagination and daring to explore some complicated scientific concepts like quantum superposition and entanglement. Hopefully, like Netflix’s Dark, Apple TV+‘s Dark Matter will get to expand its ideas and last for at least two more seasons despite being limited by its source material.