If you were captivated by Black Mirror, wait until you discover Dark – as the "greatest show ever made".

Boasting a flawless Rotten Tomatoes score, Dark December 2017 and captivated audiences across three enthralling seasons, concluding in June 2020. The brainchild of the director-screenwriter couple Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, this dystopian narrative marked Netflix's first foray into German-language originals and Revamping the well-worn time travel trope, Dark offers an invigorating and mind-twisting interpretation of a concept that many have found tired and overused.

The series drags viewers through a labyrinth of convoluted characters, intricate plots, and dizzying timeline leaps throughout its trio of seasons, asserting itself as a truly one-of-a-kind spectacle. While parallels to Stranger Things may crop up, Dark stands out as its darker, more sophisticated and enigmatically contorted kin, reports .

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Set against the backdrop of Winden's sombre, overcast town, Dark has a sprawling web of characters and narratives. It has viewers scrambling for pen and paper in a desperate bid to map out its (at times parallel, at times skewed) ancestral lines, achieving what every creator dreams of, engrossing the audience so deeply in their that it becomes an irresistible binge-watch.

The series kicks off with a spine-chilling narration telling us that "everything is connected", and they're not kidding – it's a wild web from the get-go. We're flung into the lives of several townsfolk starting with Jonas, a young lad wrestling with his old man's death by suicide while trying to slot back into normal life. Soon after, we learn that Erik, a fellow schoolmate, has disappeared.

A few poor decisions and reunions later, a gaggle of mates take to the Winden woods at night, ostensibly to locate Erik but actually to recover his buried cannabis supply. Then, all hell breaks loose when one of their gang's younger brother, Mikkel Nielsen, vanishes. What unspools next are three spellbinding seasons filled with jaw-dropping twists, spectacular time-hopping, and tangled liaisons. And that's merely brushing the surface.

Without giving too much away, one can succinctly describe the heady allure of Dark with the Albert Einstein quote that pops up in the first episode: "The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." That's all you need to grasp before plunging headfirst into this television marvel. Laden with enigmas more knotted than the roots of India's Sundarbans mangrove forest, Dark will bewilder you – and you'll revel in every second of it. If you're still not sold on the show's brilliance, let the facts do the talking. Rotten Tomatoes hosted a poll in 2020 to crown the Greatest Original Series – and it was Dark that stormed past to clinch the title coveted.

It didn't just beat other fan favourites like The Crown, Mindhunter, and Peaky Blinders; it outshone all of Netflix's outstanding originals and secured the top spot, even before the series finale had been broadcast. The series has garnered applause from viewers and critics for everything it represents (and what it doesn’t), with one enthusiast on Rotten Tomatoes declaring it "hands down one of the best tv shows ever made", while another labelled it as a "very underrated series" that consistently "keeps you wondering the whole time".

user CrossroadsMafia agrees wholeheartedly, posting: "Dark is the best show ever, an absolute masterpiece," while yet another Redditor laments ignoring the series for years, revealing: "I skipped Dark for 6 years because I thought it was a horror based solely on the cover and a few trailers I saw of season 1. Finally watched it this year. It's a masterpiece! No other show has ever told a story this good in 3 sessions! I'm so glad I finally gave in and watched it."

Another Rotten Tomatoes reviewer shared their admiration: "DARK is poignant, profound and unforgettable. It is a stand-alone triumph of 21st century science fiction and the antidote to the 21st century's desecration of film and TV (ironically, brought to you by Netflix)."