DARK Season 1 Episode Guide: IMDb Ratings, Runtime & Honest Review

DARK — One Night That Broke My Sense of Time

dark season 2 review and deep detail view post...

It was 4:17 AM. My eyes felt dry and burned out, my head was buzzing on caffeine, and my sense of reality was hanging by a thread. What I thought would be a slow, atmospheric crime mystery turned into a full mental collapse. DARK did not politely ask for my attention — it took it, twisted it, and refused to give it back.

#	Episode Name	IMDb Rating	Length (min)	Our Review (/10)
1	Secrets	8.2	51	8
2	Lies	8.0	44	7
3	Past and Present	8.5	45	8
4	Double Lives	8.1	47	8
5	Truths	8.9	45	9
6	Sic Mundus Creatus Est	9.0	51	9
7	Crossroads	8.6	52	8
8	As You Sow, So You Shall Reap	9.1	50	9
9	Everything Is Now	8.6	56	8
10	Alpha and Omega	9.1	57	10

Episode runtimes from Netflix listings. :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}

A Slow Beginning With Heavy Shadows

The series starts quietly. A missing child. A small town drowning in secrets. Everyone in Winden looks tired, guilty, or afraid. The mood is so thick it almost feels physical. At first, it feels manageable — like a beautifully shot, depressing European crime drama. I was relaxed, sipping tea, thinking I could watch one or two episodes and sleep.

Episode Four: The Point of No Return

Then Episode 4 arrived — “Double Lives.” That was the moment the floor disappeared beneath me. Jonas enters the cave, finds the rotting door marked with strange symbols, and steps through it. The light changes. The air feels wrong. And then he sees Erik — the missing boy — alive, terrified, and trapped in 1986. Not a ghost. Not a vision. Real. That was it. I put my phone down and knew my weekend, my sleep, and my responsibilities were officially over.

Falling Into the Knot

From that moment onward, everything blurred together. I started drawing family trees, connecting names, tracing bloodlines across decades. The Nielsen family, the Kahnwalds, the Dopplers, the Tiedemanns — all tangled together in a single miserable loop. Every answer created two new questions. Every clue felt like it was eating a piece of my brain.

Jonas: From Victim to Participant

Jonas is easy to sympathize with. His father is dead. His mother’s life is collapsing. His world feels unfair and cruel. So when he starts searching for the truth, you want him to succeed. But the moment he begins listening to his future self — the scarred stranger in the mask — everything changes. His decision to go back and try to fix things marks the moment he stops being just a victim and becomes part of the knot itself.

Hannah and Silent Destruction

Hannah is one of the most frustrating characters in the show. Her jealousy, her choices, and her silence cause immense damage. Watching her allow lives to fall apart simply because of personal resentment is painful. DARK constantly reminds us that some of the worst tragedies are not caused by monsters — but by ordinary people making selfish decisions.

The Finale That Shattered Everything

The final episodes — “God’s in His Heaven” and “Everything Is Now” — feel like a controlled collapse. Revelations stack on top of each other until the entire structure caves in. And then it happens: Mikkel is Michael. Michael is Mikkel. Jonas’s father is the child who disappeared in 2019. The realization hits like a physical blow. I paused the episode and stared at a wall, trying to accept what I had just learned.

The Image That Won’t Leave

The final image burned into my mind is not the twist itself, but the last scene. An older, scarred Jonas sits alone, staring at photographs of his family. He speaks the line that defines the entire series: “The beginning is the end, and the end is the beginning.” When the title DARK appeared, it felt like the show had fractured my own timeline.

Why DARK Works So Well

DARK succeeds because it trusts its audience. It does not explain everything immediately. It forces you to think, remember, question, and rewatch. The characters feel human, the pain feels earned, and the mystery respects your intelligence. It is not just a time-travel story — it is a meditation on fate, guilt, love, and inevitability.

Rewatch Value and Emotional Weight

This is a series built for rewatching. On a second viewing, small details, background clues, and subtle dialogue suddenly make sense. What once felt confusing becomes tragic. What once felt random reveals careful design. Every scene carries emotional weight because you know what it will eventually cost.

Final Thoughts

DARK left me exhausted, broken, and strangely satisfied. It didn’t just end on a cliffhanger — it pushed me off and reminded me that I helped build it. This is not a comfortable show, but it is a powerful one. If you enjoy stories that challenge you and stay with you long after the screen goes dark, this is essential viewing.

Rating: 10/10. I desperately need sleep — but I might rewatch that bunker scene first.