Each broadly and particularly, “Darkish Matter” is a TV collection made with me in thoughts — or, on the very least, a model of me that would exist. Talking typically, the Apple drama asks large questions on how the alternatives we make come to outline who we’re: Would I be totally different in the present day if I had pursued a special profession, married a special lady, or raised a special household? In small methods — the stuff of daydreams — the reply is, “Sure, in fact, I’d be totally different.” In a special job, I wouldn’t be writing these phrases proper now as a result of I’d be napping in a hammock off the coast of Eire, as an expert hammock tester specializing in chilly climate climates. However except for modifications in what I’d be doing, what about who I am? Would a brand new career, or a brand new associate, or a brand new home-life alter my persona? My worldview? My id? Once more, the reply is, “Yeah, most likely.” However how? To what lengths? For higher or worse?
If these form of questions enchantment to you, then a) “Darkish Matter” will undoubtedly ring a bell or two over its nine-episode season, and b) a midlife disaster could also be looming. Asking “what if” is pure. It will probably even be wholesome, however in case you’re at all times fixated on what might’ve been as an alternative of appreciating what you will have, what you’ve carried out, and what you’re working towards, then you might get up someday and throw your life away over a brand new automobile, a brand new associate, or another fleeting image of freedom.
Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton), the protagonist of “Darkish Matter,” doesn’t do that. Not precisely. However the science-fiction collection, tailored by Blake Crouch from his 2016 novel of the identical identify, nonetheless serves as an allegory for a middle-class white man’s midlife disaster; one he’s compelled into, as an alternative of opting in himself. Crammed with alternate universes, technical jargon, and a handful of respectable twists, the self-serious collection is a serviceable substitute for the actual factor — a approach to interact with existential questions with out risking the disaster of taking part in them out your self. However regardless of checking off curiosity after curiosity on my private stock of favorites, “Darkish Matter’s” particular person attributes can’t escape the story’s bland generalities. It’s a present formed so broadly, even the specifics that coincidentally click on with yours really are too rounded off to resonate within the long-run.
What specifics, you might ask? Let’s come again to that, since I guess much more of you’re asking what “Darkish Matter” is about. Like “It’s a Great Life” with out the vacation cheer, Apple’s black-and-blue hued drama follows Jason, your typical Midwestern husband and father. He works at a neighborhood school in Chicago as a physics professor. Earlier than work, he teaches his teenage son, Charlie (Oakes Fegley), the way to drive, and after work he cooks dinner for the household. He loves his spouse, Daniela (Jennifer Connelly) — loves her — however he’s nonetheless… discontented. His colleagues are successful prizes and beginning corporations, whereas he’s regurgitating previous information to a bunch of youngsters who don’t even stick round for the top of his lectures. He’s nonetheless dad and husband, however his spark is fading.
Then, on a wet evening match for self-pity, Jason has a bit of an excessive amount of to drink and, as he wanders via his North facet neighborhood, he’s attacked. A person in a white masks pulls a gun on him, drives Jason to an deserted warehouse, and injects him with a mysterious serum. “Are you content together with your life?” the person growls in Jason’s ear, shortly earlier than his sufferer loses consciousness. “Have you ever ever questioned what else you might’ve been?”
Moments later, he’s shoved right into a tall black dice, issues get a bit of murky, and the following factor he is aware of, there are folks in radiation-proof fits slicing his garments off, sticking him in a high-pressure bathe, and interrogating him about the place he’s been. They inform him he’s been gone for 14 months. They need to assist him. They name him Jason or Dr. Dessen, however he’s not who they suppose. Right here, on this universe, Jason Dessen grew to become the chief science officer and co-founder of a mega-successful engineering laboratory. He gained awards, he’s even well-known. However he’s not married. His son doesn’t exist. And as good as it might appear to be wealthy and idolized, this life isn’t the one he desires.
Jason realizes this instantly, which is a part of the issue with “Darkish Matter.” Our lead character doesn’t have to vary — probably not. Possibly he wanted a reminder that what he had was fairly nice, however he’s not tempted to bask in his skilled fantasy for one second. As an alternative, he begins trying to find solutions: Who did this to him? What occurred to his previous life? And, most significantly, how does he get again to his household?
The big black dice (usually known as “the field”) is the important thing, and Jason figures that out fairly quick, too. “Darkish Matter’s” pacing helps alleviate a few of its shapelessness; one episode bleeds into the following (like streaming TV‘s most dreaded finish outcome: a nine-hour film), however not less than they transfer with urgency and curiosity. Studying how the field works and seeing the varied realities it reveals to Jason is inviting sufficient, and Crouch (who writes or co-writes many of the episodes) makes ample time for the viewers to mirror on the identical questions Jason considers; questions on marriage, duty, and achievement.
“Darkish Matter” astutely acknowledges that the constructing blocks of a wholesome relationships are made up of little issues and large issues alike; not simply what you realize in regards to the different particular person, however the that means inside seemingly insignificant particulars that construct intimacy and actions that convey actual care (versus superficial or self-serving gestures). The romance works, though Connelly’s gallery supervisor and artist isn’t given the identical alternative to discover (internally or externally) because the Oscar-winning actress deserves. Way more time is devoted to VFX-enhanced photographs of a number of Chicagos in a number of realities, which brings us again to the precise points of “Darkish Matter” that appear tailor-made to me.
Firstly, I like Chicago. I like the Chicago Cubs and, towards my greatest judgment, the Chicago Bears (regardless of not successful a Tremendous Bowl in my lifetime). I like town’s skyline, I like the “L” trains, and I like Pequod’s Pizza. I like the Logan Park neighborhood, which incorporates the primary resort I stayed at with my spouse and sits simply adjoining to our second residence collectively. On high of that, I’m a sucker for aching romances, provocative, big-picture dramas, and even Joel Edgerton. (“Warrior” hive, stand up.)
However regardless of these personalised attracts entering into, “Darkish Matter” doesn’t match them with incisive character revelations or recent profundities. Notable epiphanies and lasting that means are manifestly absent, which feels all of the extra unjustifiable for the reason that collection is so devoid of enjoyable. It’s unflagging gloom and one-note characters restrict its capability to shake something free inside the viewers, and I say that as somebody who was prepared and keen for the present to do precisely that. If it’s not hitting for me, an admittedly simple mark, I can’t think about it’s going to play any higher for these of you with out ties to the Windy Metropolis, with out the sentimental soft-spot for love tales, or with out a wholesome respect for Edgerton and Connelly.
So in case you can’t shake your individual lingering “what if’s,” perhaps give this a go earlier than blowing up your life. In any other case, ebook an extended weekend in Logan Sq.. I do know simply the place to remain.
Grade: C+
“Darkish Matter” premieres Wednesday, Might 8 on Apple TV+ with two episodes. New episodes might be launched weekly via the finale (Episode 9) on June 26.