The story follows a group of passengers on a ship bound for America that encounters an abandoned ship in the middle of the ocean. However, the action is mostly centered between Maura Franklin (Emily Beechum,) an Englishwoman coping with a checkered past looking for her missing brother, and the ship’s German captain Eyk Larsen (Andreas Pietschmann,) who has his own tragic backstory. There’s a Cantonese geisha (Isabella Wei,) a Portuguese priest (José Pimentão,) a young French couple (Jonas Bloquet and Mathilde Ollivier,) a Polish boy working in the engine room (Maciej Musial,) and a Danish family in steerage (Alexandre Willaume, Maria Erwolter, Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen, Clara Rosager.) The case is large and mostly pan-European. Like most good mystery box shows, 1899 is an ensemble piece. And without that, all the flaws of this subgenre become glaringly evident. Now, Odar and Friese are back with 1899, a far more ambitious and blatant “mystery box.” But while all the fundamentals are there, the lightning in a bottle that made Dark so captivating isn’t present (at least not yet). It was a major success for Netflix and resulted in three seasons, each more complicated than the last and all culminating in a satisfying ending. Dark followed the population of a small German town as the mystery of a missing child unspools into a multi-generational time-travel conspiracy. As the streaming giant looked to expand its catalog and reach a global audience, it took a gamble on a trippy German show from Baran Bo Odar and Jantje Friese. Then, five years ago, the mystery-box collided with another trend at Netflix: international entertainment. Ever since Lost proved that audiences would put up with a nonsensical plot if it meant they could help solve a puzzle, TV execs have chased that success with an endless parade of mystery-box shows - with mixed results. When does a show become more mystery than actual story?Īfter a strong start, Westworld suffered this fate until HBO finally put the series out of its misery, but the “mystery-box” genre isn’t slowing down any time soon.
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