"Dark Matter," the latest sci-fi offering from Apple TV+, might be just what you need if you have, oddly enough, ever yearned for a joyless, self-serious version of Frank Capra’s "It's a Wonderful Life". This grim adaptation of Blake Crouch's novel lacks much-needed tonal variation, focusing more on literal black boxes and washed-out solemnity than it does on the whimsical, joyful magic that made the original so beloved.
Joel Edgerton stars as Jason Dessen, a Chicago-based physicist whose life is unremarkable but content. His calm existence is turned upside down when an alternate-future version of himself "replaces" him, dropping Jason into a professional-life-rich-but-spiritual-life-poor reality. The premise of the series chiefly revolves around Jason's efforts to bring order back to his life using a mysterious physics-based "Box."
However, viewers expecting the genius and complexity of shows like "Counterpart", a Starz drama about intersecting parallel worlds, may be disappointed. "Dark Matter" mostly deals with simple ideas presented in complex ways, rather than diving into truly confounding concepts packaged in a fun and entertaining manner. It falls short of achieving the subtle blend of mixed feelings of success and failure epitomized in "It's a Wonderful Life".
The show’s sombre overall tone and focus on shadowy mystery are established from the start, with director Jakob Verbruggen setting a murky, moody atmosphere that doesn't do much to make viewers root for Jason's character. The lack of warmth and brightness, both visually and emotionally, makes Jason's journey towards finding his old life more of a procedural task than a quest filled with personal stakes.
Even when subsequent directors take over from Verbruggen, the downcast tone persists. The series goes through repetitive cycles in alternate universes, all of which focus more on apocalyptic images than on whimsical variations. The unending earnestness snuffs out any possibility for light-hearted moments or comic relief, despite featuring an actor playing two different versions of the same character.
Even with a veteran like Jennifer Connelly in the cast, very seldom do the characters get to stray away from the path of intensity. Most of the time, the characters are simply intense and virtually indistinguishable, their alternate realities delineated only by very apparent and stereotypical behaviours.
"Dark Matter" ends up skewing towards the disheartened corner of Apple TV+'s catalogue where the human experience is grimly one-toned, rather than finding a place amongst the boundary-breaking entries like "Severance" or "Pachinko." Fans of the more serene, light-hearted sci-fi should give "Dark Matter" a wide berth unless they prefer a slog through an excessive marathon of sombre seriousness.
