Jason is a physics professor who is not only satisfied with his lot, but fundamentally happy. Daily life with Daniela, who after years of marriage remains the woman of her dreams, is sweet. What’s more, Jason shares a real bond with their only son, Charlie. However, Jason’s existence is even more enviable than he believes, because one evening, a double of himself kidnaps him, abandons him in a parallel dimension, then takes his place with Daniela and Charlie. Science fiction thriller with a race against time feel, the series Dark Matter has as a backdrop all these choices that we make, or not, and the repercussions of these in an infinite number of realities. Realities which are constantly changing, depending on the decisions made, each decision giving birth to an additional reality.
Divided into nine episodes, this ambitious Apple TV + production was created by Blake Crouch, based on his own bestselling novel published in 2016. For the record, the work received excellent reviews, many praising its scholarly balance between intelligent content and thrilling entertainment.
For the most part, the series maintains this balance. In fact, the quantum concepts present are made perfectly digestible, often through action. And then, it is true that the “multiverses” of Marvel and others Everything Everywhere All at Once (Everything everywhere all at once), Daniels, have contributed in recent years to familiarizing us with abstract notions of cohabiting and/or communicating parallel worlds.
The plot of Dark Matter remains judiciously down to earth, if you will, its dramatic engine residing in Jason’s quest to find “his” dimension, the one where Daniela and Charlie begin to wonder what is wrong with his double, Jason2.
Along the way, our quantum stray will travel through many realities and come across many variations of Daniela. You should know that, in his original dimension, Jason2 once made the decision not to marry the latter and instead to continue his scientific research. Hence this revolutionary invention making interdimensional travel possible…
If some of these dimensions turn out to be very similar to the one from which Jason was torn, others turn out to be very different, for example following an even more accelerated environmental crisis. In this regard, whether subtle or spectacular, the special effects are always good.
Details and nuances
Interesting secondary characters, most with their own variations, populate the series. However, the whole thing rests first on the shoulders of Joel Edgerton (Warrior / Warrior ; Master Gardener) and Jennifer Connelly (Requiem for a Dream / Return to Brooklyn ; A Beautiful Mind / An exceptional man), both skillful in their way of injecting detail and nuance into the various versions of their respective characters.
The main drawback, and it concerns several series, is a tendency to stretch unduly. Too often, entire pages of entirely unnecessary (or memorable) dialogue slow down the action rather than advance it. As is, Dark Matter is a very good series of nine episodes, but it could have been a great series of six or seven.
That being said, the main quality of the production lies in its ability to develop an intimate drama while deploying abundant universes. Because, as Jennifer Connelly told us in an interview, Dark Matter basically paints the portrait of a marriage undermined in a rather unique… not to say cosmic way.
