Dark Matter 1.9: Science Fiction and Horror

I have unsettled feelings about the season 1 finale of Dark Matter on Apple TV+ -- episode 1.9 -- and they all point to a series eminently worth watching and continuing.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

I said last week that the multitude of Jasons showing up in one world gave cinematic verite to the poster for the series.  But that crucial scene near the end of 1.9, with all of those Jasons, marshalled by their leader to let our Jason -- Jason 1 -- have the life he deserved with Daniela and Charlie -- well, that scene epitomized the poster.

I also said last week that I didn't expect to see the happy ending that the ending of 1.8 was pointing to.  And we did see Jason 1 and Daniela 1 and Charlie 1 in family bliss for part of 1.9, only to have that taken away from them by a few of the marauding Jasons.  But Jason 2 saved them -- at least, I think that was Jason 2, I'm never 100% sure -- and got the crowd of Jasons to let the Jason 1 family go into a world where they could presumably have a very happy life.

That scene with the crowd of Jasons made me realize that I was watching not just a science fiction story but a horror story.  Crowds have been a part of horror at least since the notorious town folk with their torches in Frankenstein.  They weren't carrying torches in Dark Matter 1.9, and they were different versions of the same person, but they felt to me to have a kinship with those villagers in Frankenstein.  Mary Shelley's and Blake Crouch's stories, after all, are both vivid testaments to the horror that uncontrolled science can bring.  The Twilight Zone often focused on this field of dreams turned nightmares, too.

So, the Jason 1 family has a happy ending.  And Jason 2 sees the error of his ways and redeems himself. But there are an infinity of stories in that crowd of Jasons, and in this, our offscreen reality, I envision a Canterbury Tales of Dark Matter stories spanning years.

See also Dark Matter 1.1-1.2: Break-Neck Action and Philosophic Contemplation ... 1.3 Missing Fingers ... 1.4 The Multiverse Unveiled ... 1.5: The Lesson ... 1.6 "A Bunch of Chicagos" ... 1.7: Obama Tower ... 1.8: A Bevy Of Jasons

Dark Matter 1.7: Obama Tower

Dark Matter on Apple TV+ continues to get better and better, with episode 1.7 being once again the best episode yet.   Here's why I think why:

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

Jason 1 and Amanda finally get to a beautiful Chicago, replete with monorails, an Obama tower (which reached its full height in our reality on this side of the screen just a few days ago -- a nice feat of perfect timing for the TV series), and the soft breath of Spring.  Amanda loves it so much she wants to stay in this reality, and she invites Jason 1 to stay with her, as the two, dressed in the height of fashion, dine in a restaurant that looks like an updated Windows on the World from a World Trade Center that survived and is now in Chicago.  He's tempted but declines the offer.  He wants to go back to his family that Jason 2 has taken from him.  They part.  Amanda takes the elevator down, alone.  She starts crying, but gets out on the ground floor with a smile and a deep determination.  It's a memorable scene, tear-worthy in itself.  But it's worth noting that with the ampules Jason 1 puts in her purse without her knowledge, he has a feeling they'll be seeing each other again. 

Jason 1 goes on to another reality that he hopes will be enough like his that he can live there.  He comes close, but he finds Daniela in bed with another Jason, and Max -- a twin of Charlie who died in infancy in Jason 1's original world -- alive and with some serious problems of his own.  Jason 1 realizes this world won't work, but he finally figures out how to get to his reality, which he does.  He decides to kill Jason 2, tries to buy a gun but settles for a knife and pepper spray ...

Meanwhile, Jason 2 is being pressed by Detective Mason about what happened to Ryan.  He decides to break down the wall he had built last week around the room to alternate realities, and bring Ryan back to Jason 1's world to get Mason off his case.  He also decides to get a gun, and in a final scene that's set to change everything, of course walks into the same gun shop as Jason 1 left less than a minute before.  The gun dealer of course acts as if she's just seen him, and this lets Jason 2 know that Jason 1 has made it back to his world.

So the stage is set for the concluding two episodes of this series (which I hope will be just the first season of this compelling series): Jason 1 back in his world, finally able to get back what was stolen from him.  I have a feeling that's not quite going to happen.

See also Dark Matter 1.1-1.2: Break-Neck Action and Philosophic Contemplation ... 1.3 Missing Fingers ... 1.4 The Multiverse Unveiled ... 1.5: The Lesson ... 1.6 "A Bunch of Chicagos"

Podcast Review of Dark Matter 1.6

Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 389, in which I review Dark Matter 1.6 on AppleTV+.

Further places:

• podcast review of Dark Matter 1.1-1.2
• podcast review of Dark Matter 1.3-1.4
• podcast review of Dark Matter 1.5
• written blog post review of episode 1.6

Check out this episode!

Dark Matter 1.6: "A Bunch of Chicagos"

Well, I thought the best line in Dark Matter 1.6 on Apple TV+ today came from Jason 1 to Amanda 2 about their having visited "a bunch of Chicagos" so far, and none of them were too good.

But that was only one of many good lines in this episode, and the series has now progressed, in my opinion, from excellent to outstanding.

[And here's the place I'll advise you about spoilers ahead ... ]

I'll bullet some of the best moments:

• Jason 2 gets Charlie 1 some ice cream with nuts, and he has to be rushed to the emergency room where he's saved.  I'm hoping this was just an accident and not something much worse, and I wouldn't put much past Jason 2.  He does give his son who's not his son an Epinephrine shot, and that more than the hospital was actually key to saving him. But Daniela 1 is hit hard by this in any case, the worst in a list of events and characteristics including flossing and leaving keys in the wrong place that's feeding her suspicion.
• To top off Daniela's misgivings about Jason 2, he takes her to an art show where one of her paintings is hanging, and she's moved to tears -- of fury, because she wasn't finished with the painting yet, and the last thing she wanted was to show it to the public.
• But lest you think Jason 2 is a good guy, he strands poor Ryan in one of those infinite Chicagos.
• And here's a thing I really liked in this episode: lots of time for Amanda 2 and Amanda 1.  She's a pivotal character, and Jason 1 may be falling in love with her (he's certainly a consummate gentleman, asking Amanda to leave their bed, though he'd certainly like to sleep with her, in both meanings of that word).
• And last but not least, an at-once high and low scene at the end of this episode has Jason 2 following through on his vow to seal off or lock up his box/corridor to alternate realities.

So I thought this was a top-notch episode indeed, and I'm looking forward to its consequences in what's to come!

See also Dark Matter 1.1-1.2: Break-Neck Action and Philosophic Contemplation ... 1.3 Missing Fingers ... 1.4 The Multiverse Unveiled ... 1.5: The Lesson

His Dark Materials 2.1-3: Dust, Dark Matter, and Multiple Universes

Back with a review of the first three episodes of the new second season of His Dark Materials on HBO.  I liked them a lot, and thought that, in a variety of ways, these episodes moved the series a bit from high fantasy to steampunk on the genre dial.  A good thing, in my book. (And speaking of books, I'll mention again that I haven't read any of Pullman's novels.)

Multiple universes or alternate worlds have become an increasingly important subset of science fiction.  One of the best novels I've read in years was the late J. Neil Schulman's The Fractal Man, a kaleidoscope of alternate worlds right here on Earth in our own time.  In His Dark Materials, Season 2, Lyra travels from the universe we saw last year, to one which is more like ours.  Smartphones, computers, and the like are in ample evidence in Cittàgazze, and play essential roles in the story.  But "Spectres" which turn adults into zombies are also on hand, and make this more-Earth-like alternate world markedly different from ours.

The computers signify a more scientific bent in this new world.  Lyra discovers that dark matter -- known in this alternate world as well as the world we all now inhabit, in which we can watch His Dark Materials on the screen -- is the equivalent of the dust we have all come to know by virtue of the first season.  Lyra now has a great vehicle for understanding what she needs to understand in order to save herself and all of these worlds.

It's good that she's joined in her often desperate adventures by Will, who understands at some of the workings of Cittàgazze.  They're just friends, at this point, but there's a chemistry that will likely move them closer than friends as the story progresses.  Mrs. Coulter is in good form, meting out cruelty as necessary but ultimately unwavering in her love for Lyra and her need to protect her.  

All in all, His Dark Materials occupies a unique niche of sheer fantasy ala Lord of the Rings and some kind of steampunk as in The Difference Engine, and it's most enjoyable to see.

See also His Dark Materials 1.1: Radiation Punk ...  His Dark Materials 1.3: Coulter's Daemons ... His Dark Materials 1.4: The Bears ... His Dark Materials 1.5:  Sleepers and Questions ... His Dark Materials 1.6: His Fast Materials

Alternate Realities: Architect, Rock Star Junkie, Serial Killer

As I mentioned in a recent review of Triple Hit, there's an intrinsic connection between tales of multiple realities and tales of time travel, since multiple realities provide one way of getting around the infamous grandparent paradox - if you travel to the past and prevent your grandparents from meeting, how would you come to exist in the future to travel to the past in the first place - by supposing a Reality 1, in which you existed and traveled to the past and prevented your grandparents from meeting, which created Reality 2, in which you never existed, so no paradox arises.  That possible backdrop of time travel got me to watch Triple Hit, which turned out to have next to no time travel, and it led me to watch Alternate Realities, a 2015 feature film also available free on Amazon Prime.

And it turns out there's even less time travel in Alternate Realities, the sum total of which is a professor's joking comment to his class that "Just because we are studying theoretical physics does not mean that time travel will be an acceptable excuse for tardiness".  Nonetheless, Alternate Realities is a pretty good alternate realities story, and warrants a watch.

There are three for our hero, John Rotit, for most of the movie, in which he's an architect in one, a rock star drug addict in another, and a serial killer in a third.  His main reality seems to be the architect, where he's happily married and totally in love with his wife Clare, but is tormented by his knowledge of himself in the two other realities where, to say the least, he has no such relationship.  And to make matters worse - or maybe better - the three realities are beginning to converge.

As the story develops, we're faced with a choice ourselves as an audience - is John really in three alternate realities (and, if so, why?), or is he suffering from a severe case of multiple personalities?  So, you could say the audience is given its own or meta-alternate realities, in the choice of which kind of story we're seeing.

I won't tell you the ending, which does tell you what kind of story we've been seeing.  It's only partially predictable, which makes the overall movie pretty good.   Donny Boaz does a good job as John(ny) in three realities/personas, as does Elle LaMont as Clare.   Similarly, good writing by Andrew M. Henderson and good direction by Amir Valinia.  I'd say - give it a shot.  At very least,  in this reality.

  
more alternate realities ...


 

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