Dark Matter 2.6: The Harptones in the Multiverse

The Harptones, 1956

It was so good to hear The Harptones' "My Memories of You" in Dark Matter 2.6.  I love doo-wop.  I sang it with my group The Transits (I'm doing first tenure falsetto in this rough demo we did of The Passions' "I Only Want You").  I've written science fiction stories about doo-wop (check out "The Harmony" in my anthology Peter Brown Called). I even got my family to do a little of the Five Satins' "In the Still of the Night" in the early Covid days.

Now the Harptones song The Transits always sang was "Sunday Kind of Love" -- to this day, one of my favorite songs -- but "My Memories of You" certainly fits better in this episode of Dark Matter, and in Dark Matter overall.

Every time Jason-1 in his travels in interreality runs into someone that he knew in his original world (I suppose our world, yours and mine, too), he wonders if that person knows him, and if so, how much and what that person knows of him.  Jason wants to know the nature of their memories of him, or, from their perspective looking at Jason, my memories of you.

It's comforting to think that the same music exists, at least to some extent, across multiple realities.  But now that I'm thinking about it, where does that music really exist?  If we hear it on a jukebox in a bar in an alternate reality, it exists in that reality.  But lots of the music, including "My Memories of You", are part of the background soundtrack.  When the Harptones play in the background of a scene with Daniela, with her father, and then thinking of her father, are we to assume that she's hearing that song in her head?Maybe ... but unless it's playing in the car she's driving, or she tells someone she loves that song, we can't be sure.  Maybe that song is just something Blake Crouch or Jen Malone (music supervisor) or one of the other people in the 15-person music department put into those scenes to sharpen and enhance our understanding of what's going on.

Whoever chose it -- it was a great choice.  The other thing I especially liked in this episode is this alternate version of Amanda (Alice Braga) and her incandescent smile.  (I don't recall her ever smiling so vividly in the earlier realities she was in.)  And the hooded person who turned out to be Charlie taking a turn towards another reality, after Jason tells him that his lost twin Max is alive in one of them somewhere, promises a new story of some kind for him and us straight ahead.

See also Dark Matter 2.1: Who's Who in the Infinite Bucket ... 2.2: Sam Spade Back in Action ... 2.3: Can Two Couples Be in Two Different Places at the Same Time? ... 2.4: "There's No Entrance to the Diner" ... 2.5: Canterbury Realities and Proust

And 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 ... 1.9: Science Fiction and Horror

  

Dark Matter 2.5: Canterbury Realities and Proust

What an exquisite, beautiful episode, heart rending and heart warming at the same time.  Dark Matter 2.5 was in effect a standalone story, with a Jason of whatever number in a world by himself, using his last capsule to go to his childhood house in an alternate reality to see his mother and staying there.  As I said in my review about the end of episode 1.9 -- an end which we see again at the beginning of 2.5 -- this plethora of Jasons opens the gates to a Canterbury Tales, in which each traveler is an alternate Jason.  Call this Canterbury Realities or Canterbury Jasons.

This concerto of a tale was a lot like "The Inner Light" in Star Trek: The Next Generation, where Picard finds himself in a world with no Enterprise, and lives his life as a blacksmith and then a scientist.  But Picard on this planet is the Picard who knows he was Captain of the Enterprise.  The hero of Dark Matter 2.5 is not our Jason -- not Jason 1 -- whom we last saw in episode 2.4 left alone, as Charlie moves into a dorm and Daniela moves away somewhere to get away from it all.   The Jason in 2.5 is for whatever reason also alone (actually, we later see a note from him that he's lost his wife and son, so that makes him similar to Jason 1, though we don't know how and why this happened), and understandably uses his last capsule to move into an alternate reality.   So although 2.5 is (at this point) a standalone episode, its immediately following 2.4, where Jason 1 is left alone, creates a powerful synchrony between these two episodes.

[And there are spoilers ahead ... ]

The beginning of 2.5 with the ending of 1.9 with Jason 1 and Daniela and Charlie looking down at the crowd of Jasons including the Jason of 2.5 -- alright, let's call him Jason 1b -- also has the big benefit of giving Jason 1b a specific motive for using his last capsule.  He sees Jason 1 with the family that Jason 1b doesn't have.  It also adds punch to the ending of 2.5, where Jason 1b runs into the Daniela of that world, but I'll get to that in a minute.   (All of this complexity, by the way, makes for a wonderful episode, and, indeed, 2.5 may be the best episode in the series so far.  I know, I keep saying that, because it's true).

But back to the story, Jason 1b discovers that in this reality, he died when he was 16!  His mother, Elle, is deaf, and superbly played by Linda Bove, who is deaf.  Ellie accepts and loves Jason 1b, as a miracle that is bestowed upon her.  Jason 1b thrives.   He becomes a chair-maker (analogous to Picard's blacksmith), and rescues an alternate-version derelict of himself.  The three have a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, and are joined by yet another Jason at Christmastime.  And Jason 1b, apparently an avid reader (there doesn't seem to be TV or streaming in this reality), devours volume one of Proust's In Search of Lost Time.  This is not only a good choice (volume one is entitled Swann's Way, note the double "n") for a protagonist -- or an alternate protagonist -- in a saga like Dark Matter (as I indicated in my review of 2.4 last week, Dark Matter is enriched by its inventory of 20th century popular culture),  it also brings Jason 1b to Maria's Bookstore in search of the final volume of Proust's trilogy, where he meets Maria, and we're treated to a touching falling-in-love story with all the trimmings.  That in itself is a worthy story, well acted by Angela Sarafyan and Joel Edgerton, who is especially outstanding in this episode.

Which also has just the right closer.  Jason 1b encounters the Daniela of this reality as he's shopping for food and flowers for the dinner Maria is preparing.   Daniela (of course) tells Jason 1b he's picking the wrong kind of flowers and should get roses.  Jason 1b recognizes her from the opening scene where he saw Jason 1 and Daniela 1 (and Charlie 1), and realizes he probably could have a relationship with Daniela is this new reality ... but he smiles and goes home to Maria.  A perfect ending to a perfect episode.

See also Dark Matter 2.1: Who's Who in the Infinite Bucket ... 2.2: Sam Spade Back in Action ... 2.3: Can Two Couples Be in Two Different Places at the Same Time? ... 2.4: "There's No Entrance to the Diner"

And 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 ... 1.9: Science Fiction and Horror

Dark Matter 2.4: "There's no entrance to the diner"

Nighthawks by Edward Hopper, 1942

So I'll tell you my favorite scene in Dark Matter 2.4: Charlie and Daniela looking at Edward Hopper's 1942 painting "Nighthawks", hanging in an art gallery in Chicago (it hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago in our reality).   Charlie tells her we're not supposed to connect to the people in the diner, because "there's no entrance to the diner".

Science fiction is supposed to be about science, not art.  But Ray Bradbury's celebrated The Illustrated Man, an anthology in which each story tells the tale of a different one of the 18 different tattoos on William the Illustrated Man's arm, is a notable exception, and there are others.  So the first thing that grabbed me and stayed with me about this scene is: good for Blake Crouch for including it in this episode of Dark Matter.

But disconnection, the difficulty of people to connect and relate, is a hallmark of this series, and the transcendent watermark of this episode.  Everyone is cut off from people they care about -- not because they're far away physically, but far away emotionally, separated in some cases by the chasms of alternate realities.

The Dessens are the most affected and afflicted.  Daniela still can't get over shooting the version of Jason she shot to death, and who can blame her.  I mean, the guy looked and sounded like Jason, because he was a Jason, and in shooting him Daniela inevitably killed something of the man she loved -- who, as far as we know, also loved her.

So the people in Hopper's painting capture the predominant disconnection of the people in Dark Matter.  But maybe that painting holds a ray of hope for the people in this streaming series.  The viewers of the painting, anyone outside of the diner in the painting -- we don't see any in the painting --can't connect to the people in the diner.  But ... the people sitting in the diner, the couple, the man sitting alone, the counter man behind the counter -- there's no reason they can't connect, right?  And if that's possible, maybe the same is true for the characters in Dark Matter, especially the characters who come from the same reality.

I wish there was some way to get this message to Daniela.  But, as far as I know, there is no way to directly communicate with characters on the other side of the streaming screen.  Though, come to think of it, in a way, maybe there is ...

See also Dark Matter 2.1: Who's Who in the Infinite Bucket ... 2.2: Sam Spade Back in Action ... 2.3: Can Two Couples Be in Two Different Places at the Same Time?

And 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 ... 1.9: Science Fiction and Horror

Dark Matter 2.3: Can Two Couples Be in Two Different Places at the Same Time?

That question -- can two couples be in two places at the same time -- is posted fairly early in the latest episode of Dark Matter, 2.3.  Let's look at that question more carefully.

The obvious answer is of course not, unless you're a world in which alternate realities exist.  But, actually ...

We've been in such a world ever since mass media were invented.  I mean, a photograph printed in a newspaper can be in as many realities or worlds simultaneously as the number of newspapers printed. If people are careful with their newspapers, or were talking about books, photos of people can also travel forward in time without aging too much.

But wait, a photograph of a person isn't really a person, right?  People can move and talk.  Ok, well, what about a person talking on the radio, or talking on television, or talking on a streaming service like Apple TV?   Edmund Carpenter, someone who worked with Marshall McLuhan, said when people are on television, they're like angels, which in some interpretations can be omnipresent, much like a deity.

So we can add angels to alternate realities as places where people or humanlike entities can be in more than one place, indeed an infinite number of places, at the same time.  But there's an important difference between angels and the characters we see in Dark Matter.  Those folks are certainly not angels, and some of them do some very bad things.  After all, Dark Matter is a life-and-death got-you-by-the-throat science fiction drama in just about every scene.

But angels and Dark Matter and alternate realities do have one thing common:  they're all modes of fiction, as far as we know.  See you back here next week, after we find out what happens next to the devils and angels on our screen.

See also Dark Matter 2.1: Who's Who in the Infinite Bucket ... 2.2: Sam Spade Back in Action

And 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 ... 1.9: Science Fiction and Horror

Dark Matter 2.2: Sam Spade Back in Action

Dark Matter 2.2 starts off with a nice piece of alternate history, as Jason, Daniela, and Charlie seek "A Perfect World" (title of the episode), actually a world in which they can find some relief from the chaos.  And they find a world with no Internet, smart phones, home computers, or social media -- all because Nixon beat Kennedy, and defunded NASA, and we never got to the Moon -- the race to get there in our reality having sharpened science and invention.

[More slight spoilers ahead .... ]

And the ending had a nice piece of a different kind, as we see Jason and Daniela unknowingly just across the hall of the hotel from Ryan and Amanda, one of the other couples and people making their way through the maze of alternate realities in this so-far not only exciting but conceptually rich second season.

But my favorite part of this episode is private detective (listed in the IMDb credits as "agent", though I thought I saw "Private Investigation" on his door) Mitchel MacNamara, whom Jason goes to for help, but we see at the end investigating the box that is the conduit to alternate realities.  MacNamara (played by Chris Diamantopoulos, an actor with a dossier of many roles) has a Sam Spade played by Humphrey Bogart kind of vibe, which is always welcome, but an especially good addition to this story of alternate realities with omnipresent life-and-death implications and consequences. 

And come to think of it, Sam Spade is a logical inhabitant of the technologically stifled world that Jason finds himself in -- The Maltese Falcon movie adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's 1929-1930 novel in which Bogart's Spade appeared hit theaters in 1941, a world just slightly less advanced than the place that Jason and family are hoping is a refuge.  

I really like that world in movies made at the time, and in streaming series and movies that harken back to that early media world (by our current standards).  But you know what?  I streamed Dark Matter 2.2 on my Mac Airbook last night, and I'm writing this review on that same laptop computer, and posting it on my blogs, and I like that world just fine, thank you. :)

See also Dark Matter 2.1: Who's Who in the Infinite Bucket

And 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 ... 1.9: Science Fiction and Horror

Dark Matter 2.1: Who's Who in the Infinite Bucket?

Dark Matter -- the TV series on Apple TV -- based on Blake Crouch's novel -- which Blake Crouch created -- is back for its second season.  I thought the first season was thought-provoking and excellent, all that an alternate history science fiction TV series should be.  I thought episode 2.1 was even more so.

[And there will be a few spoilers ahead ... ]

The episode starts with a great punchline, as Jason tells the police detective (Keller from the first season) before she's replaced (along with Mason, also from the first season) by some other kind of cop (who says he's not a cop), "What, is it illegal to look like a bunch of dead people?" in response to being questioned about the bevy of dead Jasons who have turned up on the tables.  No, it's probably not, but we'll soon see another dead Jason, killed by Daniela because she's sure he's not her Jason, let's call him, Jason 1. The slain Jason does seem a little more ragged than our hero, and that ring on his finger, some of what he said, but ...

All of which raises an interesting question, at least to me.  Can we be 100% sure that the Daniela who pulled the trigger is Daniela 1, and the Jason she killed is indeed not Jason 1?  I mean, I get that we're supposed to think that the Jason who shows up after Daniela pulls the trigger is her (and our primary) Jason, but how can we know for sure in a series in which doppelgangers show up everywhere, including in the song "The Quiet Life," heard early in the episode (and indeed the name of this episode), which sure sounds like it was written and performed by Leonard Cohen, when in fact it's by Teho Teardo and Blixa Bargeld?

But that's all part of the mental stretching aka deep fun that characterizes alternate realities -- that's why I read them, watch them, and write them -- and season 2 of Dark Matter looks like it will have plenty of doppelgangers in the story, additions to the seemingly infinite number of Jasons, of which the Jasons on the tables at the beginning of 2.1 are just a drop in the infinite bucket.

And I'll be back here every week with a review of every season 2 episode, which looks to be well on its way to becoming classic.

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 ... 1.9: Science Fiction and Horror

Dark Matter 1.8: A Bevy of Jasons

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

Up until Dark Matter 1.8, we had a Jason -- Jason 1 -- visiting a variety of alternate realities.  All of that flipped in 1.8, where we had an onslaught of different Jasons showing up at the worst possible times in World 1. That made for a crackling episode in which all hell broke loose.  And now we finally can see the poster for the series fulfilled.

At first, it looked like Jason 1 killed Jason 2, or maybe versa.  But we soon learned that the victim was Jason 3, or the first of a flood of Jasons, all of whom were at odds with Jason 1's understandable, transcendent desire to be back with his family -- i.e., the family that he knew, and who knew him.

Here let me just tip my hat to the bartender. He's a great science fictional character.  He no longer questions or even seems to wonder about the proliferation of Jasons who show up in his bar.  He just greets them, serves them, and takes them in all in stride.

We already know that all Jasons have a violent streak, and when competing with each other for Daniela 1 and Charlie 1, sheer violence quickly comes to the fore.   Daniela is also willing to be deadly violent to save herself and Charlie from Jason 2, and she pushes him down the basement stairs.

This season could have ended right after that, with Jason 1 finally reunited with his family.  But 1.8 is not the final episode this season -- there's one more -- and there's no way that Dark Matter could end with quite so happy an ending.

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

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

Dark Matter 1.5: The Lesson

Well, Jason 1 appears to have learned a crucial lesson in the fifth episode Dark Matter, up on Apple TV+ just a few hours ago.

And that lesson is--

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

What he needs to do in his original world -- World 1 -- is block the box off, so no one can use it.

He found this out the hard way, in which he and Amanda were treated to a succession of differing horrendous realities, as they tried to wish/will the world they were going into, into being -- which was the lesson that they and we thought we learned last week in episode 1.4.

But as the two applied that logic -- the world-creating power of a feeling (B. J. Thomas's "Hooked on a Feeling" would have worked well here, though his "Rock 'n' Roll Lullaby" is such an outstanding record) -- Jason 1 and Amanda found the worlds they entered were flooded, wracked by a deadly plague, and last but not least a world in which the analog of Jason 1 was in prison, presumably convicted for some kind of terrible crime.  So Jason 1, now -- presumably -- back in World 1, says he needs to wall it off.

This of course will prevent far more than Jason 1 and Amanda not being able to use the box in the alternate realities any more.  It will mean that everyone currently in World 1 will be stuck there.  Including Jason 2. Which means that Jason 1 will have to share his bed with Daniela 1 and Jason 2?

That would be a pretty rough world for both Jasons, right?  Which means, what?  That once Jason 2 got through the box/room into World 1, everyone's life in the infinity of worlds was in one way or another worse than it was before?

I'm not sure.  But I certainly don't hold out much prospect for a happy ending in this fascinating, complex story.

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

Dark Matter 1.4: The Multiverse Unveiled

A highly informative episode 1.4 of Dark Matter up on Apple TV+ today, as Jason 1 and Amanda make their way through "The Corridor" (the title of this episode) and therein partake of the doors to the multiverse.

And I have to say that my favorite spoken line in this episode is when Jason tells Amanda that the entire corridor with its doors don't really exist, they are rather the result of their human minds struggling to make a little sense of a reality that the human mind cannot comprehend.  The only thing missing in this astute observation was that the true conduit(s) to the universes Jason and Amanda were accessing were the thing-in-itself, which Immanuel Kant realized the human intellect could never comprehend.

Kant made that observation in the 1700s (in our universe).  Jason 1 also draws upon a fundamental principle of quantum mechanics, which of course brings us to the 1900s, and underlies all of Dark Matter. That principle is that the mere observation of a subatomic particle can change it.  Jason explains that he and Amanda can get to the alternate reality they seek by merely clearly thinking about that reality.  This QM on the macro-level has been a staple of lots of science fiction, and Dark Matter is parlaying it very effectively.

Indeed, Jason goes on to explain that his kidnapping that launched this narrative was the result of Jason 2 figuring out in which alternate universe Jason 1 was residing, because Jason 2 wanted to give Jason 1 some of the pleasure of having Jacob 2's accomplishments as a world-famous scientist -- actually, not figuring it out, but envisioning it in some intense way, and thereby finding and identifying the door into that reality.  Since the multiverse consists of all possible realities, which in practice is an infinite number of places, this QM way of locating the place that you want to visit is a good thing to have on hand.

And Dark Matter, as of its fourth episode, is a very good thing.  It's rare to find philosophy woven so well into a thriller, inside a corridor with so many tempting and dangerous doors.

See also Dark Matter 1.1-1.2: Break-Neck Action and Philosophic Contemplation ... 1.3 Missing Fingers

the corridors under Fordham University figure in this novel ...

Dark Matter 1.3: Missing Fingers

Just saw Dark Matter 1.3, the third episode of what I'd call the interchanging alternate reality series on Apple TV+.  I thought it was excellent.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

Dark Matter 1.2 ended with the shocking murder of Daniela 2 in Jason 1's reality -- that is, not the Jason who actually built the full-size superimposition box/room that makes shifts into alternate realities possible -- and this in effect is an announcement that this story, or at least some of the characters in it, really mean business.  Their motives are still not clear by the end of the third episode, but Dawn losing a few of her fingers as she tries to stop Jason 1 and Amanda after firing a gun at them confirms that this narrative means business indeed.

The loss of the fingers also serves another important purpose.  We're told that four characters in World 2 entered the box/room, and, who knows, there could be more.   We'll at least now know immediately that if Dawn suddenly shows up in World 1 with missing fingers, she's actually Dawn 2.

But lest you think that Dark Matter is all quantum mechanics and gore, there's also some nicer clever touches in 1.3  My favorite is the guess who's coming to dinner party in World 1, in which Jason 2 struggles to know who everyone is and what they do -- using an iPhone to help (of course it's an iPhone, the series is on Apple TV+) -- and Ryan 1 tells Jason 2 that he's looking good (which he should -- award-winning scientists probably do live and look at least a little better than their harried professor counterparts).

Dark Matter continues to be philosophically provocative, hard hitting, and we can now add, suitably wry. More than enough for me to eagerly continue to watch.

See also Dark Matter 1.1-1.2: Break-Neck Action and Philosophic Contemplation

Dark Matter 1.1-1.2: Break-Neck Action and Philosophic Contemplation

Dark Matter, the first two episodes of which debuted on Apple TV+ today, is the third alternate reality narrative I've seen on the screen in the past month (see my reviews of Quantum Suicide, a film created by Gerrit Van Woudenberg which should be streaming on some major app by the Fall, and Constellation, another series on Apple TV+).  All three bounce off the at-once famous and infamous Schrödinger's cat.  Quantum Suicide has the feel of Primer and the work-at-home scientist.  Dark Matter, as of the first two episodes, has a similar feel.  And I'm beginning to think I don't want to think about these matters too hard, because the more I think about them, the more I think it's possible that I could be in an alternate reality myself, right now.  But, hey, I'm so dedicated to doing this review, that I'll risk it, anyway.

[Some spoilers ahead ... ]

One thing that makes Dark Matter, adapted by Blake Crouch from his novel of the same name published in 2015 (which I haven't read), different from the many other alternate realities that I've encountered on pages and screens is that the two versions of the lead character Jason, once the story gets going, share the same knowledge of themselves and the alternate worlds they inhabit, up to a point.  Or, to be more precise, the two versions of Jason have switched realities -- for some reason we do not yet know -- and each quickly learns about their new reality, while retaining knowledge of their original reality before the time that their original reality split in two.  

We also are beginning to understand that the fork in this particular double reality happened 15 years earlier, when Jason had to make a decision about how he felt about his girlfriend Daniela's pregnancy.  Our story begins in the present, with Jason and Daniela happily married, with Charlie their 15-year-old son.  Before too long, Jason is kidnapped and ends up in an alternate reality in which Jason didn't want to be a father, Daniela had an abortion, and they're living separate lives.  As the two episodes unfold, with an appealing mix of break-neck action and philosophical contemplation, we find the Jasons beginning to struggle with the question: In one reality, he's a happily married father, but he and Daniela have lackluster careers.  In the other reality, Jason is a pathbreaking, enormously successful physicist and Daniela a famous artist, but neither has much of a personal life.  Which life will/would Jason choose?  That is, assuming Jason has the power to now make such a choice.

I'll definitely be watching every episode of this new series, and posting reviews here as appropriate.

See also 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 ... 1.9: Science Fiction and Horror