# '1899', new Netflix show from the makers of 'Dark'. Anyone watching? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** netflix\ **Created:** [November 18, 2022, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143 "2022-11-18T13:25:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143/21 "2022-11-21T00:04:58Z")
I’m in the second episode now and may give up until I hear from others in this thread if it’s worth it. _Dark_ had IMHO been a fun ride but ended without answering many of the questions. It wasn’t a big enough payoff for the effort of keeping all those interconnections straight. This so far almost seems like a self parody of the overly ominous stylistics. A letter signed “your brother”? Really? Someone swims from one ship to the other and the magical beetle is safely still unharmed in his open pocket? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143/22 "2022-11-21T00:20:21Z")
My wife and I are four episodes in and our guess is below. I’ll spoiler box it even though it is a pure guess. Virtual reality experiment? They aren’t in 1899 and this is not happening. Maybe the little boy is a computer program and the guy from the Prometheus is one of the scientists running an experiment. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143/23 "2022-11-21T00:21:46Z")
Finished it, as has my daughter. Won’t spoil it. I’m starting watching again with my girlfriend, my daughter is watching again with her husband. Strongly recommend. ETA: really wow. Never expected the twists. But maybe I’m slow. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143/24 "2022-11-21T03:44:29Z")
I watched the entire thing today( perfect for a dark, stormy day). I can’t say enough about the production value, with the exception of some of the wave/ storm CGI. I see some here and elsewhere think it was a bit too slow and I can understand that. I enjoy that but even I can see how this could be considered a little too slow. Without getting too spoilery, I went from completely engaged to lost the plot by EP. 6. Perhaps when more have seen it someone can clarify for me. Even though it went a bit more sci-fi than I usually consume I really enjoyed it. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143/25 "2022-11-21T13:45:05Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > My wife and I are four episodes in and our guess is below. I’ll spoiler box it even though it is a pure guess. That’s about where Mrs. solost and I are at now as well. I think your spoilered guess is on the right track since at the end of ep. 3 they revealed the guests on the ship being viewed on a number of TV monitors. The B/W TV monitors and the wooden panel they were set into looked old-fashioned as well though, so perhaps some Steampunk-style virtual reality experiment? ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143/26 "2022-11-21T16:15:44Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Strongly recommend. Given the recommendations I’ve been sticking with it. Just finished ep 7. It’s been fun enough in a goofy takes itself too seriously sort of way. Can’t agree with the strong recommendations though. Her “father” reminds me of the father in The Umbrella Academy and the whole resets after they destroy the world again concept seems reminiscent too. Without the characters having powers of course. Or the overt comedy. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143/27 "2022-11-21T17:13:38Z")
I like this show four episodes in and loved _Dark_. Though I found myself frequently hitting the pause button so my very slow brain could recap who was who in the scenes I was watching. I believe _Dark_ went back in time for three or four generations with characters from later gens in the confusing mix. A discussion thread at another board was very helpful in addressing my many, many questions. Many questions. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2022, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143/28 "2022-11-26T01:55:28Z")
I’m on the 7th(of 8) episodes and it is a really good show, though I am now wondering if this is intended to have a second season or if this is a miniseries with just these episodes. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2022, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143/29 "2022-11-26T03:34:28Z")
The ending seems well set up for a possible second series, but if so it can hardly be anything like the setting of the first … ! ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2022, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143/30 "2022-11-26T03:43:23Z")
We just finished it and yes, it looks like they are open to the second series. I kind of hope they get one. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2022, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143/31 "2022-11-26T14:45:54Z")
I just sat through a second viewing, this time with my gf. She liked it. Looking back I would have liked it more if things progressed more slowly. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2022, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143/32 "2022-11-28T16:28:33Z")
OK, so I finished it. I mostly liked it. I mostly understand everything about the plot. I will now share what I know and ask questions about what I still don’t understand. At first I didn’t quite get what the deal was with Maura’s son. At one point she says to him “this is the only way we can be together”. Reading a spoiler site, I found out a key detail I had missed: Maura and Daniel’s son died and they uploaded his consciousness into a simulation, their first simulation, which was the underground bunker that was the simulated son’s bedroom or playroom. So the original point of the simulation was to be able to still be together with their son, at least a simulated version of him. But I still don’t get what the whole deal was with the repeating simulation on board the seagoing ship in 1899. I get that, while Maura was in the simulation, and her memory had been blocked or erased, her brother Ciaran had taken over the simulation. So, apparently many of the 1500-odd passengers on the spaceship Prometheus were put into the same simulation and their memories were wiped as well, so that they actually thought they were seagoing passengers in 1899. But to what purpose? Some sort of social experiment? Maura’s father said at one point “they keep letting emotion get in the way and make the same mistakes”. He was as much a prisoner of the simulation as Maura, but seemed to have no memory loss and understand what was actually happening. Apparently the first mate kills Eyck in the last episode, for real. Does that mean all the passengers who jumped overboard earlier in the show all died in real life as well, Matrix-style? Or was that just a “game over” for the passengers in suspended animation? Or were those passengers in the 1899 simulations not actually real spaceship passengers but the equivalent of “Non-Player Characters”? And what was the point of that lemming-like die-off when they all tranced out and jumped overboard? Was that a side effect of Daniel hacking the code? I don’t know if he had even started hacking by that point yet. I’m not sure if I missed key details, or some of these questions may still be unanswered in season one. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2023, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143/33 "2023-01-02T22:04:02Z")
It will not be continuing, by the way. > **[‘1899’ Canceled by Netflix After One Season](https://www.indiewire.com/2023/01/1899-netflix-canceled-season-1-1234795600/)** > > The series from the creators of “Dark” premiered its first-and-only season this November. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2023, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143/34 "2023-01-03T17:31:45Z")
That’s a shame. I didn’t enjoy it as much as Dark; I think it got a little too try-hard with the “mind-bending puzzlebox mystery” stuff. I still have questions as to what exactly was going on with the whole steamship simulation thing, which I don’t know if I missed the answer to or they were going to be revealed next season. But the reveal that they were on a spaceship might have made for an interesting season 2. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2023, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143/35 "2023-01-05T08:40:41Z")
So I guess that means in the future just don’t bother with first seasons of original content, and instead look forward to season 5 of _Star Wars: Cantina Band_, about the ongoing struggle of five intrepid musicians to finally learn a new song. 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2023, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143/36 "2023-01-06T01:12:56Z")
I guess I’m in the minority but when I saw the end of the last episode, I just assumed that that was the end of it. I honestly thought that I had read (before the season even started) that there was only going to be 1 season. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2023, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143/37 "2023-01-06T01:34:34Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > I guess I’m in the minority but when I saw the end of the last episode, I just assumed that that was the end of it. I honestly thought that I had read (before the season even started) that there was only going to be 1 season It was filmed to be open to a continuation or a conclusion. I was OK in principle of it being one season, but was kind of hoping for some more. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2023, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143/38 "2023-01-06T02:05:23Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > > [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > > > I guess I’m in the minority but when I saw the end of the last episode, I just assumed that that was the end of it. I honestly thought that I had read (before the season even started) that there was only going to be 1 season > > It was filmed to be open to a continuation or a conclusion. I was OK in principle of it being one season, but was kind of hoping for some more… As convoluted as “Dark” ended up being, I’m a little relieved that there’s not another season. But I eagerly await to see what the creators come up with next. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2023, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143/39 "2023-01-06T02:28:15Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > As convoluted as “Dark” ended up being, I’m a little relieved that there’s not another season. But I eagerly await to see what the creators come up with next. Yes, I hope Netflix lets them do another show. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2023, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143/40 "2023-01-10T15:55:48Z")
I was fine with the ending presented. The ending got too convoluted anyway, the beginning and middle were the best parts. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-new-netflix-show-from-the-makers-of-dark-anyone-watching/975143.md?page=3)