REVIEW: Dark Matter – Season One [2024]

Rating: TV-MA | Episodes: 9 | Runtime: 60 minutes
Release Date: May 8th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Apple TV+
Creator(s): Blake Crouch / Blake Crouch (novel)

Life’s about who you share it with, right?

Blake Crouch’s trajectory in Hollywood almost seems like one built by a scenario of cultivated correct decisions similar to that of his “Dark Matter” lead character Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton). Authors often get shutout of the creative process once their stories are optioned and yet here he is going from seeing “Wayward Pines” adapted by Chad Hodge to working with Hodge to co-create a series based on Good Behavior (The Letty Dobesh Chronicles) to showrunning this latest project all by himself. All that in just ten years too. Maybe he too went into the “box” to select his optimal universe.

Not that Jason does so willingly. No, the version we know as “the hero” in the novel and series is kidnapped and sent on this adventure under extreme duress. Why? Because he made the choice to build a life with Daniela (Jennifer Connelly) and start a family that included their son Charlie (Oakes Fegley). And he did so at the cost of his scientific dream to physically put objects into the so-called “superposition” state. Jumping off Schrödinger’s cat, existing in this state would put you at the precipice of an infinite number of results. While the cat is both alive and dead, the door to Jason’s theoretical box opens on both the world it was created in and every other adjacent world in which it could have been created.

That’s where the science goes well beyond my head since, unlike a time travel film like Primer where an alternate “machine” is set up and running from day one to ensure the characters can go back to the start, I truly don’t understand how the box is able to open into worlds that don’t already have their own box. That the box “travels” with the travelers seems implausible and the topic is never addressed in the show. But we’re talking about science fiction. A little suspension of disbelief is hardly unforgivable—especially when a smarter person (or, feasibly, someone who read the book, assuming Crouch went into detail there) might have the answer. So, I just went with it since “Dark Matter” is about the characters, not the machine.

Jason #1 is kidnapped by Jason #2—a version of himself that chose his career over Daniela. The latter justifies the crime by believing his boredom and regret would be reciprocated. If he chose science only to regret it and want to go back, couldn’t Jason #1 have grown to regret choosing family? Here he is teaching kids in a university who barely listen to his lectures while his best friend (Jimmi Simpson’s Ryan Holder) wins prestigious awards en route to securing millions in funding for a new project. Maybe Jason #1 would want to live the high-pressure and high-reward life of his counterpart. If only love wasn’t also in the mix.

The show is thus at its core about Jason #1 trying to get back to his real world and stop Jason #2 from taking over his life. Both sides of the equation find their suspense in the fact that these dual leads “don’t belong.” Eventually Daniela and Charlie will grow suspicious of this man that doesn’t quite act like the Jason they know. And eventually Jason (with help from Alice Braga’s Amanda Lucas) will find his way back into the box to jump between universes in search of “home.” This is where we see just how different these two are at the same time as realizing they’re practically identical. Both will do anything and everything to achieve their goals. But one does so through the filter of empathy. The other via self-interest.

It’s a high concept premise that knows how to leave the gimmick in the background as scaffolding so the characters can take flight between the lines. The pacing is a huge part of this as my initial assumptions for where the show was headed after the pilot more or less come to fruition during the first three episodes. With a huge shocker of a cliffhanger early on, however, I realized just how big the scope of this thing would go. Crouch could have kept things small (and maybe he should have shaved off another episode or two of the nine he presents), but instead lets us live in these circumstances and the far-reaching ripples that result. He lets us see multiple versions of everyone to flesh out his theme of choice.

No one benefits more from this than Dayo Okeniyi since his very stoic and stern Leighton Vance can be a bit stifling at the start. To give him the opportunity to really let loose with another version of the character later proves a great showcase of his talents. We get a little of that via Amanda Brugel’s Blair too. And a little via Simpson … although his character is unfortunately written more as a device than a three-dimensional person, one that leads to some loose ends and conveniences that Crouch mostly avoids with the others. His Ryan becomes a pawn so Connelly, Edgerton, and Braga (who is my show MVP) can shine.

The effects are great as the box opens onto devastated (in big and small ways) worlds and the emotions are always high as new personal revelations gradually drive a wedge between Daniela and Jason #2 while new conceptual revelations bring Jason #1 closer to his goal. And anyone who knows the aforementioned Primer shouldn’t be surprised with the bonkers chaos of the penultimate episode and an inevitability you might not initially realize. It leads to some thrilling moments as well as a huge increase in violence as we approach the endgame. Yes, it gets pretty silly at times too, but never enough to derail the underlying motives. With a satisfyingly believable conclusion, we receive a winner from start to finish.