If you were given the option of being dropped into a different version of your life, one that addresses the “what ifs” you might have about your current live, would you do it? Probably not. But what would happen if you didn’t have a choice? That’s the idea of a new Apple sci fi series.
DARK MATTER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A man turns a flashlight on, opens a pair of heavy doors and walks through a dark, industrial-looking room.
The Gist: Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton) wakes up next to his wife Daniela (Jennifer Connelly), and as they and their teenage son Charlie (Oakes Fegley) get ready for their day, we see a glimpse at the family dynamic: Everyone gets along, and even after a couple of decades of marriage, Jason and Daniella still have passion for each other.
As Jason lets Charlie drive to school through the streets of Chicago, he gets a call from his friend Ryan Holder (Jimmi Simpson), who just won a prestigious science award, and he wants to celebrate. Jason and Ryan used to work together, but some time ago Jason chose stability and family life, a decision he has no small amount of regret about. He’s a physics professor at a suburban college, teaching only partially-engaged students. He goes to a storage area to log his day and conduct some sort of experiment involving purple liquid and lots of cell phones.
When Daniela encourages Jason to go to the bar near their house to celebrate with Ryan, his friend tells him that he’s starting a new research company and he wants Jason to be a part of it. Jason wants to be back to “making stuff” again, but he says, “my life is here.” But he says he’ll ask Daniela and walks out.
On his way home, Jason is held at gunpoint by a man in a mask who tells him to get in an SUV and drive to a desolate factory. The man seems to know a lot about Jason’s life, and Jason seems to be somewhat unsurprised at this person’s presence. Jason is drugged and told to change clothes. As he slips into unconsciousness, the masked man asks, “Are you happy with your life?” When Jason admits that he isn’t, then the masked man tells him that he can make what he’s going to wake up into work for him. He needs Jason to accept it “for both of us.”
When Jason wakes up, he goes through decontamination then quarantine. He’s then questioned by Amanda Lucas (Alice Braga), a woman he’s never seen before but seems to be familiar with him, and Leighton Vance (Dayo Okeniyi), whom he hasn’t seen in years. He is apparently a co-founder of a company called Velocity Labs. They’re looking to see what his experiences were at some nebulous place that only he has come back from. Of course, Jason has no idea who he is or what they’re talking about.
Agitated and scared, he manages to escape the building, and as everyone chases him, he goes back to his house, looking for Daniela and Charlie. Only they’re not there; in fact, there’s no sign of them. Amanda, who arrives at the house, tells him that he’s not married and that they live there together.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Plots where people find that their lives have changed or are at least slightly different have been in vogue lately. Constellation, also on Apple, has a plot like this.
Our Take: Dark Matter, adapted by Blake Crouch from his own novel, isn’t trying to hide exactly what it’s about in its first episode. The man in the mask that abducts and drugs Jason makes references to make us think that the person behind that mask is Jason himself, or at least a version of him, and then when Jason returns home to Daniela, we know it’s not the Jason that left.
What we’re trying to say is that Crouch and his writers aren’t trying to confuse the viewers. As far as science fiction stories like this go, it’s a refreshing approach. Yes, there are two Jasons in what seems like two parallel universes, but the exchange they have in that warehouse point to the regret both of them have. One Jason regrets sidelining his career to settle down into family life, while the other… well, we’re not quite sure what his regrets are. But he somehow manages to cross dimensions to replace the Jason he drugged, and sent him to a universe he no longer wants to be in.
Regret seems to be the theme of Dark Matter, but it’s regret that’s the type that gnaws away at a person bit by bit instead of being out front and obvious. From what we’ve seen, both Jason and Daniela love the lives they’ve built. But they both have these little voices that wonder if they can change direction ever so slightly. Daniela, a gallery owner, runs triathlons, and Jason runs experiments from his storage unit.
Will those regrets get bigger or smaller as Jason traverses universes to get back to his own, and Daniela figures out that the Jason in front of her isn’t her Jason? That’s going to be the crux of the series. Edgerton does a good job of showing both Jasons’ motivations. The Jason who gets abducted is completely confused about what has happened, to the point where the confusion genuinely scares him. But the Jason who takes his places is absolutely worn down from the life he left, and hungers for what the life he’s entering will give him. For her part, Connelly is playing more than the dutiful wife, and the fact that this version of her — and others — will either help or hinder the original Jason will be intriguing to watch.
Sex and Skin: Again, there’s a lot of passion between Jason and Daniela, but when the replacement Jason arrives, there is a lot of passion.
Parting Shot: As replacement Jason makes love to Daniela, she sees a bandage on his arm. When she asks, he responds, “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” a phrase he’s said before.
Sleeper Star: We like watching Jimmi Simpson in anything he does, but we wonder what role his character Ryan plays in this breach of the multiverse.
Most Pilot-y Line: We rolled our eyes when we saw that Daniela owned (or at least managed) an art gallery. It feels like a high percentage of upper-middle-class women on TV own art galleries, don’t they?
Our Call: STREAM IT. The first episode of Dark Matter sets up a story that has a lot of science fiction intrigue, but makes it clear that it’s more about the regrets of the people in its story than about the science itself.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
