Sci Fi Series Dark Matter 2015 Compared to Apple Show

Recently, many people have recommended that I watch Dark Matter, the second season of which premiered in August on Apple TV. The first couple of times it happened, I was confused, as I had already seen Dark Matter and it had gone off the air almost a decade ago. Did someone revive it?

As it turns out, the two shows named Dark Matter have nothing to do with one another. The first one, which aired from 2015 to 2017, is another entry in Syfy’s lineup of canceled cult classics, and at the time of writing, it is on the verge of becoming lost media. If you enjoy space operas, sci-fi Westerns, or scumbag mercenaries, it is worth seeing if you can find at least the first season of the first Dark Matter.

The first two episodes of Dark Matter (2015) are adapted from a 2012 Dark Horse comic of the same name. The show opens with six random strangers waking up from stasis aboard a starship that is already in flight. None of them remember their names or history, but they retain their individual skills and areas of expertise. About 10 minutes later, they learn that, whoever they were, someone is trying to kill them all.

Without any better plans, they rename themselves according to the order in which they woke up from stasis—One, Two, Three, and so on—and set out to find answers. They quickly learn that almost all of them are wanted criminals, which raises a question. Do they start new lives in an attempt to atone for what their past selves did, or do they continue being outlaws?

If you did not catch Dark Matter on Syfy, you might have seen it on Netflix a couple of years after it initially aired. There was a short period when Netflix felt like it was being aggressively invaded by Canadian fantasy and science fiction, with a bunch of other exported shows like Continuum, Bitten, Lost Girl, and Aftermath all appearing on the service at roughly the same time.

As with the other shows in that particular wave, it is hard to shake the impression that Dark Matter was a deliberate attempt to appeal to fans of another franchise. Specifically, it belongs in the same lane as Firefly, as two shows about space outlaws struggling to survive in a deeply hostile universe. You can even draw a couple of direct character parallels, particularly between Two, played by Melissa O’Neil from The Rookie, and Firefly character River Tam, played by Summer Glau.

Having said that, Dark Matter has a harder edge than Firefly ever did. Firefly, like Joss Whedon’s other shows, was often carried by its dialogue, whereas Dark Matter runs on its central mystery. None of these characters have any reason to trust or even particularly like one another, and every detail they learn about who they used to be further complicates an already volatile situation.

The biggest issue Dark Matter might have is that, starting in the second season, it introduces a multiversal twist. This immediately makes an elaborate storyline about twice as complex as it needed to be. It is not quite the moment in which Dark Matter jumps the shark, but it is when you might want to start keeping notes. Suddenly everyone is playing at least two characters at once, and it can be a little hard to follow.

Dark Matter never got the ending it deserved

In its heyday, Dark Matter was reportedly one of the more successful shows on Syfy, and the third season marked a serious escalation of its stakes. Then Syfy pulled the plug before season four, and Dark Matter ended on a major cliffhanger.

According to its co-creator Joseph Mallozzi, who also worked on Stargate SG-1, the decision to cancel Dark Matter appeared to be purely financial on Syfy’s part. It was not actually a Syfy original series, but had been acquired from Canada’s Space channel. As an acquisition, Syfy was not paying as much per episode for Dark Matter, but it also could not monetize the show on the back end. Looking at the history of Syfy’s various series, it is frankly a miracle that Dark Matter made it to three seasons in the first place.

That means any recommendation for Dark Matter has to come with qualifications. It is unfinished, and at the time of writing, Mallozzi’s attempts to secure another way to complete the story do not seem to have worked out. He has since moved on to make other shows like Utopia Falls. In a blog post, Mallozzi explained what would have happened in Dark Matter season 4, providing some sense of closure.

Further, there do not appear to be any legitimate ways to watch Dark Matter online, and only the first season is readily available on DVD. Fortunately, fans of the show have kept bootlegs in circulation, so it is not as hard to find as you might think.

If you do track it down, Dark Matter (2015) is a nicely grimy space opera built around a series of plot twists and uncomfortable redemption arcs. It is worth a watch, and more importantly, it deserves an actual conclusion. If you read this, Mallozzi, please consider making another Dark Matter comic, if nothing else.

Source: Polygon