Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Darkhas become this multidimensional, nonlinear narrative, with lots of paradoxical situations and story loops.
Jantje Friese:Its more confusing with the props than with the characters.
The thing is, its only one machine, it just comes with different patina levels.
Sometimes its older or younger or broken, but its only one machine.
And thats where people get confused.
No, its the same machine!
Its just another language.
So its more of an intuitive process?
And the less they understand.
We get this question a lot, people imagining we have Post-Its everywhere.
But that doesnt help, we tried.
The more complex you get in the show, the easier you have to get in the writers room.
Do you find yourself engaging with fans who think they found plot holes?
Jantje Friese: We very strongly feel that art should not be explained.
As long asweunderstand and know the logic behind it and we dont fool ourselves, were fine.
And maybe it will take time for some people to understand why something isnt a plot hole after all.
I think discussing such things takes the mystery away, and its supposed to be an adventure.
You are supposed to wrap your head around it and take a stab at figure out how this works.
And if you need secondary literature great!
Jantje Friese: Its like I said:Weneed to know whats happening.
Baran Bo Odar: But of course there are plot holes.
Jantje Friese: Which ones, yo?
Baran Bo Odar: There will be.
One day well find one.
Jantje Friese: So far I think were doing okay.
Or are you just worried that you missed something?
Baran Bo Odar: The second thing.
There will be something we have missed.
Jantje Friese: I think we will manage to avoid that.
Well find a way.
As a viewer, at some point you feel overwhelmed by all those logic puzzles and timelines.
For the length of an episode, the show is about teenagers and their families again.
Was that a deliberate decision to give viewers a pause from the complex narrative?
I just like the rhythm of that.
Baran Bo Odar: Though the episode still answers and raises a lot of big questions!
Absolutely, the last ten minutes are quite central to the time-travel story.
Lets see how we get the story to this point.
I thought about that when I was watching your show.
You always know where your character ends up, because weve already met their future selves.
Isnt that a whole different way of storytelling?
It actually gets quite easy if you already have seen the end of a character.
Was that surprising to you?
Jantje Friese: Its because human behavior is just such a strange thing.
We could put a big sign before the show saying, Its a deterministic world!
Nothings going to change!
Because we all want to believe that we have free will.
And thats just such a big, big, big energy driver.
You just want it to happen.
Thats why you still root for them, and you still wait for this world to change.
And you know what?
We dont know yet.
Baran Bo Odar: I dont think so.
Its a deterministic world.
Jantje Friese: Well see.
Is this some irrational hope they stick to?
Jantje Friese: They think they know how this works but they dont.
They are still human.
They will never be able to overcome their inner longings, their ego.
They would need to completely crash their ego structure to get a grasp of it.
We keep it ambivalent.
And it can go both ways.
But I wont tell you whether theres hope or a silver lining in the end.
Why do you think time travel is such a big thing in storytelling right now?
Baran Bo Odar: Its really an interesting question.
Why is time travel such a thing now?
WhenMatrixcame out, there were a lot of stories that questioned reality.
Is this real or not?
Thats now less of a question.
Now time travel is more of a thing in pop culture.
What does it stand for?
Is it because we hope to change things we already have messed up, like climate change?
I really dont know.
