Okay, so I'm just gonna go out on a limb here and assume that you are completely familiar with every character and storyline from Netflix's Dark as attempting to recap it would as you well know impossible (if you need a quick refresh, check out this guide by Digital Spy). Also, there are lots of spoilers in the following article, so don't read on if you haven't already watched.
I was watching Netflix's Dark. A dreamlike sci-fi-ish drama with time travel, crime, and a mysterious age-proof priest.
I had really enjoyed it. I'd watched faithfully through every (sometimes confusing) plot twist, character addition, and time jump, and that's when I got to the last 2 episodes. At that point, I should have seen it coming. My dad had warned me during the previous episode.
But I refused to see the the fact that the characters' actions and story-lines were starting to unravel at the seams, because I had such trust in the fact that it would all come together, like it had throughout the rest of the series.
However, from the moment Jonas woke up in some post-apocalyptic future, I realised I was thoroughly disappointed.
You're probably wondering why, so let me explain.
Before roughly episode 8, Dark had been really good.
There was a lot of intricacy in the way each character related to their past and future selves as well as in the story-line as a whole.
At first it could be somewhat flummoxing, but because Dark took its time with the character development and wasn't afraid to abruptly bring an episode to a stop (and directly continue it in the next episode), it worked, it really did.
Yes you had to put a bit of effort in to keep up with the various complexities, but they gave you enough to develop this kind of trust, that even when things became a bit overwhelming, the plot would always resolve itself.
Which takes me back to that ending. Honestly, I thought it was a bit of a cop-out. It was rushed, and some aspects were just downright confusing. Not good confusing, just confusing.
Several citizens of Winden started doing things that were out of character (take that last scene with Hannah for example - why was she sitting there staring at a gun? I know she's slightly unhinged but it didn't seem like anything even a crazy her would do), we had these little side plots that didn't seem to relate to anything at all and weren't further addressed (like the aforementioned priest, and his conversation with Bartosz), and finally, we had that journey to 2052.
Really, a nuclear wasteland? They took all this time mapping out an intricate time travel story whilst managing to keep it quite realistic only to plunge itself into the predictable and unbelievable apocalypse route?
It made me wonder why they bothered with the previous episodes at all.
I hadn't come to watch the show for video game graphic black holes or helicopters, I'd come for a dark (excuse my pun) fantastical mystery about twisting time, kidnappings, and the intertwined relationships of a small German town.
I would have been completely satisfied with it (regardless of previous plot-holes) should it have instead ended when older Jonas told teenage Jonas, "I am you". The show needed more time, perhaps in season 2, and I was willing to give it.
I'd rather have been left on a cliff hanger than given a rushed (and slightly worn out) end-of-world reason for everything that was happening.
That's not to say that I hated Dark. I didn't. I'm still glad I watched it, and will probably be back for season 2. But I simply wished that it had been brave enough to leave us hanging, like at the end of Spanish thriller La Casa De Papel's first season.