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DARK/WEB, Chapter 7 Minor Spoilers
7th and Penultimate Chapter. My 7th review in 7 days.
This review will contain spoilers for earlier episodes and minor spoilers for this episode (episodes are called Chapters), so be warned. Go back to menu or click PILOT if you want to read an introduction to the series.
Who is watching through the computer screen?
I’ll say a little about the structure of the series at this point.
- Short stories, written by Molly are clues that will help her friends find her. All of the stories are dramatized on screen. This image, for example, is from one of the Molly’s stories called Viral. Nearly every chapter features one of Molly’s stories. About 15 minutes of screentime in Chapter 7 puts the audience in the world of Viral.
- All of Molly’s stories are dark, some are pure horror and very gruesome. I almost stopped watching this series after Chapter 2 because of it. Kim Rider, who has read all or most of Molly’s stories as they were online dating, says that Molly uses stories to work out the darkness in her own life.
- There are a variety of interesting filming techniques in DARK/WEB. I’ll highlight one. Notice the image posted above with words across the character’s face. These are words of a screenplay being typed by this particular film student, as she sits at her computer. She is the main character in Viral. This view through the computer into the scene has been used throughout the series and gives that creepy feeling that someone is watching from inside or beyond our screens. The audience sees what is taking place, but the characters don’t and we don’t know who is watching…that is unnerving and puts the audience on edge, exactly what the story creators want.
- Viral is a story about cyberbullying. The audience understands that unfortunately, cyberbullying takes place in real life. This story may be fictional, but it hits close enough to home to bring about reflections of human cruelty and evil, evil that exists in seemingly normal, everyday people. Looking at cyberbullying headon is horrific and not everyone’s cup of tea. As I indicated above, I almost stopped watching after chapter 2. Viral was also hard to watch.
The story creators of DARK/WEB have given their series this title for a reason. It is documented that the secret and more anonymous world of the dark web exists and exhibits the worst side of humanity. If you are squeamish or needing something more uplifting as entertainment, please be warned. We all know that there are many good people in our world (and that even the “evil” people have potential for redemption…at least I believe that) and most of us hope that the good will ultimately triumph over evil by the tale’s end. We will see…
DARK/WEB Chapter 6, No Spoiler Review
6th post in 6 days…
Major backstory episode for the larger story arc, which I appreciated. It was the right time to give the audience more reveals. This review will have spoilers of the previous Chapters. For an introduction to the series and no spoilers, click the Pilot.
Pictured is Zach Sullivan before he has his mental break. In chapter 4, he is visited by Ethan in the mental hospital, so the audience meets him well after this scene with Molly. One suspects something bad went down at the job because in the hospital, he freaks out when a phone is brought near him. He and Molly were colleagues at Citadel, the computer/systems security company. Somehow, all roads are leading to Citadel…or are they?
Molly and Zach rely on one another for help with coding (actually…Molly may be the smarter of the two, though Zach has been at the company longer). As they lunch together at work, Zach and another coder tell Molly about Citadel’s secret project called MIHR. Zach is applying for a new job in the company and is hoping he will make the MIHR team.
Zach does get promoted and he does write code related to MIHR. He also stops having friendly lunches with Molly and appears exhausted and unkempt. Eventually, when Zach needs her help in solving another coding issue, she and we encounter MIHR.
This chapter is not gruesome and gives the audience a chance to know Molly better, the character at the center of the mystery.
DARK/WEB, Chapter 5 A No Spoiler Review
EAT. PREY. LOVE.
New interesting character introduced in this episode. Her name is Kim Rider, she is an online friend/love interest of Molly Solis’. (This involves the 8 chapter story arc, not the individual stories).
Kim Rider
My review is the 5th in 5 days, well, almost…I took Sunday off. If you have not read my introduction to this series, I highly recommend you read my first posts, all four, but especially read the 1st one. Click Pilot.
Rider is helpful in explaining the overall arc of the series. She is connected with Molly Solis, emotionally/relationally and also happens to be fluent in computer hacking and understands a little more of what Molly was dealing with right before she disappeared. Rider becomes a teaching character, someone who can explain a couple of mysteries and ask better questions. She’s also lovely, black and British.
The story that Molly’s group of friends encounter is itself another gruesome tale. You can judge by the title which is the first line of this post.
Now that Kim and Molly’s high school friends, Ethan, Sam and James are together on the scene of Molly’s home in Texas, there is finally a concerted effort to figure out how Molly is in trouble. Sometimes this setup feels a little cheesy and contrived, but there are a few real and funny moments.
Also, I need to note:
This episode includes gore and even though it isn’t super explicit, the suggestion is true horror.
DARK/WEB No Spoiler Review of Chapter 4
8 posts of 8 episodes in 8 days.
DARK/WEB is an Amazon Prime series. Here is my overview of the pilot. To read, click Chapter 1.
I have watched half way through DARK/WEB. Chapter 4 furthers the overall narrative arc. Zach Sullivan is visited by Molly Solis’ friends. They also go to visit her house in TX. She had been living there until she disappeared.
This chapter also adds another hint, another one of Molly’s stories sent to her friends. The story is more mysterious, mystical and spiritual, involving an illegal, dark/web for profit organ transplant operation.
I won’t say too much about this chapter to avoid spoilers. It’s not nearly as disturbing as Chapter 2, but my sense is the creators of this series are wanting the audience to ponder what evil exists on the dark web…the actual dark web.
I confess…as much as I resist watching this series, I know that many aspects of it are true and because of that, the overall narrative is disturbing to me.
Hat tip to Roxy Shih, a female Asian American director who is brilliantly putting this important story before our eyes. This visual of the man sitting in the warehouse with the light coming through the high windows is particularly gorgeous. Notice the crucifixes in the shadows. Excellent symbolism.
DARK/WEB A No Spoiler Review of Chapter 3
My favorite episode so far. This is the 3rd post of 8 in 8 days.
The beginning sequence of this chapter is outstanding, will terrify you, make you nervous and curious and might even make you laugh.
The larger arc is filled out in this episode, with another friend of Molly Solis being added to the mix. To read my previous reviews, click The Pilot
James Woodsley, this friend of Molly’s lives in Madison, WI (my current hometown…so shoutout to my people). James is also sent a short story by Molly. This is viewed in the first moments of the episode.
I can’t say too much more because it will spoil the surprise, but I do want to comment of 4 aspects of DARK/WEB I am appreciating so far:
- Outstanding casting. Multi-ethnic. No stereotypes. I noticed this particularly in the pilot…how various characters were cast to upset stereotypes.
- DARK/WEB is a HORROR/SCI-FI series, so be warned. Like the film Alien follows the haunted house script a uses many of its tropes (down to the solo female facing the monster in the end), this series too uses horror tropes. It is both futuristic and horrific. These episodes have caused me moments of terror and disturbed my sleep. Not everyone likes this…so this is a warning. From lonely dark streets where the character walks and keeps looking behind his or her back, to darkness, to phones that never quite connect with 911, it’s all there in DARK/WEB. I will reiterate, Chapter 2 was especially horrific.
- Roxy Shih, a woman and person of color is doing a brilliant job in the directing, nominated for an Emmy (see below). I’m appreciating her deft touch and so far the writing is very tight. I remind you, these episodes are short…at least they are by film and tv standards, so the creators are accomplishing a lot when they make the audience laugh, cringe and freak out, all in the same 1/2 hour. That doesn’t happen accidentally.
Lastly, here are the Emmy’s DARK/WEB has been nominated for this year:
- Outstanding Digital Drama Series
- Michael Nardelli, Tim Nardelli, Mario Miscione, Allison Vanore
- Outstanding Directing Team for a Digital Drama Series:
- Mario Miscione, Michael Nardelli, Roxy Shih
- Outstanding Main Title and Graphic Design for a Live-Action Program
- Justin Martinez, Tim Nardelli, Mario Miscione, Michael Nardelli
- Outstanding Light Direction for a Drama or Digital Drama Series
- Vasiliki Constantinou, Lars Lindstrom
- Outstanding Music Direction and Composition for a Drama or Digital Drama Series
- Jonathan Hartman
- Outstanding Guest Performer in a Digital Drama Series
- Rene Heger
- Outstanding Guest Performer in a Digital Drama Series
- Graham Sibley
DARK/WEB No Spoiler Review of Chapter 2
Hacked
Today marks the 2nd of 8 days in a row of posts. For your orientation, read yesterday’s post which introduced Dark/Web, the 8 chapter (episodic) series on Amazon Prime, to read now click Pilot.
Today’s chapter implied a gruesome scene, so be warned. Though it wasn’t visual gore, the hint of it might trigger some, especially women who have been victimized by violence.
For others, able and willing to view evil head-on, this review is for you.
Molly Solis is drawing her friends together to solve a mystery around the dark web. She is sending them messages via email. Each message is a story. The viewer has met Molly in the pilot during the first few minutes. She appears on video camera, in trouble, though not helpless. The audience does not know much more than that, though they see her capitulate to some kind of authority, despite her protest.
In the first chapter, Ethan, a reporter and old highschool friend of Molly’s reads a story emailed to him by her. The action on screen quickly cuts to the “episode”, which shows the story as it unfolds. The first story is about a ride-sharing app gone haywire.
This second story is called Hacked and comes to Sam, who happens to have dated Ethan recently, though they are currently broken up. Sam is another highschool friend of Molly’s.
This story is about Misty, a young woman working at a burger joint. She is the drive through operations person. When a famous music star drives through to buy burgers, flirts with her, allows her to take a selfie with him and posts this on a platform called Flash, our heroine becomes instantly famous. Her social media account explodes with likes and loves and comments. In this fictional world, not too unlike ours, Flash determines whether you are a worthwhile human. When your ranking goes up, as it does for Misty out of this incident, that makes makes her popular by society’s standards. Following this happy event, Misty’s phone is hacked and a reckoning ensues. Bad actors zero in on her to take advantage of her popularity.
DARK/WEB, Amazon Prime Series. A Review of the Pilot
In the next eight days, I will watch one episode per day (episodes are called chapters in this series and there are 8 total). I will review each one briefly.
Today I watched the first chapter. This story had a few layers. I read a little about the series on IMDb and Wikipedia to orient myself….here’s the IMDb link if you want to do that too.
Is this really Amazon Prime’s answer to Netflix’s The Black Mirror? Some say this is the model for DARK/WEB, but there is an overall story arc that connects all of the chapters, so not exactly like The Black Mirror. I’ll know more in a few days and can report then.
This series is one season only. As of now, there is no indication that a season 2 will be made.
Written by Mario Miscione, Boman Modine and Michael Nardelli, the story begins with a mysterious set of images and screens where a young woman is obviously being harassed via the internet to do something (we don’t know what) she does not want to do. It then cuts to the apartment of a recently laid off reporter by the name of Ethan Neary. He is obviously in a bad spot, sleeping on his sofa, drinking too much, his apartment a mess. He has missed a number of calls from a high school friend (Sam Daniels) who has been trying to contact him. Sam is anxious about repeated emails that have been sent to her from another old high school friend, Molly Solis. Ethan has received messages as well. Is this really Molly? They are both worried about computer viruses, therefore reticent to open the file, but Ethan decides to open the attachment, which reveals a short story that he ends up reading aloud over the phone to Sam…the read aloud cuts to new action, but with different characters.
At this point, the story being read becomes what the audience sees on the screen.
Chapter 1 of DARK/WEB is about a rideshare driver who experiences a glitch in the app supposed to help him perform his job. Now, instead of simply giving him directions, it talks to him about who all the people are he is driving. He’s driving late at night to make ends meet for his young family and it turns out many of the people he is driving are awful folks. The rideshare app knows details about their evil and begins directing him to do certain things to stop these people from exerting their power in ways that will hurt others. You can imagine where this might go.
Three things I like about this chapter:
- Quick set-up that indicates a mystery
- Amazingly fast empathy for the main character (the rideshare driver)
- Tension around the craziness he is exposing himself to while driving…so much so…I needed to pause the recording for bit and think whether or not I wanted to see what I imagined to be a gory or troubling end.
I won’t give anything away, but the viewer does become invested in the driver’s wellbeing and that is an indication of good character writing. It happens fast that the viewer is rooting for him. Chapter 1 was worth the 27 minutes. I recommend if you like tension and dystopian/cyberpunk/mystery.
When Science Fiction Brings History Alive
Cover Art
I love science fiction, dreaming about the future, imagining what our life in outer space might look like someday, but my passion for the genre has as much to do with the past as it does with the future. Science fiction shows us the future but also has the ability to teach us about our past and often does so without the baggage of politics and biases. The stories below are launch pads. Their portrayals of history through story are not by any means comprehensive, but rather snapshots into the lives of people encountering challenges that may be imagined by the author, but mirror history.
Here are a handful of scifi stories that bring the reader face to face with the past:
- Superman Smashes the Klan
- The Man in the High Castle
- Colony
- An Excess Male
- Kindred
History Lesson #1. SUPERMAN SMASHES THE KLAN. Launch a discussion about the Ku Klux Klan (it’s inception and impact on US race relations).
In this three-issue Superman Comic, Gene Luen Yang gives historic tidbits at the end of each issue. You can read my review of the series here.
In issue 1,Yang highlights the 13th amendment to the constitution (abolition of slavery) and the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
Following issue 2, Yang discusses the Jewish immigrants who created Superman.
Following issue 3, Yang discusses the challenges of his own parents, both of whom were immigrants from Taiwan
History Lesson #2. Watch or read, THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE (book by Philip K. Dick. The Amazon Prime TV series was produced by Dick’s daughter, Isa Dick Hackett). Discuss and learn about World War II.
This series is a great way to understand the Axis powers and that tentative alliance that almost took over the globe. You’ll find yourself or your student understanding the world that was inhabited by those who lived under occupation during that war. The French, The Koreans, and many others were forced to survive under Nazi or Japanese rule. Some made compromises, others rebelled. Can you imagine who you would have become to survive an occupation? That question is a great way for students to enter into and understand history.
Josh Holloway, Sarah Wayne Callies
History Lesson #3. Watch COLONY on Netflix to begin to grapple with the reality of living under occupation.
In the case of COLONY, the true enemy is an alien race that has invaded Earth, but some of the darkest villains are the human beings who have allied themselves with this conquering force.
Living under occupation, whether under the Greeks, Romans, The Islamic Caliphate, the Brits, the USSR, it requires turncoats, or those who will help to subdue the masses for the sake of the little bits of power and privilege that are doled out by the occupying power. The tv series COLONY does an amazing job of capturing this reality. A longer review can be found here.
Maggie Shen King
History Lesson #4. Read AN EXCESS MALE, by Maggie Shen Chen, to begin to understand 20th century Chinese history.
Although this book imagines a future China, this story highlights what is perhaps the most disastrous public policy mandate of all time, THE ONE CHILD POLICY. For my review of this novel, click here. To read my guide for educators, click here.
Octavia Butler
History Lesson #5. KINDRED, by Octavia Butler. Read this book (fictional) and one of the other historic slave narratives like, MY LIFE AS A SLAVE, by Frederick Douglass. Discuss the ways slavery dehumanizes all those who participate in its reality.
KINDRED, by the late and great Octavia Butler, gives the reader a taste of the slave-inhabited South of yore. The brutality is evident and palpable. Lessons are brought so close…it’s hard to read this book, yet it is valuable for those trying to understand slavery in 18th and 19th century US. Here is my longer review of Kindred
WHY MANDALORIAN? No Spoiler Review of Season 1
The star of the show
So, yes…our family is following the trend. We viewed the much talked about THE MANDALORIAN this past holiday vacation. If you count the fact that we (my husband and I and our two kids in their twenties) actually plunked ourselves down in theater seats and watched the new Skywalker film, our eyeballs were largely captivated by the Star Wars universe.
A big win for Disney because I’m guessing we weren’t the only family doing this.
THE MANDALORIAN is a PG-13 show. Don’t let cute child Yoda-like character charm you into thinking this is for little kids. Many of them will be terrified by the series, in part because the cute little character is often in danger.
There is also graphic violence in the series. The main character, Mando, is a bounty hunter in the spirit of Jango/Boba Fett.
First, The Short Review: Five Reasons to Watch THE MANDALORIAN
- Similar to Stranger Things, this series is turning out to be an international phenomena. If you don’t watch it, you’re bound to miss about 1 out of every 5 late-night tv jokes and tons of cultural references.
- The production is well done overall, including the special effects.
- Each of the 8 episodes are action packed and tension filled.
- Baby Yoda (this isn’t actually baby Yoda, but a child of the same species as Yoda) is adorable.
- The story helps to expand and fill out the Star Wars universe and that is kind of fun if you have enjoyed the previous stories.
The Longer Review…
The story and the main character evolve in this production. I was a little bothered by never being able to see the face/read the face of the hero, but the Star Wars film folks have genuinely figured out the best possible way to convey feeling even when a character is a robot or wears a helmet that covers the face. Speaking of helmets…one of the most delightful interactions took place between two storm troopers. At one point, they are alone and commenting on their superiors’ orders and interacting over a creature/prisoner in their possession. It’s funny and humanizing to hear their banter, though the two of them still seem bent on serving their evil overlords.
As is typical of our most beloved Star Wars tales, the protagonist adores his ship and seems to have a particularly affectionate relationship with it. Star Wars writers do a good job of making machines, like ships and droids take on personality. Droids are a sore subject with our hero. He mistrusts all of them and the story arc grapples with this view. The teaching character introduced in an early episode is called Kuiil. He not only assists Mando when our hero is in need, he represents the gentler and more peace-loving side of the universe. Where Mando can seem brutal and hard, his moral angle on the universe is expanded as the audience sees him interact with the child first and second with Kuiil.
As usual, Star Wars writers are good about villains and rogues, some of whom are weird looking aliens. Yes, there is even a bar scene right at the getgo in episode 1. In addition, the audience visits new planets, sees new creatures and encounters cultures not previously shown in any Star Wars film. This happened organically and it didn’t feel like overload to me. I appreciated the universe getting filled out in more details for the fans, all while telling a story that I cared about. Moreover, the new planets and creatures kept each episode action-packed and visually interesting.
Mando is a loner, but eventually the task of caring for the child becomes bigger than him. He needs allies and those allies are an interesting group as well, gritty and loyal to the cause. Mando’s willingness to team up with others, including a droid, reveals the character growth he has undergone.
Timeline Note:
This story takes place a few years after the Empire has fallen (post Return of the Jedi, 1983), but 25 years before the the rise of the First Order, the authoritarian regime that is firmly in control of the galaxy when Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015) begins.
DisneyPlus Streaming Note:
If you want to watch THE MANDALORIAN, you might be able to access it illegally…these things I try not to know, but I realize it happens. If you want the legit way to watch, you’ll have to obtain DisneyPlus. Google search DisneyPlus deals and see what you can find. Our family found that our carrier, Verizon, gave the service free for a year because we have unlimited data. After one year, we pay $6.99 per month. This article in Business Insider will fill you in. We obviously took the deal.
Free is awesome, but will we re-up at the one year mark? We might, but it depends on the overall content value. Right now, our family subscribes to Netflix and now DisneyPlus. We are Amazon Prime Members and we use YouTube/Roku/Apple TV combo for lots of other content.We do not subscribe to HBO or Hulu or other subscribe options. I do try to watch Hulu shows when I fly Delta, which I do often, so I haven’t felt like I’ve missed that service. HBO would be nice, but there are only so many hours in a day and I still want to read! So…that’s it for us, for now.
DARK: Don’t Miss this German-made Television Series, A No Spoiler Review
Louis Hoffman as Jonas Kahnwald
Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, co-creators of DARK, sold their masterful production to Netflix sometime in 2016-17. It began streaming in December 1, 2017. Rated PG-13 (a couple of sex scenes more than graphic violence). This series is dubbed in English. It’s done well, you’ll likely not notice after watching for a few minutes.
Here are 5 reasons to check out DARK…
- DARK is part mystery, part scifi and part thriller…in a similar way that Stranger Things draws in the viewer, so does this tale.
- Yet…DARK is smarter than Stranger Things. Throw in human angst, religion, time travel, Goethe and Nietzche and you’ve got a jumble of ideas that provoke.
- Perfect for binge-watching over Christmas vacay.
- The casting was done well and there are a number of brilliant performances, including those of the child actors.
- If you like a good soundtrack, this one is pitch perfect, utterly creepy and poignant.
Longer Review:
Black holes are considered to be the hellmouths of the universe. Those who fall inside disappear. Forever. But where to? What lies behind a black hole? Along with things, do space and time also vanish there? Or would space and time be tied together and be part of an endless cycle? What if everything that came from the past were influenced by the future?
H.G. Tannhaus
There are a number of reasons why DARK has been compared to Stranger Things. For one, it features a small town where an unnatural mystery is unfolding within its boundaries. Secondly, a couple of the main characters are policemen and youth are important to the story. DARK is “dark” and may not have the charm of the funny and sweet tween friendships at the heart of Stranger Things, but it does take on the isolation and claustrophobia of small town life. It features a number of disaffected teens and adults, not often friendly toward one another, all living in Winden.
Winden is the fictional German town where a tunnel under a nuclear power plant holds mystery. The story opens with the suicide of one of the town’s people in current time and unravels from there. Tidbits of the mystery are revealed. Various families and their histories who live in Winden are revealed. Within a few episodes, the audience begins to see the tangled mess. Not only are these folks relationally connected, they are connected by a society of time travelers. By the end of the first season, fate, individual choice and the agency of those who understand the dynamics around time travel, will continue to hinder or help Winden restore some semblance of order to their community.
The first season was much acclaimed and the second did not disappoint. A third season is under production as I write. I can’t speak highly enough of DARK, the story, the performances, the music and visuals. There is much artistry in this production and it is a welcome reality for story consumers to see another brilliant tale come from a place beyond Hollywoodland.
Congrats to these producers and I look forward to viewing and reviewing season 3.