After their critical acclaim with the German sci-fi epic Dark, Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese are back with another Netflix sci-fi epic, this time, with more languages. Set in the eponymous year, 1899 follows a group of multinational migrants from Europe — each with their own secrets — on their way to New York City on the steamship Kerberos. The passengers receive transmissions from Prometheus, a ship that went missing four months ago, and are haunted by the mystery behind its disappearance.

1899 is not a light show to watch. Like their previous work, Odar and Friese have returned with another convoluted, complex story. Each character in its large, multinational cast has their own traumatic past, which 1899 juggles around with the present story on Kerberos. Inevitably, the first few episodes of the show may come off as tiresome and slow as the characters are introduced one by one. While Dark also had an ensemble cast, the characters formed a small network of relationships since it was set in a rural village. However, in 1899, the characters are more like sporadic dots, where two or three may know each other while the rest are complete strangers to each other. The introduction to the characters thus takes significantly more time,  as each person brings a different background with them, preventing the characters from simply being labeled as  “a guy he knows”.

 Despite its slow introductory episodes, 1899 really starts to capture its audience after Prometheus comes into play. In a sense, the following episodes were more enjoyable because of how well the introductory episodes set up the characters, but knowing what Odar and Friese did with Dark, I believe they could have done better with the pacing without harming the buildup using the small details. The nature of mystery shows makes it hard to describe the events of 1899 without spoiling them. But just like Dark, the devil is in the details, and after finishing the show and re-watching it, I could not help but admire how well the creators planted small clues here and there (this also made me appreciate the first slow episodes more, too).

Aside from the characters and the story, which may have mixed reception from audiences, anyone who watches the show can agree on its aesthetic quality. The cinematography and sound are all fitting for the plot and themes of 1899. Unlike Dark, where the lighting was overall bleak and (unironically) dark, in 1899, the creators beat their past and use appropriate lighting for different settings and characters. The richest passengers on the ship always get the brightest lighting in the scene, the third class with semi-bright light, and the workers with the darkest. As the show develops these characters of different wealth and class through their interactions, the lighting changes accordingly. The CGI, with the exception of the unnatural ocean (which is hard to simulate), is also of surprising quality, even better than some recent shows.

The creators have again displayed perfect choices of music with the fitting opening theme “White Rabbit”, along with several end-credit pieces that summarize the plot of each episode well. Aside from the music, the use of sound in particular contexts was surprising. Most movies and shows don’t really tinker with the dialogue volumes, which may sometimes create a mess like in Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. But in 1899, perhaps because most of the characters spoke different languages, there were times when the dialogues were purposely muffled or amplified, which is a small detail I really appreciated.

Overall, 1899 is an above-average show so far, not living up to the expectations hyped up by Dark, but I can see how Odar and Friese can carry this show further with more seasons. While the creators have mentioned that they had ideas for more seasons, Netflix has not renewed the show yet, so this is a piece of news to watch out for. Considering their success with Dark and how favorable reviews of the show have been so far, hopefully, 1899 will be renewed for a more satisfying conclusion. 1899, though not amazing, is an enjoyable series for anyone into a good ol’ mystery sprinkled with sci-fi.