Dark Matter

I finally finished watching the first season of Dark Matter, just in time as season two is currently airing. I had been keeping this show on my watchlist ever since it premiered back in 2024. I remember its premise instantly caught my attention back then, mainly because I wanted to see how they would visually adapt the core scientific principles behind it: quantum superposition, Schrödinger’s cat experiment, and the underlying Many-Worlds interpretation.

Some people tend to shy away from sci-fi shows like this because of how complex they might seem. But if you give them a chance, you’ll find they can be deeply fascinating and thoroughly entertaining. A prime example of a hit show that used Schrödinger’s cat and quantum superposition to craft its narrative was Dark in its brilliant, meticulously crafted third season. Another surprising candidate is Rick and Morty, which, despite being an animated comedy, grounds many of its concepts in surprisingly solid science.

In Dark Matter, we follow physics professor Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton), who is abducted and dragged into an alternate reality by a version of himself that chose professional success over starting a family. Driven by the desire to return to his wife Daniela (Jennifer Connelly) and son Charlie (Oakes Fegley), he manages to escape and embarks on a mind-bending multidimensional journey alongside psychiatrist Amanda Lucas (Alice Braga), navigating through a mysterious structure known simply as The Box.

Understanding how The Box actually works can be tricky, but as the show lays it out, it functions scientifically by completely isolating its interior from any external environmental interference to prevent quantum decoherence. A specialized drug then temporarily detaches the human brain from observing reality. Once inside under the influence of this drug, the travelers enter a state of quantum superposition—much like Schrödinger’s cat. This allows infinite coexisting realities to collapse into a corridor lined with doors, each opening into a world shaped by the traveler’s own subconscious mind.

Sounds complex, right? Yet unpacking concepts like these is precisely what draws me in, and seeing a show attempt to represent such high-concept theoretical physics is awesome. On the flip side, in streamlining these ideas, shows like this can occasionally fall into well-worn multiverse and alternate-reality tropes. Dark Matter definitely starts off as a slow burn—it takes several episodes to give you proper context and let you piece together what is happening.

However, as the narrative picks up momentum and the characters start hopping across alternate realities, the sheer desperation of Jason potentially never seeing his family again really cranks up the stakes. The final two episodes are hands down the best of the season; Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly flex their full acting chops to sell the emotional complexity of the climax. That alone makes the watch worthwhile—they share fantastic screen chemistry and deliver a truly believable family dynamic.