The setting is the Kerebros,a British owned and German crewed steamship midway to New York from London with an end-of-the-century manifest of passengers and crew from across Europe. When the Kerebros encounters a sister ship,the Prometheus,missing for four months,they investigate what happened and the narrative’s engines,like a mysterious device adjacent to the engine room,come to life. Everything starts to spin out of control.
The aesthetic is immersive and the plot interlocking:the captain,Eyk Larsen (Andreas Pietschmann),is beset by torment,a crucial passenger,Maura Franklin (Emily Beecham),reminds herself each day that she is not crazy,a mute child possessing an inexplicable device is found,hidden portals are discovered,and the rules of the universe are increasingly ignored. There is no comic relief,no bottle episodes. The momentum is relentless,the revelation at each episode’s end precisely pitched.
Devotees ofDark,which ranged across the 20th and 21st centuries,will instantly recognise1899’s style,but the new show is somewhat more accessible as an increasingly desperate hunt for answers. The titular setting allows for a clash of science and faith as shipboard order collapses,but the creator’s defining touch is to create dramatic bonds between the characters,so their stories complement the otherworldly explanations instead of delaying them.
“You cannot change the nature of things,” one passenger observes,and it applies equally to the flawed ensemble and the sombre plot. For all the fantastical flourishes,the latter moves at a careful pace:Friese and bo Odar will not be rushed. They expect you to submit to their camera’s ominous tracking shots and the score’s menacing brass swells,but in exchange their multilingual drama provides alliances between hardy passengers,a vast conspiracy to unravel,and jolting twists.1899 is the true successor toLost.
Echo 3★½
Apple TV+
No creator has a better pedigree for a contemporary drama about personal survival,geopolitical murkiness,and military dedication than Mark Boal. The American journalist turned screenwriter wrote a pair of acclaimed feature films,2008’sThe Hurt Locker and 2012’sZero Dark Thirty,for filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow,which makes the fractured failings of his limited series about two elite U.S. soldiers trying to recover a kidnapped family member in Colombia all the more disappointing.