Netflix’s first German-language original, Dark, aired two years ago and was praised across the globe by both the audience and the critics. The sci-fi series was the work of Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar. The duo returned two years later with their new series, 1899, a multilingual mystery box, a complex puzzle featuring a sci-fi edge.
This time the setting is a grand steamship, Kerberos, crossing the Atlantic with 1400 passengers from South Hampton to New York City, at the end of the 20th century. The ship is named after Cerberus, the many-headed monstrous dog that guarded Hades. The sea vessel has passengers from different classes that cannot interact with each other. Another ship, Prometheus, disappeared without a trace on the same route four months earlier. The ship is named after the Titan cursed to have his liver eaten by an eagle for eternity. The story begins when Prometheus sends a distress signal to the Kerberos. Upon receiving the coordinates, Kerberos sets off to find the lost ghost ship.
The upper-class passengers of the Kerberos cannot help but whisper about the Prometheus and portray an ignorant approach towards the cramped traveling conditions of the less moneyed passengers living below the deck. The first episode is about setting up the characters and their class dynamics. Each episode is designed around a single person and how they came to be on Kerberos.
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1899 is set 13 years before the Titanic got hit by an iceberg. So far, in 6 out of the 8 episodes of the season, the audience witnesses a lot of ideas thrown at the wall. There are secret portals, creepy kids, and travel through time and space. One episode slithers to the next at a painfully slow pace that even gets a bit funny in the middle when there are excruciatingly lengthy pauses between the dialogues.
The show almost immediately makes it clear that there are loads more than what meets the eye. Maura Franklin ( Emily Beecham) does the opening narration talking about the various abilities of the human brain, and a while later, she is in a mental hospital. Then suddenly, she’s aboard the Kerberos and has scars on her wrists and a suspicious letter, clueless about how she got there. The show keeps you engaged because every episode reveals something new. The story goes back and forth with hallucinations, flashbacks, and weird visual motifs. The viewers will experience cliffhanger twists.
One thing is for sure, though. All the passengers in 1899 are escaping something. 1899 has a huge cast. All the characters do not speak English either. They all speak different languages. The passengers have no choice but to work together. Even though there is a significant language barrier. So, 1899 also demonstrates that despite language constraints, humans have the ability to come together when facing a threat. They can devise different ways to communicate and get their point across without depending on words.
If you loved Dark or enjoyed Westworld or Lost, you will enjoy this mystery too.
