Dark Matter Season 2 Review: High-Concept Sci-Fi Meets Intense Personal Drama

The second season of Dark Matter has launched on Apple TV — a sci-fi series that has surprisingly managed to combine journeys between alternate realities, a techno-thriller, and a family drama. We break down what the follow-up turned out like, what to expect from the new episodes, and whether the show managed to hold on to the strengths of the original.

Dark Matter is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by American sci-fi author Blake Crouch, who also serves as the show's showrunner. The first season told the story of physicist Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton), living a quiet life in the Chicago suburbs with his beloved wife Daniela (Jennifer Connelly) and their teenage son Charlie (Oakes Fegley). The protagonist's ordinary idyll is shattered by the sudden appearance of a version of himself from another reality: the doppelgänger kidnaps Jason and sends him off into a parallel world, taking his place. To get back to his family, the protagonist has to journey across the multiverse and confront other versions of himself.

That said, the science-fiction element in Dark Matter was mostly background noise — the rules governing the multiverse were only explained in passing, the alternate worlds weren't especially distinctive (no Nazis, no talking fish, no donut rain), and every one of Jason's doppelgängers wanted the same thing: Daniela. The show worked on other strengths instead — the quality of its production, the paranoid atmosphere of a sci-fi thriller, the on-screen chemistry between Edgerton and Connelly, and a story anyone can relate to: a man who, no matter what, has to make it back home to the people he loves (a plot that's been popular at least since the Odyssey). All in all, a textbook example of human-centered sci-fi in an expensive Apple wrapper.

The plot of Crouch's original novel was used up entirely in the first season, so for the follow-up, the showrunner had to come up with something new. And the writer went with the classic sequel formula — the story got bigger, the stakes got higher, and the supporting characters got more attention.

After the events of the finale, the Dessen family tries to start over in one of the alternate realities, but the appearance of yet another Jason doppelgänger forces them back on the run. Meanwhile, Amanda (Alice Braga) and Ryan (Jimmi Simpson) try to find themselves in a world that isn't theirs, while Leighton Vance (Dayo Okeniyi) and his own doppelgänger are cooking up mysterious plans to use the Box to "improve the universe." By the rules of the genre, these and other, still-unrevealed storylines are supposed to converge into a single crescendo by the finale. Exactly how and in what state the characters arrive at that inevitable meeting is, for now, the season's main hook.

In the sequel, instead of the classic hero's journey, the emphasis shifts toward more philosophical questions. What happens to a person when every possible version of their own life opens up in front of them? Can you endlessly search for a better reality without losing yourself in the process? And where's the line between trying to fix your own mistakes and simply running from their consequences? In that sense, the second season logically builds on one of the original's central ideas — regret over the road not taken. Except now that theme is no longer Jason's alone.

That said, it's not as if Dark Matter is completely devoid of these intellectual flourishes, but the show clearly tries not to overload viewers with them. Crouch understands that most of the audience isn't there for the existential problems of losing one's identity, but for the emotions and actions of ordinary people caught in an extraordinary situation. Dark Matter still works best not as science fiction, but as a family drama. For the most part, the show hands its characters simple, universally relatable problems — how do you explain to your son that you have to move again (though this time not to another city, but to a parallel reality)? What does a sister feel when she meets the doppelgänger of a brother who died long ago? The sci-fi premise in Dark Matter is mostly just an excuse to talk about very real kinds of trauma. As a result, the characters' internal conflicts end up being far more interesting than most of the external threats.

At the center of the story, once again, are Jason and Daniela's relationship, woven through with love, trauma, regret over missed chances, the fear of losing each other, and so on. And here, credit is due to Edgerton and Connelly's talent — they wring real drama out of dialogue that's occasionally packed with clichés.

That emphasis on melodrama is unlikely to scare viewers off. Anyone who was hoping for hard science fiction or a kaleidoscope of jaw-dropping alternate worlds from Dark Matter probably dropped the show after a couple of episodes already. The real risk for the sequel is losing its clear emotional core and the main engine of the plot — Jason's drive to get back home.

The pacing in the first season was already fairly slow, but back then, almost every episode at least moved the hero closer to his ultimate goal. Now the story splits into several arcs, worlds, and alternate versions of the characters at once, occasionally turning the plot into a tangled knot where it's not always clear what exactly is going on. And the show, as a matter of principle, doesn't spend time on extra explanations. There's no recap of the first season's events and no reintroduction of the characters — the sequel drops the viewer straight into the thick of things.

The unhurried pacing, which used to work in service of atmosphere and gradually building tension, now risks turning into sluggishness and boredom — especially if the show keeps lingering (and it definitely will) on the characters' personal feelings without moving the plot forward. In short, viewers might find themselves stuck in an endless loop of long pauses in dialogue, meaningful stares, and painful memories — basically, everything that's typically associated with prestige drama. What should save the day are the detective storylines, which could add some dynamism and intrigue to the story: two of them are already set up in the first episode, but so far they haven't been given much room to breathe.

The season premiere confirms that Dark Matter's main strengths are still intact. The show has gotten bigger and more tangled, but it's still relatable science fiction about people, hard choices, and the consequences you have to live with.