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In this episode of 'Need Some Introduction', host Victor delves into the new Apple TV+ science fiction thriller 'Dark Matter', based on Blake Crouch's novel. He compares the series to the book, expressing satisfaction with its faithful adaptation while foreseeing potential filler in the show's long episodes. Victor also discusses the mixed critical reception of 'Dark Matter' and its exploration of alternate lives, a theme resonating in pop culture's recent fascination with multiverses. Additionally, Victor champions 'The Big Door Prize', another Apple TV+ series based on a novel. Despite its low popularity, he praises its exploration of personal destiny and recommends it for its unique storytelling and emotional depth. Victor then discusses his relationship with Blake Crouch's works, recommending other shows like 'Shining Girls', 'Constellation', and discussing the concept of doppelgangers through various recommendations. The episode also includes a 'science corner' where Victor explains quantum superposition and multiverses, providing a deeper understanding of the science behind the concepts explored in 'Dark Matter' and similar narratives.
00:00 Introduction to Dark Matter: A New Sci-Fi Thriller 00:09 Initial Thoughts on Dark Matter and Its Adaptation 01:05 Exploring the Multiverse in Pop Culture 01:32 The Science Behind Dark Matter and Multiverse Theories 01:38 Diving Into The Big Door Prize: An Underrated Gem 02:29 Apple TV Plus and Its Literary Adaptations 08:17 Dark Matter: Breaking Down the First Two Episodes 40:20 Recommendations: Doppelgangers and Alternate Realities 43:26 Science Corner: Understanding Superposition and Multiverses 50:06 Wrapping Up and Looking Ahead
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Victor (00:00):
Welcome everybody to another episode of Need Some Introduction.
I'm your host, Victor, andas usual, I'm here to try to
introduce you all to something new.
And today that topic is going to be DarkMatter, the new Apple TV plus science
fiction thriller slash relationship drama.
This series is actually based on avery popular novel written by Blake
(00:22):
Crouch, who's had several of hisstories adapted to the small screen.
And I've actually been reading thisnovel in parallel with the series,
and I'll be comparing and contrasting.
Honestly, very faithfully adapting so far.
Not too many twists and turns, but Iwill call them out as we go through the
episodes of the series I probably willnot be coming back to this series every
(00:45):
single week I have a feeling I'll getinto it in some of my critiques of the
show that this is a nine Episode series.
These are pretty long episodes.
I have a feeling is gonnabe a lot of Filler here.
So probably checking in at differentpoints along the way critical reaction
so far has been pretty mixed butI I am very curious about this.
(01:05):
I love this idea of exploring alternatelives that you may have lived.
A theme that is actually very relevantin pop culture the past few years
with the popularity of the concept ofa multiverse, which has infiltrated
all of the IP out there right now.
Maybe all these creators are at an age nowwhere everyone's having a midlife crisis.
(01:27):
So along with this review andbreakdown of the first two episodes,
I also have some recommendations.
I'll also have a digression here on thescience behind the concepts here, which I
find really fascinating, so do indulge me.
But before we get to all of that, I wantedto shout out another Apple TV Plus series.
I recommended season one back lastyear or a year and a half ago at this
(01:47):
point when the series premiered.
And honestly, no one's watching this show.
I could tell just from seeing themetrics I check, not only for streaming
data, but just to see the popularityof things on message boards, IMDB.
Just watch which is a website where youcan go to find out where to watch content
and you can sort by popularity So youcould just basically see what is getting
(02:09):
traction What is getting searches andof course if people are searching for
something They probably are trying towatch it as well All that is to say that
this show doesn't pop up on anyone's listof popular things to watch But I love
this show and I, and I don't know why.
So I'm just trying toevangelize to you out there.
This show is called The Big DoorPrize, also based on a novel.
(02:29):
This seems to be a theme with Apple,by the way, a lot of the series that
I'll be discussing here, Apple relatedreferencing in connection with this new
series are based on a bestselling book.
And this seems to be somethingthat Apple does a lot of.
I'm not sure what their overall projectseems to be, what their brand seems to be.
They do tend to want some degreeof positivity in their storytelling.
(02:52):
You do see Apple devices in alot of these shows, so it's just
a place to brand their hardware.
And maybe that's why theydo so much science fiction.
But in their most popular shows,for example, severance, you
don't see any of that branding.
So once again, I'm not certain exactlywho's making these creative decisions
to green light these shows or whythey so often rely on literature
(03:14):
for the source of those stories.
It seems to be the case.
And as I mentioned, the big door priceis based on A novel written by M.
O.
Walsh and published back in 2020,right at the tail end of the
first lockdowns from the pandemic.
I've never read this book , butit's interesting, I'm looking at
some of the reviews for the book.
(03:36):
This has very mixed reactionsfrom readers, as does this series
have some pretty mixed reactionsfrom television audiences.
And I would say the criticismsare, for example, I don't
really like these characters.
They're not paying off the sciencefiction elements of the show.
The biggest compliment Iwould make to this show.
is that the whole sci fi premise.
(03:57):
I don't care if I ever find out thesolution to the mystery, which I think
is a big frustration for, for folksfeeling that they're not getting enough
breadcrumbs to solve this mystery ofwhat's happening in this small town.
Whereas my analogy would be somethinglike, The good place where you're really
tuning in for the sitcom elements.
You're tuning in to see thesecharacters dealing with the
(04:18):
circumstance and trying to make thebest of their situation together.
It's almost like a workplace comedy,honestly, in that regard, even though
it probably was promoted as being morehigh level sci fi, and that's why people.
Criticize it for not being that show.
The premise of the show, by the way, isa machine shows up, a cold, a Morphe,
(04:40):
I believe it shows up in the localconvenience store in a small town.
The town is completely idyllic.
You have a multiracial,peaceful, really caricature of
a Norman Rockwell, like fantasy
really just an ideal of what a smalltown would be like everybody knows each
(05:02):
other No one judges each other and whathappens is this Machine shows up prints
out a card and simply tells you oneword What your true destiny is and what
this does is that even in this idealperfectly in balance town Suddenly having
this machine tell people that theyare supposed to be this other thing You
(05:24):
throws everybody's lives into disarray,but in the most genteel way possible.
There is no sudden bloodthirsty battlesbreaking out in the street, which
could be a direction that the showlike this would go into, but that is
not at all what the show is about.
It's about the internal strugglesthat we face, questioning the
(05:45):
choices in our lives, which insome ways actually dovetails
.thematically broadly with dark matter and season two has come along after
really not explaining things in seasonone and Just the critique season one.
I thought the first two thirds of seasonone were absolutely exceptional I was
just vibing on that show in no small part.
So much of it is the tone.
(06:06):
There is this light comedictone to all the characters.
They're all a little bit goofy.
They all have their own failings,but the show is very gentle.
It does not judge them harshly.
It shows all of theirpositive and negative traits.
Once again, all positives in my book.
And yet the series has this melancholytone in no small part from this
(06:30):
incredible score, this reallybeautiful score that the show has.
And this continues in season two.
Season one does not explain whatthe source of the morphe is.
We find out a little bit more aboutit now But in season two also the
morphe now evolved into a secondarylevel and now people can feed their
cards back in and what they see is ananimated like a Really looking like
(06:52):
the old Sega graphics from the probablyearly 90s or so representation of
alternate lives they could have lived.
Sometimes it's explicitly other decisionsthey could have made, sometimes it's
simply is a metaphor for the currentstruggles they're encountering,
but it really becomes therapy foreverybody on the show, and for me,
(07:12):
we're halfway through season 2, Ithought, I think, the first half of
this season is really extraordinary.
If any of that sounds interestingto you, I'd say check out the first
two or three episodes of season one.
That's the tone.
It's not going to change significantly.
If you hate these characters, the showdoes an incredible job, I think, of making
(07:33):
you care for them even more over time.
But if you really don't likeanybody in the show, it's probably
not going to work for you.
If you don't buy into this tone, ifit doesn't touch you in some way,
this show may not work for you.
But for me, it really works well,and it's doing something that It's so
rare in television now, and honestly,I think Apple renewed this because
somebody internally loves this showthe way I do because it's not very
(07:55):
popular, but I'll do my best right hereto try to get at least a few of you
to check it out and give it a sample.
I assume Season 2 will be theend for this show, to be honest,
it has not apparently grown inpopularity from Season 1 to Season 2.
So if you did sample it in season one andyou're a little frustrated, I do presume
that the mystery of the Morpho machine.
(08:17):
Will be explained by the end of the seasonbecause I wouldn't expect to see more of
this Although I wouldn't mind if Applejust decides to renew it Anyway, okay on
to dark matter as I mentioned This showis created by Blake Crouch the author of
the novel as well a very popular novelmy relationship with Blake Crouch's
work is really in two different ways.
(08:39):
One is I did read his novel recursionand in that case also a thriller with
a mystery inside of it very similar Instructure to dark matter and the big idea
that's being played with there is beingable to be inside of a time loop What if
you could travel back in time make changesand then theoretically change your future?
(09:00):
And you're trapped in this loop, whichis a very long loop in this case.
It's not a five minuteloop or a two hour loop.
It is a decades long loop.
And that is an entertaining book.
Another bestseller for him.
I have my issues with himas an author in general.
I feel he spends a lot oftime setting up his concept.
The characters can be a little thin.
(09:20):
And really , his novelsfeel like screenplays.
In the fact that the charactersare oftentimes not really fleshed
out, it's as if they are just wordsthat the characters are speaking.
You can imbue them with yourown motivations and agendas, but
they really are almost lookingfor actors to flesh them out.
And I did think about reading StephenKing back in the day where The stories
(09:43):
will be very high concept, some kindof monster story, and also written, and
this is a compliment to Crouch's writingstyle, , very easy to read his books,
and I see why he's a popular author.
But unlike Stephen King, who alsohas a very easy writing style, like
a very natural storyteller, I findthat even the most preposterous
setups for Stephen King's novels areredeemed because you really start
(10:08):
to fall in love with his characters.
And I've never felt thatabout any of Crouch's writing.
I'm more there for the high conceptthan I am for the character development.
So that's my critiqueof Crouch in general.
Although, like I mentioned, very readable.
These are like beach books.
Before I start breaking down the plot,here's some recommendations of other
things you may want to check out thatare thematically linked to Dark Matter.
(10:32):
So minor spoiler, this is notreally explained until probably late
episode one or early episode twoof the series, but it's right in
the trailer and in the commercial,all the marketing for the series.
So I'm just going to lay it out there.
The basic premise of Dark Matteris someone who has the ability
of moving between multiversalversions of their lives.
(10:57):
And interestingly, Apple TV seemsto really like this thematically.
In 2022, they had a series calledShining Girls, also based on a
novel, this starring ElizabethMoss, who's currently in The Veil.
And also, featuring Wagner Mora, who wejust saw in Civil War, and with Jamie Bell
(11:19):
as a time traveling serial killer, andhow he changes events in these people's
lives, and how they start to sh slip.
People impacted by these crimes start toslip from one reality into another into
one Multiversal life path into anothernow this show was really interesting.
(11:40):
I would say in the most successfulat this although if you're the
type of viewer that requires apayoff that makes sense at the end
The payoff here basically is magic.
So if you're in it for the journey and notthe destination, I think this is slept on.
I think this is a show that's worthchecking out and full of beautiful
visuals, interesting ideas, a terrificperformance by Elizabeth Moss and
(12:04):
everybody, honestly, in this series.
But if you really need a gooddestination, then, um, Magic might
not be the most satisfying for you.
And that's not really a spoiler,there's more to it than that, but it's
not gonna be all buttoned up neatly.
I hear the book isn't buttoned up neatlyeither, maybe a second season of the
(12:25):
show would have allowed them to explorethe mechanics of this in more detail.
But this show is not going tobe renewed for a second season.
But I still think for Moss performanceand for the really beautiful style of
the show and this metaphor of traumafracturing your life, literally making
(12:46):
you an unrecognizable person before andafter, all of that works really well.
Like I said, payoff, not great.
By the way, we did coverthat on the podcast.
So if you've watched that orplan to watch it, look for those
episodes in our back catalog.
Another series that I really honestlycan't recommend, although it has some very
strong aspects is the recently concludedseries constellation, also Apple TV plus.
(13:09):
So easily available if you arecurrently watching dark matter.
about an astronaut, played by NumiRippas, who is on the International
Space Station when there is an accident.
Once again, an experiment thatis trying to create an object in
superposition, a multiversal event.
And because of her proximity to theaccident, she ends up existing in both
(13:31):
multiversal planes at the same time.
Once again here, the journey's a littletoo slow, performance is terrific
and that's the main reason thatyou may want to watch this, seeing
this woman doubting her own sanity,dealing with the circumstance is
really compelling, that aspect of it,but so much of the story just takes
too long to get to where it's going.
It needs a second season.
(13:52):
Really, once again, so many of theseshows setting up season one for season
two, it needed to deliver more inseason one, in my opinion, especially
since so many of these shows willjust never simply get a second season.
But if you do love this kind ofstorytelling, if you do like Numi
Rapace, who gives so many terrificperformances in projects, series
and movies that just don't work,don't quite work, do check it out.
(14:14):
If you're curious about that, Ifelt that it was a little too slow.
But I often feel that way about thesesci fi series and people seem to enjoy
them a lot more than I did for exampleI had all the same criticisms about the
peripheral which I felt just was all setup for season two I covered it here on a
podcast made that criticism but many ofyou reached out to me and were happy with
(14:34):
the series But I still stick by the factIf season one is just set up for season
two, and unfortunately, we don't get aseason two It all seems a A bit wasted.
Long story short, my generaladvice is make a compelling season
one, and then you'll be muchmore likely to get a season two.
But there seems to be a philosophy oflike, well, I'm not going to pay it off.
I'm going to force you to greenlight a season two by not giving you
(14:56):
a successful payoff in season one.
And, uh, if you see what's happeningamong these shows being canceled, that
strategy does not seem to be working.
So take that anti, I guess, um,recommendation, as you will.
It's called Constellation, but if youdo love these type of stories, this
just wrapped up recently, about a monthor two ago, and it explores a lot of
the same thematics as Dark Matter.
(15:18):
Dark Matter begins, interestingly,we see this large cube, this
superposition box that we'll discoverover the course of the series.
The first few episodes.
Interesting that they tease it inthe opening moments of episode one.
And then we see it created againin this really beautiful opening
credit sequence, where it'salmost like a puzzle box clicking
(15:40):
together to create a similar cube.
This opening sequence very muchreminded me of another show that is a
recommendation here as well, which is aseries called Counterpart, starring J.
K.
Simmons from a few years back, rightafter he won his Academy Award for
Whiplash, where it takes place duringCold War era Germany, where a tunnel
(16:00):
has opened, and never explained in thecourse of the two seasons of that series,
an experiment gone wrong once again.
under a government facility, whichbasically creates two parallel worlds
that are mirrored at that doorway.
And then metaphorically for the dividedGermany at the time, you have agents that
(16:21):
try to infiltrate one side of the breachor the other, and it allows Simmons to
give a really great dual performanceas these two different characters.
One a more genteel worker withinthis organization, and his
counterpart, a hardened spy.
And their interactions with each otherand discovery as to what led to in
(16:41):
these two very divergent versions oftheir lives is really fascinating stuff.
The series loses a little bit of itssteam towards the end of season two,
never came back for season threeto resolve some of these mysteries,
of course, but do check that out.
It's really, really good and probablya more interesting exploration of
these topics, to be honest, thanwhat I've seen so far in this series.
Season in dark matter, althoughI haven't seen the whole thing.
(17:04):
the beginning of episode 1 we seeJoel Edgerton Playing Jason Dessen,
and he is a university professor.
He teaches math to a prettybored Classroom of young adults.
Connelly playing Daniela his wife Theyhave a teenage son who in the novel is
explicitly supposed to be some kind ofreally impressive teenage art prodigy.
(17:28):
He's only 15 years old.
I believe he's 15 years old in theseries as well, but appears older.
And Daniela is also an artist.
She was once a very successful andup and coming artist, who now owns a
gallery in her Chicago neighborhood.
So this is an interesting setup.
People who aspire to greatness.
And it's a metaphor for all of us whoprobably fantasized of the careers
(17:52):
and the impact we'd have on the world.
which, in the end, didn't quitepay out the way we expected.
We had relationships, we chose safecareers, we had children, which of
course changed all these trajectories.
And that's what we're seeing representedhere in the early part of the season.
He's telling his studentsabout cat thought experiment.
(18:13):
Very important here, of course,for the themes of the season.
And then early on, interestingly, theyshow us Edgerton's character, once
again, he's in some warehouse somewhere.
At one moment, we're thinking, is thisguy some kind of secret serial killer?
Like what's going on here?
What don't I know?
I already knew, of course, becauseI have read about half of this book.
(18:34):
And of course, it's in thecommercial as well, if you've
seen the commercial for this show.
I'm always very curious about howsomething is presented to the audience.
Because at this moment, with nocontext, if you're watching this,
absolutely no context, no context.
What do you think this guyis doing at that moment?
He has some vial of some kind ofchemical compound, which of course
is going to be important later.
And despite the fact it's familynight, he's received a call from his
(18:57):
friend Ryan Holder, played by JimmySimpson, who you'll recognize from
Westworld, you'll recognize fromIt's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
And he has selected to come celebratein Dessin's local neighborhood, there
in Chicago, by the way, if I haven'tmentioned that, as a way to almost
make it impossible for him to refusethe invitation to hang out with him.
(19:18):
He's won some prestigious scienceprize, and we discover over the course
of this conversation that Really,it was Destin who was the science
genius back in college, around thetime that Daniella got pregnant,
he had lost funding to his project,and I'm going to throw it in here.
Importantly, that he's so clueless as towhat's happening to him over the course
(19:40):
of this show, or the first few episodes.
His experiment was to create aan object in superposition that
was visible to the naked eye.
I'm going to have a little sciencedigression here because I find
this concept really fascinating,so I have to spend some time on it.
But just for now that what's happeningto him is basically what his experiment
was, so that it takes him so long tofigure out what's going on is a little
(20:02):
annoying, to be honest with you,in the book and in the show itself.
Ryan offers him a job he's about toraise hundreds of millions of dollars.
His profile is even highernow that he's won this award.
And he wants Jason to come work for him.
However, it'll probably be relocating to.
San Francisco.
And Jason's against this.
This is where his life is.
He wants to stay in Chicago.
But Ryan says, just think on it.
(20:23):
But it's pretty clear that he is bothtelling him, I won't take this job.
And yet he's looking at what his friendhas achieved and thinking you could just
tell Edgerton's performance that he'sthinking this could have been my life.
This could have been whatI did on his way home.
He's almost hit by a cab.
If some of those earlier sceneshadn't been teased here, you could
(20:45):
actually read the whole entirefilm as he was hit by the cab.
And the whole series is a death dream.
This is like a, how did this get madefavorite joke here that, you know, so
many illogical things happen in films.
You just say, Oh, what ifit was all a death dream?
We do have a possible out here withthis near fatal car crash and someone
with a creepy mask and a recognizablevoice confronts Jason and kidnaps
(21:10):
him in both the book and the series.
This kidnapper asks Jason for his phone,knows how to unlock it, of course,
because they have the same passcode.
Of course, Jason doesn't understandthis at this moment, because he
has no idea who has abducted him.
But there are hints here already.
As I mentioned, he knows his passcode.
He knows a lot of personaldetails about his life.
(21:31):
He takes his wedding band.
He makes him undress.
He injects him with something, whichmakes him feel very calm, and later on
we find out it is Special K ketamine.
And then the masked man tells himthat he can make the best of this.
This could be the best thing for everyone.
So knowing the context we know by theend of this episode, it is interesting
at this moment that this alternate Jasondoes seem to have picked this version
(21:55):
of himself, someone who is pining forthe alternate life, which he is living,
but apparently is unsatisfied with.
We don't know exactly all the detailsof that yet, but this is what he's
hinting at as Jason prime, Jason one.
falls unconscious.
He wakes up, there's a fullscientific crew around him.
He's decontaminated.
This is an extremely painfulexperience, by the way, in the book.
(22:17):
Just hinting that here briefly.
We just see him like in the shower.
It doesn't seem to be as traumatic.
And this is when Amanda walks in tocheck in on him, played by Alice Braga.
And we can tell right away, not inthe book, by the way, an invention
for the series, we can tell rightaway that she is taking it back,
that he doesn't recognize her.
And she's like, We know as viewers, waybefore he does, understand that they are
(22:39):
in a relationship with each other andhe gets taken to see Leighton, played
by Deo Okenei, who he does recognize.
We haven't seen Leighton in JasonPrime's original timeline, but
the presumption here in both thebook and the series is that they
knew each other in some capacity.
Amanda's taken it back yet again thathe recognizes Layton, but not her, of
(23:01):
course, unaware of what's happening.
Despite the fact that he's happyto see Layton, he's still super
perplexed by what's happening here.
There are people applauding him.
He's a doctor.
They start asking him a lot of questions.
I know you're probably disoriented,I know you've lost your memory
probably, but we need to juststart with some simple things.
What's the last thing you remember?
He starts recounting being kidnapped.
(23:22):
In the book, by the way, this ishandled better, obviously it could
be inside someone's head inside of anovel, but this is handled pretty well.
He intelligently starts readingthe situation saying, well,
don't say the wrong thing.
He just susses out.
that he probably should play alongjust for his own self preservation.
He also gets the lay of the land thatthis place is set up security wise to
(23:45):
keep people out, as you would expectfrom a scientific establishment,
not necessarily to keep people in.
It's not some kind of prison.
So he can make an escape prettyeasily, Which happens in the series
as well, but without much explanation.
He just basically says, Oh,can I go into the hallway?
And he just wanders out of the building.
But it makes a littlemore sense in the novel.
And they hint at that here as well.
(24:06):
When he meets a security guard, theysay, Oh, I haven't seen you in a while.
Like, they don't expecthim to be escaping.
He works there after all.
Although he has beenmissing for over a year.
Uh, also during this interview,we realized that other people
have gone on similar journeys.
He's the only one to have come back.
And they want to know,well, how did you come back?
Why did no one else come back?
(24:27):
And of course, this is whatthey're very curious about on this
probably very high stakes, verydangerous, and very controversial
if anybody knew about it mission.
And of course, this version of Jasondoesn't know anything other than, you The
only thing he can reveal is that he's notthe Jason they're looking for, which he
doesn't even understand at this moment.
But even if he did, it wouldprobably just endanger his life here.
So he decides he's going torun away and try to get home.
(24:50):
He was given his keys,his wallet, his cash.
Obviously, he was not a prisoner,so, of course, no problem.
Problem with any of those things sohe's able to catch a cab get back home
And he's expecting to see Daniela, butinstead Amanda is there and this is when
she explicitly says we live together Ofcourse the house looks totally different.
This is also in the novel Although when hegets home in the novel, no one is living
(25:11):
there with him and the place is muchmore fancily decorated In this universe.
He's a very famous and richscientist a billionaire, I believe.
So he has everything perfectlyappointed, not the more rustic home
he's inherited from his dad in theJason Prime version of his life with
a university professor's salary.
But in parallel action, we see thisother Jason has come home and is indeed
(25:37):
interacting with Jennifer Connelly.
No cut on his nose, by the way.
Very easy way to tell them apart.
She's a little annoyed.
Where have you been all night?
He's like, oh, I drank too much.
Yadda, yadda, yadda.
She had encouraged him, by the way, to goout to have this meeting with his friend,
rather than family night, but obviouslydidn't expect him to stay out all night.
And this version of Jason, this is justlike the novel, by the way, is very
(26:02):
happy to see her and she gets suspicious.
Like, were you flirtingwith some girls at the bar?
What's happening right now?
He makes the excuse that it's the factthat he almost died getting hit by
a taxi, which does happen actually.
And it just made him appreciatehis life so much more.
Meanwhile, our Jason, Jasonprime is in his alternate world.
He goes into his office and he seesthat he he's the one who's won this
(26:25):
prestigious prize and he's made allthese big scientific discoveries
This is the alternate track of hislife if he'd not settled down with
Daniela and had a son He starts makingphone calls to Daniela's cell phone.
Someone else answers.
This also happens in the novel, bythe way And by the way, he's much
more subtle about this in the novel.
(26:46):
Here he's just overtly saying,Danielle is my wife, yelling this out
in front of Alice Braga's character.
It's like anyone who starts to investigateany of this stuff is going to figure
out what's going on with him right away.
He seems to be more protectiveof letting anybody know.
That he feels out of place, whetherhe thinks he's just insane, or whether
he thinks something else is goingon, he still seems a little more
(27:08):
protective about this in the novelthan he is in the series so far.
The government goons show up again athis home, and he makes another escape.
Meanwhile, Mastermind Jason, theJason from this alternate timeline,
has seduced Daniella, and theymake love as the episode ends.
In episode 2, Jason shows up at hisfavorite watering hole, the same place he
(27:30):
had met with Ryan earlier in the night.
The bartender's the same,but doesn't recognize him.
Whereas in his version of the universe,they all know each other very well.
He checks himself into a hospital tosee if he has any kind of brain trauma
or any kind of abnormalities, a braintumor or something that's causing
him to imagine alternate histories.
(27:50):
The doctor says, your brain scansseem normal, and I checked out
all your biographical information.
There is no.
Daniela Dessin anywhere.
There's no son registered to anyof the high schools around here.
But I looked up your biography,by the way, doctor, and you're
a very famous scientist who'sdisappeared for 14 months ago.
Your brother has put out an APB for you.
(28:12):
And Jason on an iPad does his owninvestigation and puts in Daniela's
maiden name and does find her.
The doctor says, you know what?
I think you need to be committed.
You obviously are having some kind ofpsychological break of some kind and
he simply says I agree with you doctorBut actually takes the opportunity
to walk out of the hospital sincehe's Voluntarily committing himself.
(28:36):
It's not strange that he would just beable to check himself out But he's just
basically running from one situationto another throughout the course of
these two episodes I like when wesee evil Jason show up at Jason's
university job Joel Edgerton giving aninteresting dual performance here You
can definitely tell when he's playingone character over another and really
(28:56):
embracing the opportunity to Educatethese kids and really snap them out
of what's probably very a complacentrelationship between Jason and these
students This is probably where the showis working the best when it's exploring
someone stepping into someone else'sshoes and embracing that opportunity.
As a matter of fact, what this mademe think about a little bit is the
(29:19):
John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, JohnWoo film face off where you have
this criminal and this cop who switchfaces completely improbably, by the
way, and start to experience lifethrough the eyes of these greatest.
Enemies of theirs, by the way, timeto reboot that let's use modern day
technology where you can swap notfaces physically like plastic surgery,
(29:42):
but which doesn't make any sense.
By the way, like your bodychanges to how did that work?
Like, didn't your wife notice yourbody was completely different,
but also I should say, but in thein maybe a new version of this.
Swapping consciousness using some kindof brain link . Anyway, get working
on that Hollywood Okay, Leighton andAmanda are Concerned of what's going on
(30:05):
with Jason who's on the run right nowThey're afraid of information about their
experiment leaking out Jason meanwhilegoes to Daniela's art exhibition which
was inspired by something he had saidand His images are all over this place,
by the way When he runs into JenniferConnelly, Daniella, looking absolutely
stunning with even longer hair.
(30:26):
No wonder he gave up hissuccessful life for this woman.
Also here is Jimmy playing Ryan.
This version of Ryan is moredisheveled, not as well dressed.
Jimmy Simpson does a reallyimpressive job of conveying this.
He also looks pudgier, maybe they putsomething in his cheeks or something
to make him look a little heavier.
But he does do an interesting job of justshowing the same person, but a little more
(30:48):
neutered, a little more self conscious.
We get some more clues herefrom his interactions that he
has been gone for some while.
Everybody's curious as to where he's been.
Daniela invites Jason to her apartment.
Along with Ryan Ryan and Daniela seemto have some kind of relationship going
on This is the same in the novel and theseries by the way, this is one to one
(31:09):
there's some very on the nose dialoguein this whole sequence Especially when
Daniela starts saying the last timeI saw you you told me how I may never
see you again I screwed everythingup very strange thing to be saying in
front of Ryan, maybe too personal Thisscene is really awkward in the book.
This whole sequence iscompletely improbable in the
(31:31):
book in general, I would say.
Much better here, mostly because ofJennifer Connelly's performance to
somehow sell all of this dialogue and showher conflicted emotions, but still how
she's coming around to believing this.
Because over the course of thisconversation, he says, okay, theoretical
situation, you wake up in thiscircumstance, you believe this is what's
(31:52):
happening, what do you think it is?
And they throw aroundsome different ideas.
He says, no, it's not that, it's notthat, it's not a brain tumor, for example.
And then Ryan says, well,then this person is nuts.
And Jason says, well, I'mnot nuts, I'm not crazy.
Which stops the conversation cold,but then Ryan starts to think what
kind of game are you playing here?
He starts getting annoyed andhe's like, are you trying to
(32:14):
convince me that this is for real?
He also hints at the fact also in thenovel by the way that he as a biochemist
had created some special compoundsThe year before around the time of his
disappearance Of course, this is probablythe chemicals that are being used as part
of this multiverse traveling process Andwhen he plays like he doesn't even know
what he's talking about Ryan hesitates fora moment, but then just says good night.
(32:38):
I'm done with this.
He does offer to escort him outif Daniella feels uncomfortable.
She says no, it's okay, andhe leaves for the night.
Over the course of the next day We seethat evil Ryan is aggressively trying to
assert himself in this situation universe.
He's very territorial abouthow Daniela spends her time.
You could see that she's trainingfor a triathlon, I believe.
(32:59):
She has her own life.
This is obviously part of beingmarried and still carving out
your own interests and time, whichhe seems to not be okay with.
He pretends like he is, but he'snot really okay with it, I believe.
After all, this is what he's been hopingfor for his whole entire life, dreaming
about for decades now, but he'll allow it.
He's also very annoyed that Ryan hasspoken to her about this job offer, going
(33:25):
as far as saying, You called my wife?
So, extremely territorial.
I would say this, many thingshere are much better in the
series versus the novel.
This is better in the novel.
We're actually sympathetic to evil Jason.
in the book because he seems to be sohappy, really appreciative of Daniela in
a way that probably she wasn't feeling inher long term marriage and relationship
(33:50):
with the other version of Jason.
So, basically, both charactersare sympathetic in, at least
initially, in the novel.
Which for me is a more interestingdynamic because there's a possibility
there of saying like, wait asecond, is basically the bad guy
potentially right that swappinglives would make everybody happier.
(34:10):
And that's an interesting premise for me.
It's my tendency to preferhaving that ambiguity.
in these stories, rather than what we seehere, which is pretty clearly setting up
that this Jason is a sociopath, basically.
Meanwhile, Jason Prime isin his alternate world.
He has lured Amanda out of the houseby asking her to meet him across
(34:34):
town when he's actually stationedright outside with Daniela in And
they start to do an investigation asto what might have really happened.
He starts to read some of his notesfrom his work, and he realizes that the
experiment he attempted years beforehas not only been successfully achieved,
but that the object, this visible objectin superposition and hang in there,
(34:59):
science corner is coming to an end.
Has been built bigger and bigger andbigger, and now they have a larger and
larger container, where theoretically,you could pass a human sized object
through this Schrödinger's box.
And of course, that isexactly the experiment that
he's been caught up in here.
Whereas in the book, this is muchbetter in the series, by the way.
Whereas in the book, Daniela, overthe course of that first night
(35:20):
together, she just starts to go like,I don't know why, I think I just love
you, I believe what you're saying,before things take a tragic turn.
Jennifer Connelly plays this Way moreskeptically, but as the evidence starts
to pile up she does start to give intothis revelation I think the believability
of this is all much stronger in theTV version Evil Jason is back in this
(35:46):
storage space where he's been storinghis kidnap equipment and probably
stationed for this entire year and change.
He's looking at schematicsto build one of these boxes.
I presume that the last 14 months werespent building this box so that he
could send his alternate versions back.
And we see, just like we saw at the, very beginning , of the pilot episode.
(36:08):
one of these boxes in this Prime universe.
And after going on this explorationall day, we see Daniela with
Jason Prime back in her apartment.
I forgot to mention the whole factthat Jason Prime shows up at this art
installation, sees his wife, you know,the day before she was simply his wife,
(36:29):
this alternate version of herself.
I mean, this needs to have, and itdoesn't get into it in detail in
the book either, but this would be afascinating exploration of just this
moment of what is your headspace tosay, well, what is really going on?
Am I simply losing my mind?
But if I am losing my mind, how isthis woman in front of me, who is my
wife, who I've known for decades, whois, however, looking at me as if she
(36:54):
hasn't seen me in years, only saw mecasually over the course of many years.
And he's just kind of noddinghis head and going like, yeah,
sure, this all makes sense.
And his friend shows up, kisses heron the mouth, and he's just sort of
like, yeah, whatever, this is cool.
I would love to be, you know, spend evenmore time in this headspace, I guess.
You could do a whole book on that, butit is probably a really crazy, crazy,
(37:16):
crazy, moment that gets elided veryquickly in the series, necessitated
by obviously we can't dig into it, butit is when you really think about that
moment in a microcosm, it is absolutelynuts and played off pretty casually.
Now in the book, Jason Primedoes get lucky here with this
alternate version of his wife.
(37:36):
But here they are interrupted becausejust as he's about to kiss her, the
security guard that we saw before,Layton's security guard, kicks in the
door and shock of all shocks, shootsDaniela right in between the eyes.
And that's the end of episode two.
This also happens in the book, by the way.
Okay.
So as an adaptation so far,this thing is moving at a clip.,
(37:59):
all this is happening much morequickly than it does in the book.
I think this is a much betterversion of the story so far for me.
And I do want to put that caveat therebecause I found it takes us 40 percent
of the book, maybe more, to get tothis point in the story where we're
in two episodes into this nine episode.
(38:19):
Season now, that's why I putthe caveat for me because even
as I'm reading the book I'm wayahead of where the character is.
So I'm like, okay get to it already getto it already I get it Schrodinger's cat.
I get it multiverses.
And of course this book was writtenalmost a decade ago so the fact that
(38:40):
everybody knows multiverses now whetherit's everything everywhere all at once
whether it's all of the Marvel CinematicUniverse, the Spider Man Cinematic
Universe, multiverses are everywhere now.
So we don't need this primer.
But of course, he's writing itin a way where maybe you do.
And since I do not, it really drags.
Those first third or moreof the book really drags.
(39:02):
in him saying, what could possibly begoing on with all these hints about
quantum superpositions incessantly.
So long story short, weget there much faster.
So I prefer on thenegative side, I do worry.
I do worry that here we are 40percent of the way through the novel,
let's say, but only 25 percent or30 percent through this series.
(39:27):
My gut instinct is that this might havea lot of filler here in the middle.
Some critics have already seen theentire series, and even the negative
reviews, and there's been quite afew negative reviews by the way, say
that the ending is really thrilling.
All this is to say that I probably willnot be going week to week with this on the
podcast, but when there's big events, Iassume right in the middle of the season,
(39:47):
and then maybe come back week to week forthe last two or three episodes as the.
I would assume the plot picks up again.
So as I mentioned, seven more episodes.
So that's another month and a half or so.
In the meantime, of course, we willbe discussing House of the Dragons
Return, wrapping up the shows we'recurrently watching, Sugar wraps up
next week, Under the Bridge, and TheVeil wrap up in subsequent weeks.
(40:11):
The Boys is coming back.
And Sona and I will probably bewatching The new adaptation of Presumed
Innocent starring Jake Gyllenhaal.
Okay, before we get into science corner,some more recommendations, stories
and movies that feature doppelgangers,evil, alternate versions of people.
The first recommendation Ihave for you, which is easily.
(40:33):
accessible since in the publicdomain is actually a story called
William Wilson, William Wilsonby Edgar Allen Poe from 1840.
I'm going way back for thisrecommendation, but this is the granddaddy
of all doppelganger stories where thischaracter finds another character with
(40:55):
the same name and the same appearancethat keeps sabotaging his life.
And it's really so fascinating becauseevery other doppelganger story and
movie basically is borrowing thispremise, but it's probably never
more well explored than it is here.
The questions as to whether this issome kind of psychological break.
(41:16):
or whether this is literally somethingsupernatural happening is all the
way back in this original story.
So, and like I mentioned, you can findthis anywhere in any of the collected
works of Edgar Allan Poe, William Wilson,a short read, and it's fascinating and
like way ahead of its time, honestly.
Some movies you should check out.
Enemy, speaking of Jake Gyllenhaal,Denis Villeneuve, way before he made
(41:38):
Dune and became a huge blockbusterfilmmaker, followed up his.
Movie Prisoners, which also starredGyllenhaal, with this low budget
film Enemy based on, a novel bythe Portuguese writer José Saramago.
And once again, another story inwhich someone starts to experience
(41:58):
someone else living their livesbetter, perhaps, than they are.
Around the same time, Jesse Eisenbergwas in a film called The Double with Mia
And similarly, you have this very demureJesse Eisenberg character who finds that
there is another alternate version ofhimself, which is just killing it at being
(42:19):
him when he is failing at it miserably.
It's a very, very dark comedy thattakes place in a very surreal world,
a very hyper stylized world, butalso very interesting, once again,
dealing with these themes of who'sliving your life better than you are.
Of course, we have JordanPeele's film Us, the very popular
film from a few years back.
We have the film just from last year,or 2022, called Dual, D U A L, in which
(42:42):
Karen Gillan plays this nearly suicidalyoung woman who doesn't appreciate her
relatively unimpressive, uneventful life.
until she suddenly has to actuallyfight to the death with her doppelganger
in this world to decide which oneof them gets to continue to live.
Now, these aren't actual paralleluniverse recommendations, by the way.
(43:04):
They're purely doppelgangerrecommendations, intentionally so.
Maybe I'll have a separate listwhere I recommend additional
parallel universe films instead.
But there are actually quite a few moreof these doppelganger style films, and
it's also one of my favorite genres.
So do check out my letterboxd.
Check the show notes forthe link to my profile.
(43:26):
I'll have a much more extensivelist of other doppelganger related
recommendations Okay, sciencecorner objects in superposition.
So what does this all mean?
Do multiverses exist?
We hear about this all the time ButI'm gonna go a little bit into the
science of it because it is reallyso utterly fascinating Physics is so
crazy when you think about what ishappening at the the quantum level.
(43:51):
You've probably heard of thiswhole Schrodinger's cat experiment.
Imagine that depending on thesuperposition of a particular particle,
a gas will either poison the cat or not.
An object, according to experimentsthat have been done, does not have a
superposition until it is observed,until it interacts with something else.
(44:14):
So what does that mean?
Until that moment occurs, somehow,the cat is both dead and alive in
the box at the same time, and wedon't know until we observe, until we
open the box, and that's the momentwhen it has to pick a superposition.
Now, the reason I want to gointo this is because this is
something we observe all the time.
And it fascinates me.
(44:35):
Okay, you've probably heard from yourphysics 101 class that light is both a
particle and a wave at the same time.
But you don't really thinkabout what that means.
What it means is that you couldfire a photon of light in a straight
line, and yet it behaves like awave, and we see them all the time.
Think about when you wake up and thesun is streaming through the blinds,
(44:57):
and you have your blinds drawn.
And you may only have four orfive slots, slits in the blinds.
However, if you look at the wall,you won't see four or five slits.
You'll see dozens of these light lines.
You have lighter lines and morepronounced lines in the pattern on the
wall that's projected from the blinds.
(45:18):
And what you're seeing there is waves,like when you drop a rock into a lake,
and you see the waves spread out.
And then, of course, if they hit the edgeof the pond, if this is a small body of
water, and they come back in, you nowstart to see them collide with each other,
and you start to see these higher wavepatterns as they cross over each other.
(45:39):
So this is what you're seeing.
You're seeing this wavepattern on the wall.
So therefore, light is a wave.
However, we can also fire a photonof light into a lead plate, for
example, and it makes an individual.
Dot when it strikes the metalplate or photographic plate.
So it's a particle.
It's traveling in a linear direction.
(45:59):
Here's what's so fascinating.
If you set up a laser that shoots onephoton at a time and you fire into
that piece of paper with the slitin it, you would see when the photon
passes through the slit, it makesa line in the photographic plate.
If you have two slits, youwould expect to see two lines,
(46:19):
but that's not what happens.
Even though you're firing one photon at atime, you start to see interference waves.
What is it interfering with ifyou're firing one at a time?
So it's behaving like a wave, eventhough you're treating it like a
particle, which is really bizarre whenyou think about that, that something
(46:40):
can be in two states at the same time.
Even more strange is that if you putsome kind of sensor on the plate, the
sensor being on the plate forces theparticle into a superposition, and
then simply by observing the photon inflight, it now becomes a straight line.
(47:02):
It no longer behaves like a wavebecause you have basically forced it.
to be in one state or another.
So observing the object forcesit to be in one state or another.
Now, this originally was onlypossible , at the quantum level.
The idea is that if any object gottoo large, it by definition would be
(47:22):
an observation of itself in a way.
There's just too manyparticles next to each other.
So the idea would be that there wouldbe no way to have something big enough
to be visible to the naked eye, thatcould actually be in a superposition.
This only made sense at the quantum level.
But last year, just last year, there wasa crystal that is visible to the naked
eye that was tested in a superposition.
(47:45):
All this is to say that, theoretically,you could keep making larger and larger
objects, so maybe something , personsized, maybe something like that
is being explained in this book ispossible, extremely unlikely, by the way.
But it is still really fascinating thatphysics even works this way, especially
if it works this way on somethingwhich is big enough to be seen by
(48:07):
the naked eye, which is pretty easy.
revelatory.
Okay, which then leads us tothe idea of the multiverse.
Part of the theory of the multiverseis the fact that if something can
exist in two, quantum positionsat the same time, then where does
the other quantum position go?
If it's forced by observationinto one quantum position,
where did the other one go?
(48:27):
And some scientists believe that therehas to be some other dimension in which
the other observable behavior exists.
So theoretically, there arealmost infinite multiverses.
which is, of course, what is beingexplored in this series of television.
And then the idea, of course, thenis, well, if there's all this stuff,
(48:48):
there's all these , many, manymultiverses, how come we can't see them?
Where are they?
And, of course, the idea is there.
The title of the novel and theseries, Dark Matter, the vast
majority of everything in theuniverse of all matter is dark matter.
It's something that we cannotsee, but we know it's there.
It has weight.
There's something there.
There's a something in between what wecan see even at the subatomic level.
(49:12):
So what is it?
We just call it dark matter.
We don't know what it is.
We can't see it.
But imagine that in there is allof these other possibilities.
And that is what leads tothis theory of a multiverse.
Check out some videos on superpositionon the two slit two slip experiment.
I think it's calleddouble slit experiment.
(49:33):
Sorry.
Do track it down.
If any of what I said here was confusing,I probably didn't do a great job of
explaining it, but do check out someof these actual videos and experiments.
It's a pretty fascinating stuff.
And if you are interested in Physics,it does make you really think
about how strange our universe is.
Like, people are always trying tocome up with conspiracy theories
(49:54):
and magical explanations for things.
If you really explore physics itself,things are pretty strange and magical
without needing to have any explanation.
additional supernatural belief system.
Okay, so I will continueto watch this series.
I will check in with it over time.
Do check out The Big Door Prize.
Speaking of alternate histories, nextweek I will be giving my final opinions
(50:19):
on the final two episodes of Sugar.
Coming up later this week, Sona and Iwill be discussing Under the Bridge, The
Veil, and other shows we've been watching.
Early next week, my sister and I willbe, she hasn't been on the show in quite
some time, we'll be discussing a wholebunch of horror TV series and movies that
have recently become available to streamand watch or in theaters or upcoming,
(50:43):
lots of horror content coming out.
A pretty disappointing year so far,but Did watch a whole bunch of this
content and wanted to put thatconversation somewhere, and I'm
sure there'll be a letterbox list tocoincide with that conversation as well.
Alright, I hope you enjoyed this analysis.
Give us a positive review orrating , on Apple Podcasts, or
(51:03):
on your podcaster of choice.
Recommend this to your friends and familyyou think they may appreciate this or
they're watching any of these shows.
And I'll talk to you soon.
Welcome everybody to another episode of Need Some Introduction.
I'm your host, Victor, andas usual, I'm here to try to
introduce you all to something new.
And today that topic is going to be DarkMatter, the new Apple TV plus science
fiction thriller slash relationship drama.
This series is actually based on avery popular novel written by Blake
(00:22):
Crouch, who's had several of hisstories adapted to the small screen.
And I've actually been reading thisnovel in parallel with the series,
and I'll be comparing and contrasting.
Honestly, very faithfully adapting so far.
Not too many twists and turns, but Iwill call them out as we go through the
episodes of the series I probably willnot be coming back to this series every
(00:45):
single week I have a feeling I'll getinto it in some of my critiques of the
show that this is a nine Episode series.
These are pretty long episodes.
I have a feeling is gonnabe a lot of Filler here.
So probably checking in at differentpoints along the way critical reaction
so far has been pretty mixed butI I am very curious about this.
(01:05):
I love this idea of exploring alternatelives that you may have lived.
A theme that is actually very relevantin pop culture the past few years
with the popularity of the concept ofa multiverse, which has infiltrated
all of the IP out there right now.
Maybe all these creators are at an age nowwhere everyone's having a midlife crisis.
(01:27):
So along with this review andbreakdown of the first two episodes,
I also have some recommendations.
I'll also have a digression here on thescience behind the concepts here, which I
find really fascinating, so do indulge me.
But before we get to all of that, I wantedto shout out another Apple TV Plus series.
I recommended season one back lastyear or a year and a half ago at this
(01:47):
point when the series premiered.
And honestly, no one's watching this show.
I could tell just from seeing themetrics I check, not only for streaming
data, but just to see the popularityof things on message boards, IMDB.
Just watch which is a website where youcan go to find out where to watch content
and you can sort by popularity So youcould just basically see what is getting
(02:09):
traction What is getting searches andof course if people are searching for
something They probably are trying towatch it as well All that is to say that
this show doesn't pop up on anyone's listof popular things to watch But I love
this show and I, and I don't know why.
So I'm just trying toevangelize to you out there.
This show is called The Big DoorPrize, also based on a novel.
(02:29):
This seems to be a theme with Apple,by the way, a lot of the series that
I'll be discussing here, Apple relatedreferencing in connection with this new
series are based on a bestselling book.
And this seems to be somethingthat Apple does a lot of.
I'm not sure what their overall projectseems to be, what their brand seems to be.
They do tend to want some degreeof positivity in their storytelling.
(02:52):
You do see Apple devices in alot of these shows, so it's just
a place to brand their hardware.
And maybe that's why theydo so much science fiction.
But in their most popular shows,for example, severance, you
don't see any of that branding.
So once again, I'm not certain exactlywho's making these creative decisions
to green light these shows or whythey so often rely on literature
(03:14):
for the source of those stories.
It seems to be the case.
And as I mentioned, the big door priceis based on A novel written by M.
O.
Walsh and published back in 2020,right at the tail end of the
first lockdowns from the pandemic.
I've never read this book , butit's interesting, I'm looking at
some of the reviews for the book.
(03:36):
This has very mixed reactionsfrom readers, as does this series
have some pretty mixed reactionsfrom television audiences.
And I would say the criticismsare, for example, I don't
really like these characters.
They're not paying off the sciencefiction elements of the show.
The biggest compliment Iwould make to this show.
is that the whole sci fi premise.
(03:57):
I don't care if I ever find out thesolution to the mystery, which I think
is a big frustration for, for folksfeeling that they're not getting enough
breadcrumbs to solve this mystery ofwhat's happening in this small town.
Whereas my analogy would be somethinglike, The good place where you're really
tuning in for the sitcom elements.
You're tuning in to see thesecharacters dealing with the
(04:18):
circumstance and trying to make thebest of their situation together.
It's almost like a workplace comedy,honestly, in that regard, even though
it probably was promoted as being morehigh level sci fi, and that's why people.
Criticize it for not being that show.
The premise of the show, by the way, isa machine shows up, a cold, a Morphe,
(04:40):
I believe it shows up in the localconvenience store in a small town.
The town is completely idyllic.
You have a multiracial,peaceful, really caricature of
a Norman Rockwell, like fantasy
really just an ideal of what a smalltown would be like everybody knows each
(05:02):
other No one judges each other and whathappens is this Machine shows up prints
out a card and simply tells you oneword What your true destiny is and what
this does is that even in this idealperfectly in balance town Suddenly having
this machine tell people that theyare supposed to be this other thing You
(05:24):
throws everybody's lives into disarray,but in the most genteel way possible.
There is no sudden bloodthirsty battlesbreaking out in the street, which
could be a direction that the showlike this would go into, but that is
not at all what the show is about.
It's about the internal strugglesthat we face, questioning the
(05:45):
choices in our lives, which insome ways actually dovetails
.thematically broadly with dark matter and season two has come along after
really not explaining things in seasonone and Just the critique season one.
I thought the first two thirds of seasonone were absolutely exceptional I was
just vibing on that show in no small part.
So much of it is the tone.
(06:06):
There is this light comedictone to all the characters.
They're all a little bit goofy.
They all have their own failings,but the show is very gentle.
It does not judge them harshly.
It shows all of theirpositive and negative traits.
Once again, all positives in my book.
And yet the series has this melancholytone in no small part from this
(06:30):
incredible score, this reallybeautiful score that the show has.
And this continues in season two.
Season one does not explain whatthe source of the morphe is.
We find out a little bit more aboutit now But in season two also the
morphe now evolved into a secondarylevel and now people can feed their
cards back in and what they see is ananimated like a Really looking like
(06:52):
the old Sega graphics from the probablyearly 90s or so representation of
alternate lives they could have lived.
Sometimes it's explicitly other decisionsthey could have made, sometimes it's
simply is a metaphor for the currentstruggles they're encountering,
but it really becomes therapy foreverybody on the show, and for me,
(07:12):
we're halfway through season 2, Ithought, I think, the first half of
this season is really extraordinary.
If any of that sounds interestingto you, I'd say check out the first
two or three episodes of season one.
That's the tone.
It's not going to change significantly.
If you hate these characters, the showdoes an incredible job, I think, of making
(07:33):
you care for them even more over time.
But if you really don't likeanybody in the show, it's probably
not going to work for you.
If you don't buy into this tone, ifit doesn't touch you in some way,
this show may not work for you.
But for me, it really works well,and it's doing something that It's so
rare in television now, and honestly,I think Apple renewed this because
somebody internally loves this showthe way I do because it's not very
(07:55):
popular, but I'll do my best right hereto try to get at least a few of you
to check it out and give it a sample.
I assume Season 2 will be theend for this show, to be honest,
it has not apparently grown inpopularity from Season 1 to Season 2.
So if you did sample it in season one andyou're a little frustrated, I do presume
that the mystery of the Morpho machine.
(08:17):
Will be explained by the end of the seasonbecause I wouldn't expect to see more of
this Although I wouldn't mind if Applejust decides to renew it Anyway, okay on
to dark matter as I mentioned This showis created by Blake Crouch the author of
the novel as well a very popular novelmy relationship with Blake Crouch's
work is really in two different ways.
(08:39):
One is I did read his novel recursionand in that case also a thriller with
a mystery inside of it very similar Instructure to dark matter and the big idea
that's being played with there is beingable to be inside of a time loop What if
you could travel back in time make changesand then theoretically change your future?
(09:00):
And you're trapped in this loop, whichis a very long loop in this case.
It's not a five minuteloop or a two hour loop.
It is a decades long loop.
And that is an entertaining book.
Another bestseller for him.
I have my issues with himas an author in general.
I feel he spends a lot oftime setting up his concept.
The characters can be a little thin.
(09:20):
And really , his novelsfeel like screenplays.
In the fact that the charactersare oftentimes not really fleshed
out, it's as if they are just wordsthat the characters are speaking.
You can imbue them with yourown motivations and agendas, but
they really are almost lookingfor actors to flesh them out.
And I did think about reading StephenKing back in the day where The stories
(09:43):
will be very high concept, some kindof monster story, and also written, and
this is a compliment to Crouch's writingstyle, , very easy to read his books,
and I see why he's a popular author.
But unlike Stephen King, who alsohas a very easy writing style, like
a very natural storyteller, I findthat even the most preposterous
setups for Stephen King's novels areredeemed because you really start
(10:08):
to fall in love with his characters.
And I've never felt thatabout any of Crouch's writing.
I'm more there for the high conceptthan I am for the character development.
So that's my critiqueof Crouch in general.
Although, like I mentioned, very readable.
These are like beach books.
Before I start breaking down the plot,here's some recommendations of other
things you may want to check out thatare thematically linked to Dark Matter.
(10:32):
So minor spoiler, this is notreally explained until probably late
episode one or early episode twoof the series, but it's right in
the trailer and in the commercial,all the marketing for the series.
So I'm just going to lay it out there.
The basic premise of Dark Matteris someone who has the ability
of moving between multiversalversions of their lives.
(10:57):
And interestingly, Apple TV seemsto really like this thematically.
In 2022, they had a series calledShining Girls, also based on a
novel, this starring ElizabethMoss, who's currently in The Veil.
And also, featuring Wagner Mora, who wejust saw in Civil War, and with Jamie Bell
(11:19):
as a time traveling serial killer, andhow he changes events in these people's
lives, and how they start to sh slip.
People impacted by these crimes start toslip from one reality into another into
one Multiversal life path into anothernow this show was really interesting.
(11:40):
I would say in the most successfulat this although if you're the
type of viewer that requires apayoff that makes sense at the end
The payoff here basically is magic.
So if you're in it for the journey and notthe destination, I think this is slept on.
I think this is a show that's worthchecking out and full of beautiful
visuals, interesting ideas, a terrificperformance by Elizabeth Moss and
(12:04):
everybody, honestly, in this series.
But if you really need a gooddestination, then, um, Magic might
not be the most satisfying for you.
And that's not really a spoiler,there's more to it than that, but it's
not gonna be all buttoned up neatly.
I hear the book isn't buttoned up neatlyeither, maybe a second season of the
(12:25):
show would have allowed them to explorethe mechanics of this in more detail.
But this show is not going tobe renewed for a second season.
But I still think for Moss performanceand for the really beautiful style of
the show and this metaphor of traumafracturing your life, literally making
(12:46):
you an unrecognizable person before andafter, all of that works really well.
Like I said, payoff, not great.
By the way, we did coverthat on the podcast.
So if you've watched that orplan to watch it, look for those
episodes in our back catalog.
Another series that I really honestlycan't recommend, although it has some very
strong aspects is the recently concludedseries constellation, also Apple TV plus.
(13:09):
So easily available if you arecurrently watching dark matter.
about an astronaut, played by NumiRippas, who is on the International
Space Station when there is an accident.
Once again, an experiment thatis trying to create an object in
superposition, a multiversal event.
And because of her proximity to theaccident, she ends up existing in both
(13:31):
multiversal planes at the same time.
Once again here, the journey's a littletoo slow, performance is terrific
and that's the main reason thatyou may want to watch this, seeing
this woman doubting her own sanity,dealing with the circumstance is
really compelling, that aspect of it,but so much of the story just takes
too long to get to where it's going.
It needs a second season.
(13:52):
Really, once again, so many of theseshows setting up season one for season
two, it needed to deliver more inseason one, in my opinion, especially
since so many of these shows willjust never simply get a second season.
But if you do love this kind ofstorytelling, if you do like Numi
Rapace, who gives so many terrificperformances in projects, series
and movies that just don't work,don't quite work, do check it out.
(14:14):
If you're curious about that, Ifelt that it was a little too slow.
But I often feel that way about thesesci fi series and people seem to enjoy
them a lot more than I did for exampleI had all the same criticisms about the
peripheral which I felt just was all setup for season two I covered it here on a
podcast made that criticism but many ofyou reached out to me and were happy with
(14:34):
the series But I still stick by the factIf season one is just set up for season
two, and unfortunately, we don't get aseason two It all seems a A bit wasted.
Long story short, my generaladvice is make a compelling season
one, and then you'll be muchmore likely to get a season two.
But there seems to be a philosophy oflike, well, I'm not going to pay it off.
I'm going to force you to greenlight a season two by not giving you
(14:56):
a successful payoff in season one.
And, uh, if you see what's happeningamong these shows being canceled, that
strategy does not seem to be working.
So take that anti, I guess, um,recommendation, as you will.
It's called Constellation, but if youdo love these type of stories, this
just wrapped up recently, about a monthor two ago, and it explores a lot of
the same thematics as Dark Matter.
(15:18):
Dark Matter begins, interestingly,we see this large cube, this
superposition box that we'll discoverover the course of the series.
The first few episodes.
Interesting that they tease it inthe opening moments of episode one.
And then we see it created againin this really beautiful opening
credit sequence, where it'salmost like a puzzle box clicking
(15:40):
together to create a similar cube.
This opening sequence very muchreminded me of another show that is a
recommendation here as well, which is aseries called Counterpart, starring J.
K.
Simmons from a few years back, rightafter he won his Academy Award for
Whiplash, where it takes place duringCold War era Germany, where a tunnel
(16:00):
has opened, and never explained in thecourse of the two seasons of that series,
an experiment gone wrong once again.
under a government facility, whichbasically creates two parallel worlds
that are mirrored at that doorway.
And then metaphorically for the dividedGermany at the time, you have agents that
(16:21):
try to infiltrate one side of the breachor the other, and it allows Simmons to
give a really great dual performanceas these two different characters.
One a more genteel worker withinthis organization, and his
counterpart, a hardened spy.
And their interactions with each otherand discovery as to what led to in
(16:41):
these two very divergent versions oftheir lives is really fascinating stuff.
The series loses a little bit of itssteam towards the end of season two,
never came back for season threeto resolve some of these mysteries,
of course, but do check that out.
It's really, really good and probablya more interesting exploration of
these topics, to be honest, thanwhat I've seen so far in this series.
Season in dark matter, althoughI haven't seen the whole thing.
(17:04):
the beginning of episode 1 we seeJoel Edgerton Playing Jason Dessen,
and he is a university professor.
He teaches math to a prettybored Classroom of young adults.
Connelly playing Daniela his wife Theyhave a teenage son who in the novel is
explicitly supposed to be some kind ofreally impressive teenage art prodigy.
(17:28):
He's only 15 years old.
I believe he's 15 years old in theseries as well, but appears older.
And Daniela is also an artist.
She was once a very successful andup and coming artist, who now owns a
gallery in her Chicago neighborhood.
So this is an interesting setup.
People who aspire to greatness.
And it's a metaphor for all of us whoprobably fantasized of the careers
(17:52):
and the impact we'd have on the world.
which, in the end, didn't quitepay out the way we expected.
We had relationships, we chose safecareers, we had children, which of
course changed all these trajectories.
And that's what we're seeing representedhere in the early part of the season.
He's telling his studentsabout cat thought experiment.
(18:13):
Very important here, of course,for the themes of the season.
And then early on, interestingly, theyshow us Edgerton's character, once
again, he's in some warehouse somewhere.
At one moment, we're thinking, is thisguy some kind of secret serial killer?
Like what's going on here?
What don't I know?
I already knew, of course, becauseI have read about half of this book.
(18:34):
And of course, it's in thecommercial as well, if you've
seen the commercial for this show.
I'm always very curious about howsomething is presented to the audience.
Because at this moment, with nocontext, if you're watching this,
absolutely no context, no context.
What do you think this guyis doing at that moment?
He has some vial of some kind ofchemical compound, which of course
is going to be important later.
And despite the fact it's familynight, he's received a call from his
(18:57):
friend Ryan Holder, played by JimmySimpson, who you'll recognize from
Westworld, you'll recognize fromIt's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
And he has selected to come celebratein Dessin's local neighborhood, there
in Chicago, by the way, if I haven'tmentioned that, as a way to almost
make it impossible for him to refusethe invitation to hang out with him.
(19:18):
He's won some prestigious scienceprize, and we discover over the course
of this conversation that Really,it was Destin who was the science
genius back in college, around thetime that Daniella got pregnant,
he had lost funding to his project,and I'm going to throw it in here.
Importantly, that he's so clueless as towhat's happening to him over the course
(19:40):
of this show, or the first few episodes.
His experiment was to create aan object in superposition that
was visible to the naked eye.
I'm going to have a little sciencedigression here because I find
this concept really fascinating,so I have to spend some time on it.
But just for now that what's happeningto him is basically what his experiment
was, so that it takes him so long tofigure out what's going on is a little
(20:02):
annoying, to be honest with you,in the book and in the show itself.
Ryan offers him a job he's about toraise hundreds of millions of dollars.
His profile is even highernow that he's won this award.
And he wants Jason to come work for him.
However, it'll probably be relocating to.
San Francisco.
And Jason's against this.
This is where his life is.
He wants to stay in Chicago.
But Ryan says, just think on it.
(20:23):
But it's pretty clear that he is bothtelling him, I won't take this job.
And yet he's looking at what his friendhas achieved and thinking you could just
tell Edgerton's performance that he'sthinking this could have been my life.
This could have been whatI did on his way home.
He's almost hit by a cab.
If some of those earlier sceneshadn't been teased here, you could
(20:45):
actually read the whole entirefilm as he was hit by the cab.
And the whole series is a death dream.
This is like a, how did this get madefavorite joke here that, you know, so
many illogical things happen in films.
You just say, Oh, what ifit was all a death dream?
We do have a possible out here withthis near fatal car crash and someone
with a creepy mask and a recognizablevoice confronts Jason and kidnaps
(21:10):
him in both the book and the series.
This kidnapper asks Jason for his phone,knows how to unlock it, of course,
because they have the same passcode.
Of course, Jason doesn't understandthis at this moment, because he
has no idea who has abducted him.
But there are hints here already.
As I mentioned, he knows his passcode.
He knows a lot of personaldetails about his life.
(21:31):
He takes his wedding band.
He makes him undress.
He injects him with something, whichmakes him feel very calm, and later on
we find out it is Special K ketamine.
And then the masked man tells himthat he can make the best of this.
This could be the best thing for everyone.
So knowing the context we know by theend of this episode, it is interesting
at this moment that this alternate Jasondoes seem to have picked this version
(21:55):
of himself, someone who is pining forthe alternate life, which he is living,
but apparently is unsatisfied with.
We don't know exactly all the detailsof that yet, but this is what he's
hinting at as Jason prime, Jason one.
falls unconscious.
He wakes up, there's a fullscientific crew around him.
He's decontaminated.
This is an extremely painfulexperience, by the way, in the book.
(22:17):
Just hinting that here briefly.
We just see him like in the shower.
It doesn't seem to be as traumatic.
And this is when Amanda walks in tocheck in on him, played by Alice Braga.
And we can tell right away, not inthe book, by the way, an invention
for the series, we can tell rightaway that she is taking it back,
that he doesn't recognize her.
And she's like, We know as viewers, waybefore he does, understand that they are
(22:39):
in a relationship with each other andhe gets taken to see Leighton, played
by Deo Okenei, who he does recognize.
We haven't seen Leighton in JasonPrime's original timeline, but
the presumption here in both thebook and the series is that they
knew each other in some capacity.
Amanda's taken it back yet again thathe recognizes Layton, but not her, of
(23:01):
course, unaware of what's happening.
Despite the fact that he's happyto see Layton, he's still super
perplexed by what's happening here.
There are people applauding him.
He's a doctor.
They start asking him a lot of questions.
I know you're probably disoriented,I know you've lost your memory
probably, but we need to juststart with some simple things.
What's the last thing you remember?
He starts recounting being kidnapped.
(23:22):
In the book, by the way, this ishandled better, obviously it could
be inside someone's head inside of anovel, but this is handled pretty well.
He intelligently starts readingthe situation saying, well,
don't say the wrong thing.
He just susses out.
that he probably should play alongjust for his own self preservation.
He also gets the lay of the land thatthis place is set up security wise to
(23:45):
keep people out, as you would expectfrom a scientific establishment,
not necessarily to keep people in.
It's not some kind of prison.
So he can make an escape prettyeasily, Which happens in the series
as well, but without much explanation.
He just basically says, Oh,can I go into the hallway?
And he just wanders out of the building.
But it makes a littlemore sense in the novel.
And they hint at that here as well.
(24:06):
When he meets a security guard, theysay, Oh, I haven't seen you in a while.
Like, they don't expecthim to be escaping.
He works there after all.
Although he has beenmissing for over a year.
Uh, also during this interview,we realized that other people
have gone on similar journeys.
He's the only one to have come back.
And they want to know,well, how did you come back?
Why did no one else come back?
(24:27):
And of course, this is whatthey're very curious about on this
probably very high stakes, verydangerous, and very controversial
if anybody knew about it mission.
And of course, this version of Jasondoesn't know anything other than, you The
only thing he can reveal is that he's notthe Jason they're looking for, which he
doesn't even understand at this moment.
But even if he did, it wouldprobably just endanger his life here.
So he decides he's going torun away and try to get home.
(24:50):
He was given his keys,his wallet, his cash.
Obviously, he was not a prisoner,so, of course, no problem.
Problem with any of those things sohe's able to catch a cab get back home
And he's expecting to see Daniela, butinstead Amanda is there and this is when
she explicitly says we live together Ofcourse the house looks totally different.
This is also in the novel Although when hegets home in the novel, no one is living
(25:11):
there with him and the place is muchmore fancily decorated In this universe.
He's a very famous and richscientist a billionaire, I believe.
So he has everything perfectlyappointed, not the more rustic home
he's inherited from his dad in theJason Prime version of his life with
a university professor's salary.
But in parallel action, we see thisother Jason has come home and is indeed
(25:37):
interacting with Jennifer Connelly.
No cut on his nose, by the way.
Very easy way to tell them apart.
She's a little annoyed.
Where have you been all night?
He's like, oh, I drank too much.
Yadda, yadda, yadda.
She had encouraged him, by the way, to goout to have this meeting with his friend,
rather than family night, but obviouslydidn't expect him to stay out all night.
And this version of Jason, this is justlike the novel, by the way, is very
(26:02):
happy to see her and she gets suspicious.
Like, were you flirtingwith some girls at the bar?
What's happening right now?
He makes the excuse that it's the factthat he almost died getting hit by
a taxi, which does happen actually.
And it just made him appreciatehis life so much more.
Meanwhile, our Jason, Jasonprime is in his alternate world.
He goes into his office and he seesthat he he's the one who's won this
(26:25):
prestigious prize and he's made allthese big scientific discoveries
This is the alternate track of hislife if he'd not settled down with
Daniela and had a son He starts makingphone calls to Daniela's cell phone.
Someone else answers.
This also happens in the novel, bythe way And by the way, he's much
more subtle about this in the novel.
(26:46):
Here he's just overtly saying,Danielle is my wife, yelling this out
in front of Alice Braga's character.
It's like anyone who starts to investigateany of this stuff is going to figure
out what's going on with him right away.
He seems to be more protectiveof letting anybody know.
That he feels out of place, whetherhe thinks he's just insane, or whether
he thinks something else is goingon, he still seems a little more
(27:08):
protective about this in the novelthan he is in the series so far.
The government goons show up again athis home, and he makes another escape.
Meanwhile, Mastermind Jason, theJason from this alternate timeline,
has seduced Daniella, and theymake love as the episode ends.
In episode 2, Jason shows up at hisfavorite watering hole, the same place he
(27:30):
had met with Ryan earlier in the night.
The bartender's the same,but doesn't recognize him.
Whereas in his version of the universe,they all know each other very well.
He checks himself into a hospital tosee if he has any kind of brain trauma
or any kind of abnormalities, a braintumor or something that's causing
him to imagine alternate histories.
(27:50):
The doctor says, your brain scansseem normal, and I checked out
all your biographical information.
There is no.
Daniela Dessin anywhere.
There's no son registered to anyof the high schools around here.
But I looked up your biography,by the way, doctor, and you're
a very famous scientist who'sdisappeared for 14 months ago.
Your brother has put out an APB for you.
(28:12):
And Jason on an iPad does his owninvestigation and puts in Daniela's
maiden name and does find her.
The doctor says, you know what?
I think you need to be committed.
You obviously are having some kind ofpsychological break of some kind and
he simply says I agree with you doctorBut actually takes the opportunity
to walk out of the hospital sincehe's Voluntarily committing himself.
(28:36):
It's not strange that he would just beable to check himself out But he's just
basically running from one situationto another throughout the course of
these two episodes I like when wesee evil Jason show up at Jason's
university job Joel Edgerton giving aninteresting dual performance here You
can definitely tell when he's playingone character over another and really
(28:56):
embracing the opportunity to Educatethese kids and really snap them out
of what's probably very a complacentrelationship between Jason and these
students This is probably where the showis working the best when it's exploring
someone stepping into someone else'sshoes and embracing that opportunity.
As a matter of fact, what this mademe think about a little bit is the
(29:19):
John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, JohnWoo film face off where you have
this criminal and this cop who switchfaces completely improbably, by the
way, and start to experience lifethrough the eyes of these greatest.
Enemies of theirs, by the way, timeto reboot that let's use modern day
technology where you can swap notfaces physically like plastic surgery,
(29:42):
but which doesn't make any sense.
By the way, like your bodychanges to how did that work?
Like, didn't your wife notice yourbody was completely different,
but also I should say, but in thein maybe a new version of this.
Swapping consciousness using some kindof brain link . Anyway, get working
on that Hollywood Okay, Leighton andAmanda are Concerned of what's going on
(30:05):
with Jason who's on the run right nowThey're afraid of information about their
experiment leaking out Jason meanwhilegoes to Daniela's art exhibition which
was inspired by something he had saidand His images are all over this place,
by the way When he runs into JenniferConnelly, Daniella, looking absolutely
stunning with even longer hair.
(30:26):
No wonder he gave up hissuccessful life for this woman.
Also here is Jimmy playing Ryan.
This version of Ryan is moredisheveled, not as well dressed.
Jimmy Simpson does a reallyimpressive job of conveying this.
He also looks pudgier, maybe they putsomething in his cheeks or something
to make him look a little heavier.
But he does do an interesting job of justshowing the same person, but a little more
(30:48):
neutered, a little more self conscious.
We get some more clues herefrom his interactions that he
has been gone for some while.
Everybody's curious as to where he's been.
Daniela invites Jason to her apartment.
Along with Ryan Ryan and Daniela seemto have some kind of relationship going
on This is the same in the novel and theseries by the way, this is one to one
(31:09):
there's some very on the nose dialoguein this whole sequence Especially when
Daniela starts saying the last timeI saw you you told me how I may never
see you again I screwed everythingup very strange thing to be saying in
front of Ryan, maybe too personal Thisscene is really awkward in the book.
This whole sequence iscompletely improbable in the
(31:31):
book in general, I would say.
Much better here, mostly because ofJennifer Connelly's performance to
somehow sell all of this dialogue and showher conflicted emotions, but still how
she's coming around to believing this.
Because over the course of thisconversation, he says, okay, theoretical
situation, you wake up in thiscircumstance, you believe this is what's
(31:52):
happening, what do you think it is?
And they throw aroundsome different ideas.
He says, no, it's not that, it's notthat, it's not a brain tumor, for example.
And then Ryan says, well,then this person is nuts.
And Jason says, well, I'mnot nuts, I'm not crazy.
Which stops the conversation cold,but then Ryan starts to think what
kind of game are you playing here?
He starts getting annoyed andhe's like, are you trying to
(32:14):
convince me that this is for real?
He also hints at the fact also in thenovel by the way that he as a biochemist
had created some special compoundsThe year before around the time of his
disappearance Of course, this is probablythe chemicals that are being used as part
of this multiverse traveling process Andwhen he plays like he doesn't even know
what he's talking about Ryan hesitates fora moment, but then just says good night.
(32:38):
I'm done with this.
He does offer to escort him outif Daniella feels uncomfortable.
She says no, it's okay, andhe leaves for the night.
Over the course of the next day We seethat evil Ryan is aggressively trying to
assert himself in this situation universe.
He's very territorial abouthow Daniela spends her time.
You could see that she's trainingfor a triathlon, I believe.
(32:59):
She has her own life.
This is obviously part of beingmarried and still carving out
your own interests and time, whichhe seems to not be okay with.
He pretends like he is, but he'snot really okay with it, I believe.
After all, this is what he's been hopingfor for his whole entire life, dreaming
about for decades now, but he'll allow it.
He's also very annoyed that Ryan hasspoken to her about this job offer, going
(33:25):
as far as saying, You called my wife?
So, extremely territorial.
I would say this, many thingshere are much better in the
series versus the novel.
This is better in the novel.
We're actually sympathetic to evil Jason.
in the book because he seems to be sohappy, really appreciative of Daniela in
a way that probably she wasn't feeling inher long term marriage and relationship
(33:50):
with the other version of Jason.
So, basically, both charactersare sympathetic in, at least
initially, in the novel.
Which for me is a more interestingdynamic because there's a possibility
there of saying like, wait asecond, is basically the bad guy
potentially right that swappinglives would make everybody happier.
(34:10):
And that's an interesting premise for me.
It's my tendency to preferhaving that ambiguity.
in these stories, rather than what we seehere, which is pretty clearly setting up
that this Jason is a sociopath, basically.
Meanwhile, Jason Prime isin his alternate world.
He has lured Amanda out of the houseby asking her to meet him across
(34:34):
town when he's actually stationedright outside with Daniela in And
they start to do an investigation asto what might have really happened.
He starts to read some of his notesfrom his work, and he realizes that the
experiment he attempted years beforehas not only been successfully achieved,
but that the object, this visible objectin superposition and hang in there,
(34:59):
science corner is coming to an end.
Has been built bigger and bigger andbigger, and now they have a larger and
larger container, where theoretically,you could pass a human sized object
through this Schrödinger's box.
And of course, that isexactly the experiment that
he's been caught up in here.
Whereas in the book, this is muchbetter in the series, by the way.
Whereas in the book, Daniela, overthe course of that first night
(35:20):
together, she just starts to go like,I don't know why, I think I just love
you, I believe what you're saying,before things take a tragic turn.
Jennifer Connelly plays this Way moreskeptically, but as the evidence starts
to pile up she does start to give intothis revelation I think the believability
of this is all much stronger in theTV version Evil Jason is back in this
(35:46):
storage space where he's been storinghis kidnap equipment and probably
stationed for this entire year and change.
He's looking at schematicsto build one of these boxes.
I presume that the last 14 months werespent building this box so that he
could send his alternate versions back.
And we see, just like we saw at the, very beginning , of the pilot episode.
(36:08):
one of these boxes in this Prime universe.
And after going on this explorationall day, we see Daniela with
Jason Prime back in her apartment.
I forgot to mention the whole factthat Jason Prime shows up at this art
installation, sees his wife, you know,the day before she was simply his wife,
(36:29):
this alternate version of herself.
I mean, this needs to have, and itdoesn't get into it in detail in
the book either, but this would be afascinating exploration of just this
moment of what is your headspace tosay, well, what is really going on?
Am I simply losing my mind?
But if I am losing my mind, how isthis woman in front of me, who is my
wife, who I've known for decades, whois, however, looking at me as if she
(36:54):
hasn't seen me in years, only saw mecasually over the course of many years.
And he's just kind of noddinghis head and going like, yeah,
sure, this all makes sense.
And his friend shows up, kisses heron the mouth, and he's just sort of
like, yeah, whatever, this is cool.
I would love to be, you know, spend evenmore time in this headspace, I guess.
You could do a whole book on that, butit is probably a really crazy, crazy,
(37:16):
crazy, moment that gets elided veryquickly in the series, necessitated
by obviously we can't dig into it, butit is when you really think about that
moment in a microcosm, it is absolutelynuts and played off pretty casually.
Now in the book, Jason Primedoes get lucky here with this
alternate version of his wife.
(37:36):
But here they are interrupted becausejust as he's about to kiss her, the
security guard that we saw before,Layton's security guard, kicks in the
door and shock of all shocks, shootsDaniela right in between the eyes.
And that's the end of episode two.
This also happens in the book, by the way.
Okay.
So as an adaptation so far,this thing is moving at a clip.,
(37:59):
all this is happening much morequickly than it does in the book.
I think this is a much betterversion of the story so far for me.
And I do want to put that caveat therebecause I found it takes us 40 percent
of the book, maybe more, to get tothis point in the story where we're
in two episodes into this nine episode.
(38:19):
Season now, that's why I putthe caveat for me because even
as I'm reading the book I'm wayahead of where the character is.
So I'm like, okay get to it already getto it already I get it Schrodinger's cat.
I get it multiverses.
And of course this book was writtenalmost a decade ago so the fact that
(38:40):
everybody knows multiverses now whetherit's everything everywhere all at once
whether it's all of the Marvel CinematicUniverse, the Spider Man Cinematic
Universe, multiverses are everywhere now.
So we don't need this primer.
But of course, he's writing itin a way where maybe you do.
And since I do not, it really drags.
Those first third or moreof the book really drags.
(39:02):
in him saying, what could possibly begoing on with all these hints about
quantum superpositions incessantly.
So long story short, weget there much faster.
So I prefer on thenegative side, I do worry.
I do worry that here we are 40percent of the way through the novel,
let's say, but only 25 percent or30 percent through this series.
(39:27):
My gut instinct is that this might havea lot of filler here in the middle.
Some critics have already seen theentire series, and even the negative
reviews, and there's been quite afew negative reviews by the way, say
that the ending is really thrilling.
All this is to say that I probably willnot be going week to week with this on the
podcast, but when there's big events, Iassume right in the middle of the season,
(39:47):
and then maybe come back week to week forthe last two or three episodes as the.
I would assume the plot picks up again.
So as I mentioned, seven more episodes.
So that's another month and a half or so.
In the meantime, of course, we willbe discussing House of the Dragons
Return, wrapping up the shows we'recurrently watching, Sugar wraps up
next week, Under the Bridge, and TheVeil wrap up in subsequent weeks.
(40:11):
The Boys is coming back.
And Sona and I will probably bewatching The new adaptation of Presumed
Innocent starring Jake Gyllenhaal.
Okay, before we get into science corner,some more recommendations, stories
and movies that feature doppelgangers,evil, alternate versions of people.
The first recommendation Ihave for you, which is easily.
(40:33):
accessible since in the publicdomain is actually a story called
William Wilson, William Wilsonby Edgar Allen Poe from 1840.
I'm going way back for thisrecommendation, but this is the granddaddy
of all doppelganger stories where thischaracter finds another character with
(40:55):
the same name and the same appearancethat keeps sabotaging his life.
And it's really so fascinating becauseevery other doppelganger story and
movie basically is borrowing thispremise, but it's probably never
more well explored than it is here.
The questions as to whether this issome kind of psychological break.
(41:16):
or whether this is literally somethingsupernatural happening is all the
way back in this original story.
So, and like I mentioned, you can findthis anywhere in any of the collected
works of Edgar Allan Poe, William Wilson,a short read, and it's fascinating and
like way ahead of its time, honestly.
Some movies you should check out.
Enemy, speaking of Jake Gyllenhaal,Denis Villeneuve, way before he made
(41:38):
Dune and became a huge blockbusterfilmmaker, followed up his.
Movie Prisoners, which also starredGyllenhaal, with this low budget
film Enemy based on, a novel bythe Portuguese writer José Saramago.
And once again, another story inwhich someone starts to experience
(41:58):
someone else living their livesbetter, perhaps, than they are.
Around the same time, Jesse Eisenbergwas in a film called The Double with Mia
And similarly, you have this very demureJesse Eisenberg character who finds that
there is another alternate version ofhimself, which is just killing it at being
(42:19):
him when he is failing at it miserably.
It's a very, very dark comedy thattakes place in a very surreal world,
a very hyper stylized world, butalso very interesting, once again,
dealing with these themes of who'sliving your life better than you are.
Of course, we have JordanPeele's film Us, the very popular
film from a few years back.
We have the film just from last year,or 2022, called Dual, D U A L, in which
(42:42):
Karen Gillan plays this nearly suicidalyoung woman who doesn't appreciate her
relatively unimpressive, uneventful life.
until she suddenly has to actuallyfight to the death with her doppelganger
in this world to decide which oneof them gets to continue to live.
Now, these aren't actual paralleluniverse recommendations, by the way.
(43:04):
They're purely doppelgangerrecommendations, intentionally so.
Maybe I'll have a separate listwhere I recommend additional
parallel universe films instead.
But there are actually quite a few moreof these doppelganger style films, and
it's also one of my favorite genres.
So do check out my letterboxd.
Check the show notes forthe link to my profile.
(43:26):
I'll have a much more extensivelist of other doppelganger related
recommendations Okay, sciencecorner objects in superposition.
So what does this all mean?
Do multiverses exist?
We hear about this all the time ButI'm gonna go a little bit into the
science of it because it is reallyso utterly fascinating Physics is so
crazy when you think about what ishappening at the the quantum level.
(43:51):
You've probably heard of thiswhole Schrodinger's cat experiment.
Imagine that depending on thesuperposition of a particular particle,
a gas will either poison the cat or not.
An object, according to experimentsthat have been done, does not have a
superposition until it is observed,until it interacts with something else.
(44:14):
So what does that mean?
Until that moment occurs, somehow,the cat is both dead and alive in
the box at the same time, and wedon't know until we observe, until we
open the box, and that's the momentwhen it has to pick a superposition.
Now, the reason I want to gointo this is because this is
something we observe all the time.
And it fascinates me.
(44:35):
Okay, you've probably heard from yourphysics 101 class that light is both a
particle and a wave at the same time.
But you don't really thinkabout what that means.
What it means is that you couldfire a photon of light in a straight
line, and yet it behaves like awave, and we see them all the time.
Think about when you wake up and thesun is streaming through the blinds,
(44:57):
and you have your blinds drawn.
And you may only have four orfive slots, slits in the blinds.
However, if you look at the wall,you won't see four or five slits.
You'll see dozens of these light lines.
You have lighter lines and morepronounced lines in the pattern on the
wall that's projected from the blinds.
(45:18):
And what you're seeing there is waves,like when you drop a rock into a lake,
and you see the waves spread out.
And then, of course, if they hit the edgeof the pond, if this is a small body of
water, and they come back in, you nowstart to see them collide with each other,
and you start to see these higher wavepatterns as they cross over each other.
(45:39):
So this is what you're seeing.
You're seeing this wavepattern on the wall.
So therefore, light is a wave.
However, we can also fire a photonof light into a lead plate, for
example, and it makes an individual.
Dot when it strikes the metalplate or photographic plate.
So it's a particle.
It's traveling in a linear direction.
(45:59):
Here's what's so fascinating.
If you set up a laser that shoots onephoton at a time and you fire into
that piece of paper with the slitin it, you would see when the photon
passes through the slit, it makesa line in the photographic plate.
If you have two slits, youwould expect to see two lines,
(46:19):
but that's not what happens.
Even though you're firing one photon at atime, you start to see interference waves.
What is it interfering with ifyou're firing one at a time?
So it's behaving like a wave, eventhough you're treating it like a
particle, which is really bizarre whenyou think about that, that something
(46:40):
can be in two states at the same time.
Even more strange is that if you putsome kind of sensor on the plate, the
sensor being on the plate forces theparticle into a superposition, and
then simply by observing the photon inflight, it now becomes a straight line.
(47:02):
It no longer behaves like a wavebecause you have basically forced it.
to be in one state or another.
So observing the object forcesit to be in one state or another.
Now, this originally was onlypossible , at the quantum level.
The idea is that if any object gottoo large, it by definition would be
(47:22):
an observation of itself in a way.
There's just too manyparticles next to each other.
So the idea would be that there wouldbe no way to have something big enough
to be visible to the naked eye, thatcould actually be in a superposition.
This only made sense at the quantum level.
But last year, just last year, there wasa crystal that is visible to the naked
eye that was tested in a superposition.
(47:45):
All this is to say that, theoretically,you could keep making larger and larger
objects, so maybe something , personsized, maybe something like that
is being explained in this book ispossible, extremely unlikely, by the way.
But it is still really fascinating thatphysics even works this way, especially
if it works this way on somethingwhich is big enough to be seen by
(48:07):
the naked eye, which is pretty easy.
revelatory.
Okay, which then leads us tothe idea of the multiverse.
Part of the theory of the multiverseis the fact that if something can
exist in two, quantum positionsat the same time, then where does
the other quantum position go?
If it's forced by observationinto one quantum position,
where did the other one go?
(48:27):
And some scientists believe that therehas to be some other dimension in which
the other observable behavior exists.
So theoretically, there arealmost infinite multiverses.
which is, of course, what is beingexplored in this series of television.
And then the idea, of course, thenis, well, if there's all this stuff,
(48:48):
there's all these , many, manymultiverses, how come we can't see them?
Where are they?
And, of course, the idea is there.
The title of the novel and theseries, Dark Matter, the vast
majority of everything in theuniverse of all matter is dark matter.
It's something that we cannotsee, but we know it's there.
It has weight.
There's something there.
There's a something in between what wecan see even at the subatomic level.
(49:12):
So what is it?
We just call it dark matter.
We don't know what it is.
We can't see it.
But imagine that in there is allof these other possibilities.
And that is what leads tothis theory of a multiverse.
Check out some videos on superpositionon the two slit two slip experiment.
I think it's calleddouble slit experiment.
(49:33):
Sorry.
Do track it down.
If any of what I said here was confusing,I probably didn't do a great job of
explaining it, but do check out someof these actual videos and experiments.
It's a pretty fascinating stuff.
And if you are interested in Physics,it does make you really think
about how strange our universe is.
Like, people are always trying tocome up with conspiracy theories
(49:54):
and magical explanations for things.
If you really explore physics itself,things are pretty strange and magical
without needing to have any explanation.
additional supernatural belief system.
Okay, so I will continueto watch this series.
I will check in with it over time.
Do check out The Big Door Prize.
Speaking of alternate histories, nextweek I will be giving my final opinions
(50:19):
on the final two episodes of Sugar.
Coming up later this week, Sona and Iwill be discussing Under the Bridge, The
Veil, and other shows we've been watching.
Early next week, my sister and I willbe, she hasn't been on the show in quite
some time, we'll be discussing a wholebunch of horror TV series and movies that
have recently become available to streamand watch or in theaters or upcoming,
(50:43):
lots of horror content coming out.
A pretty disappointing year so far,but Did watch a whole bunch of this
content and wanted to put thatconversation somewhere, and I'm
sure there'll be a letterbox list tocoincide with that conversation as well.
Alright, I hope you enjoyed this analysis.
Give us a positive review orrating , on Apple Podcasts, or
(51:03):
on your podcaster of choice.
Recommend this to your friends and familyyou think they may appreciate this or
they're watching any of these shows.
And I'll talk to you soon.
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