{"id":2246572,"date":"2024-05-17T02:45:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T06:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-multiverse-strikes-again-review-of-dark-matter-on-apple-tv\/"},"modified":"2024-05-17T02:49:24","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T06:49:24","slug":"the-multiverse-strikes-again-review-of-dark-matter-on-apple-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-multiverse-strikes-again-review-of-dark-matter-on-apple-tv\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the Multiverse: Dark Matter Review on Apple TV+"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-multiverse-strikes-again-review-of-dark-matter-on-apple-tv%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2246572&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>&#8220;Dark Matter&#8221; on \u2063Apple TV+ delves into parallel realities and quantum theories, blurring the line between science and fiction. The\u2062 protagonist&#8217;s journey through alternate worlds challenges the boundaries of existence, intertwined with mystery and self-discovery. With stellar performances and a captivating plot, the series explores the depths of reality and identity in a thrilling and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-most-daily-wire-thing-weve-ever-done-jeremy-boreing-talks-lady-ballers-with-gad-saad\/\" title=\"Jeremy Boreing discusses 'Lady Ballers' with Gad Saad, calling it the 'most Daily Wire thing ever\">thought-provoking manner<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Like most people, I sometimes wonder how life might have unfolded had I made, at critical junctures, a different choice. What I haven\u2019t done is break into a parallel reality, identify a better version of myself, and force him at gunpoint to trade places. Laziness? The reader may suspect so. Then again, parting ways with the antagonist of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/apple\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Apple<\/a>\u2019s new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/tv\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>series<\/a> <em>Dark Matter<\/em>, I don\u2019t have a Ph.D. in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nanny-state-chuck-schumer-eyes-federal-crackdown-on-zyn-pouches\/\" title=\"Chuck Schumer wants to crack down on Zyn Pouches at the federal level, promoting a nanny state\">quantum theory<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>If the multiverse is having a moment, it is only because \u201cthe Science\u201d continues to have a bigger one. One might expect, observing the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/science\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>hard sciences<\/a>\u2019 replication crisis, a little representational modesty. How about a series in which a heroic researcher eschews p-hacking and gets the same results twice in a row? Instead, we have quantum superpositions. Scratch a popular screen production these days, and one is likely to find the well-credentialed bending time and space to their will. In <em>Everything Everywhere All at Once<\/em>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/oscars\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>2023 Oscar winner<\/a>, Michelle Yeoh\u2019s Alpha-Evelyn discovered \u201cverse-jumping\u201d seemingly by accident, so exceptional was her apparent brilliance. It wasn\u2019t <em>Mister<\/em> but <em>Doctor<\/em> Strange who strode through Marvel\u2019s \u201cMultiverse of Madness\u201d the previous year. It\u2019s all nonsense, of course, but of a peculiarly triumphalist kind. <\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly in Dark Matter. (Courtesy of Apple TV+)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Given this context, it is no surprise to find Apple\u2019s latest taking for granted its own narrative plausibility. Kidnapped into an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bidens-covid-19-flip-flops-a-timeline\/\" title=\"Biden\u2019s COVID-19 Flip-Flops: A Timeline\">alternate reality<\/a>, the show\u2019s protagonist barely asks questions, so complete is his faith in physics to achieve the impossible. Fifteen years ago, the same program might have saved its quantum gobbledygook for a late-episode \u201creveal,\u201d stunning viewers with a high-theory exposition dump. The <em>Dark Matter<\/em> of today, by contrast, throws us into the deep end halfway through its pilot. With the multiverse on every tongue, there is simply no need to disguise the engine driving the show\u2019s brazenly ridiculous plot.<\/p>\n<p><em>Dark Matter<\/em> stars Joel Edgerton as Jason Dessen, a physics professor at a Chicago-area community college. Married to artist Daniela (Jennifer Connelly), Jason enjoys a comfortable life and has no regrets about a long-ago decision to prioritize family over the lab. Things change when, one rainy evening, a masked man abducts our hero and injects him with a mysterious syringe. Upon waking, Jason finds himself known to all as a famous scientist and entrepreneur. Even Daniela has changed, recalling him as a one-time boyfriend but decidedly not as a husband. <\/p>\n<p>If the plot I\u2019ve summarized thus far owes much to <em>The Twilight Zone<\/em>, the similarity is often to the good. Like \u201cThe Parallel,\u201d a fourth-season episode anticipating today\u2019s alternate-universes obsession, <em>Dark Matter<\/em> captures well the existential terror of being the only sane man in the world. Helping matters greatly is the performance of Edgerton, who brings to his protagonist role a bruised vulnerability reminiscent of Steve Forrest\u2019s in 1963. Who cares if the Australian roughneck is as believable a physicist as Leonardo DiCaprio would be a priest? The actor nails Jason\u2019s panicked frustration. <\/p>\n<p>To whom does one turn when one\u2019s sense of reality matches no one else\u2019s? The answer, for a while, is Connelly\u2019s Daniela, who possesses, in both universes, all of the actress\u2019s customary warmth. Later, a psychiatrist named Amanda (Alice Braga) plays an important role as our hero explores the technology responsible for his crisis. Through it all, Jason\u2019s goal is simple: to get back to \u201creal\u201d life and vanquish the kidnapper who has stolen his very existence. To do so, he will have to enter \u201cthe Box,\u201d a room-sized, steampunkish cube that holds a gateway to every possible world. <\/p>\n<p>It is no spoiler to reveal that the villain being chased is Jason himself. The series shows us as much half an hour into the pilot. Brash and swaggering, this doppelganger is the very man our protagonist has been mistaken for. What <em>he<\/em> wants is a taste of married life with Daniela, an outcome he foreclosed in his own reality by choosing careerism and pecuniary success. <\/p>\n<p>Is it a sign of bad morals that I found myself cheering for the false Jason? He is certainly the more interesting figure, dressing down \u201chis\u201d bored students one moment and seducing Daniela the next. In a plot twist that delivers much-needed emotional complexity, Connelly\u2019s character finds herself at least temporarily impressed by her husband\u2019s alteration. Like Beauty preferring the Beast, she wants the dangerous man, not her familiar milquetoast. Never mind that fake Jason knows nothing about their life together and can\u2019t get through a dinner party without a who\u2019s-who cheat sheet. <\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For the most part, <em>Dark Matter<\/em> balances its dueling plotlines well, shifting between Jasons like a magician flipping a coin. Less compelling are the graspers and hangers-on who dog the real Jason in his adopted realm: Dayo Okeniyi as a fanatical corporate stooge and Jimmi Simpson as our protagonist\u2019s apprehensive frenemy. I suppose these supporting players are necessary if the show is to fill nine hours. Then again, the program feels bloated even at its best. If ever there were a series that could have lopped off four episodes, this is it. <\/p>\n<p>Still, one is tempted, coming to the end of each installment, to let the next one start up. <em>Dark Matter<\/em> is handsomely produced, reasonably intriguing, and the beneficiary of two solid leads. At least in this iteration of our universe, there are far worse shows. <\/p>\n<p><em>Graham Hillard is editor at the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal and a <\/em>Washington Examiner<em> magazine contributing writer.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I often ponder the path not taken, imagining a parallel reality where different choices led to a better version of myself. However, the line between curiosity and action remains uncrossed. Laziness or wisdom? Readers may question, yet the allure of a different self persists<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":956,"featured_media":2246573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/LA.TV_-1-1024x591.jpg.optimal.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2246572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/LA.TV_-1-1024x591.jpg.optimal.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/956"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2246572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2246573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2246572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2246572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2246572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}