James Delingpole James Delingpole

Why you should never watch sci-fi series on streaming channels

Apple TV's Dark Matter sucks you in – but will it ultimately be worth my while?

Joel Edgerton (Jason) and Jennifer Connelly (Daniela) in Apple TV+'s Dark Matter  
issue 22 June 2024

Jason Dessen, the hero (and, as you’ll discover shortly, anti-hero) of Apple TV’s latest sci-fi caper Dark Matter, is a physics professor at a second-rate university in Chicago. You can tell he’s not that good at his job because he introduces the concept of Schrödinger’s cat (surely the only interesting bit in the entirety of physics) five minutes before the end of a lecture. ‘Oh and the cat dies,’ he says to the uninterested students as they file hurriedly out of class.

With no time constraint, sci-fi series on streaming channels can keep spinning you along for all eternity

Still, at least he’s happy. His teenage son might have been genetically engineered to fit the phrase ‘but he’s a great kid’ and his hot wife Daniela is beyond perfect. Want to know how perfect? Well it’s their weekly special quality-time date night – when they get to drink wine and dance smoochily together and embarrass their son – and suddenly Daniela spots some text messages coming through on his phone.

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