1899 Netflix Review - Mind Bending and Truly Exceptional
Maura Franklin (Emily Beechum), an english doctor, awakens from a nightmare in which she is threatened by a mystery guy covered in shadows. Upon departing her room, it's evident that she's already on a ship, en route to New York with her brother Henry. He and over a thousand other people had been missing for four months after something happened on the Prometheus, Maura's sister ship. Her only clue as to what transpired is a note sent to Henry, pleading for him to travel to New York as soon as possible.
An inverted triangle with a line passing through the bottom section is engraved in the wax that seals the letter (almost like the reverse of how icebergs in the water are often drawn). This symbol appears frequently throughout the series, including on the floor beneath a bed, on one character's necklace, and as a tattoo on another's neck. It's a remarkable recurrent sight, however, its purpose or meaning is unclear early on in the series.
Dark fans may find the secrets and mysteries of 1899 a little predictable. Friese and Bo Odar's previous Netflix series was a time-travel serial killer narrative that was extremely complicated and difficult to follow. There are still many unsolved questions in 1899, but unlike Dark, its narrative approach should be considerably easier for casual audiences to follow.
However, there is still enough of atmosphere, and the production design is excellent. The period costuming is immaculate, with the exception of some shaky FX work when characters stand on the deck, and the art department has outdone themselves with the expensive, textured look of the ship's interior. The rich vibrant wood of the upper-class levels contrasts sharply with the sombre greys of the lower decks, where poor families are crammed in like sardines.
The class divide is highlighted even more in sequences with Olek (Maciej Musial), a frequently shirtless member of the engine crew whose job it is to feed the massive engines coal. His narrative overlaps with Jérome's (Yann Gael), a Black stowaway disguised as a crew member whom Olek encounters and befriends just as the fundamental mystery emerges: the coordinates of the lost ship begin transmitting from an unexpected area.
The show's main question is what happened aboard the Prometheus, but the answer, like all good mysteries, is far from easy. Complicating matters even more is the fact that practically everyone on Maura's ship has a motive to flee Europe, and the intertwined backstories of what characters are fleeing are nearly as interesting as the phantom ship. With a mute boy hidden in a cupboard (Fflyn Edwards) and a wet stranger (Aneurin Barnard) sneaking aboard when no one is looking, it's clear that strange things are afoot.