What I’m Watching: Dark Matter (Season Premiere)

Dark Matter: Season 2, Episode 1 “Welcome to Your New Home” (B+)

This show was one of my unsung favorites of last season, and it’s one that I make sure to mention if people ask me for a good off-the-radar series. The finale set things in a whole new direction, with Six revealed as the one who turned them all in and the other five being carted off to some unknown future. It turns out that what it means for Two, Three, and Four is imprisonment in a very futuristic facility in which guards shoot rabble-rousers with intense knockout tasers and instantly quell any sort of mass unrest sonically by knocking everyone out. I’m excited that our friends, the less scrupulous and ethically-inclined of the six, are already planning an escape, and they seem to have found an interesting new ally. One had lawyers at his disposal to help him, but he got into trouble and now appears to have been killed by the real Jace Corso, a development I can’t believe actually happened. Five’s unhappiness seemed to come most from being separated from her friends, but it seems that now she and One may be lumped back in with their criminal colleagues and set for some miserable fate as Six was revealed of his duty. I was surprised to see Franka Potente as the Chief Inspector, and I’m eager to see what role she will play in the coming episodes. I like that this show has evolved and is charting a new course for season two, and I’m excited to see where it goes.