Finally finished DARK. Started it August last year, but got distracted with other things, and finished 3rd season yesterday only. 1st season felt a bit like a slowburn for 1st 2-3 episodes, but then picked it up significantly. 2nd season maintained the good dynamics.
3rd season was a mess, though, IMHO. No, it's good in terms of performance, cinematography, etc. The problem is the story. In order not to spoil it to those, who have not watched, I'll just say, that it breaks its own rules established previously.
No, breaking the rules is not a bad thing: anime Deca-Dence broke a lot of them during the 1st several episodes and was still one of the best in its season. It's ok to break the rules, by expanding the universe, where it turns out that the rules were just part of a bigger picture and/or caused by someone's naiveté and misunderstanding of that picture.
In DARK, though it just completely forgets its rules at some point and only mentions them. It does expand the universe while at it, but expands it in a way, that does not really affect the rules, when you think logically.
Creators told, that they did plan for 3 seasons, but I think they lied. The story was definitely created as "3 parts" from the start, but 3rd part was meant to be much longer. As is it feels rushed. A lot of characters are not developed really, story-lines end abruptly without any kind of "satisfaction" or "tranquility", at least. And the ending scene's cast is strange, as well. Does not make much sense to me.
It did introduce me to Apparat, though, which is some good music suitable for my coding experience.
