1899: How not to Write a Mystery

This is a rant about the Netflix show 1899, and it's stupid mystery box plot. Spoiler warning!

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[ddlSEd]

There is a big secret and we never even touched on it yet :(((

[fairplay]

Hang on, this dude just missed all the hints that the show gives about the ending, and just jumped to the conclusion that they weren't there. I'm not into mystery shows much, I'm slow to pick up hints, but even my stupid brain could put one and two togheter and see that Daniel's flashlight, the existence of devices that control people and make entire ships go missing, the existence of fucking TV's, plus a bunch of other stuff that the show throws in, made it pretty possible to reach the answer. Of course the big space thing was not much hinted at, but probably because that was more of a setup for season 2 than a mystery of season 1, the big answer was: it's a simulation, and to that there were many clues. One needs to blame one's own stupidity before putting the blame on the show

[WILDCAT]

"Primitive computer" ? bro thats a quantum computer google that.

[slobodanarodu]

Somebody's been watching too much Scooby Doo

[kidgforce]

They might be in 1999 . Hint: they play old pop songs from the 70s which is memory now, hich feels like home. The 2099 world could be simulated in 1999,

[paulbigbee]

Glad I wasn’t the only one who had this reaction. The acting, atmosphere, art, costume and set design were exceptional. Even the writing and characterization were mostly pretty good. But the plot…what a disappointment.

[potatojones]

Can’t wait til it gets renewed for the intended other two seasons and everyone says how brilliant it is 😄 Have you watched Dark? There are so many layers to come with this show. If you’re familiar with the writers, you know the complexities haven’t even begun to reveal themselves yet.

[Dularr]

Watch the making off. They were clearly focused on the video screen technology.

[garyrobinson]

I liked the show but all the side characters were NPCs. They were pointless in the end. Their stories went nowhere. They built them up just to forget about them in the lasy two episodes. For example the Chinese girl. They gave her a back story only to drop it later. Were they real or just part of the simulation?

[marildabarroso]

De qualquer maneira, eu gostei da série! E por incrível que pareça nunca assisti Dark, não me chamou atenção! Penso que gosto não se discute! Cada um tem o seu .Fiquei frustrada pelo cancelamento, queria saber quem eram os personagens por trás da simulação. Depois desse cancelamento nunca mais assisti nada de novo na Netflix. Quem garante que vai ter continuação 😡

[kidgforce]

You are right. As soon as I realized, they are in a simulation, ever character devolopment and background story is just pointtless and could be simulated. The 1899-world would be much more interresting if it was real.

[virtualkong]

Yeah first season is kinda shitty when its come to the mystery but like dark i believe its going to be better at the second season

[dnister_nymph]

Yes, that’s exactly the feeling I’ve had after finishing the show: NONE OF THAT ACTUALLY MATTERED? Really?

[ulquiorra]

I just finished watching. This show is just a mystery on a mystery and no clues and hints. Characters behaving like morons just to keep the secrets going. For example, Maura's first conversation with her husband:
He - Maura u need to trust me give me my device
She - No! First u need to tell me who u are?!
He - Maura plz not now, just give me my device
She - No First tell me who u are and what is going on!
He - Maura not now!
Me sitting in front of the monitor - " OMFG WHy not now!! Why u don't wanna tell her!!?? Just tell her already!!
Forcefully dragging out the mystery so that only the viewer sits at the end of the chair.
Thank God this stupid series has been cancelled.

[jaikee]

So it's 'bullshit' because there are surprising plot twists?

[weirdautumn]

I agree with you. The whole season is mystery box done wrong. Nothing makes sense, everything is a filler, characters running around the ship like idiots.
And "it's all a simulation" reveal was lazy terrible, just a modern version of "it's all a dream".
When they first showed the analogue computer thingy it got me really excited, because my immediate though was about some cool Tesla experiment and giant intricate conspiracy involving ship company and government. This would've been so much better than what we got.

[legzdiamond]

How do you know what the plot was judging by the first season alone? We have no idea what the character’s back stories actually meant, because the show ended two seasons to soon. I’m not even sure “mystery” is the correct genre assignation here. The idea that there was a simulation at work was broached about ten seconds after anybody with a brain would have figured it out to begin with, and by the time of the big reveal in the finale the show had basically reinvented and reset itself with an entirely novel set of characters and stakes. Just assuming that none of the “npc” characters actually mattered is probably a little premature, especially since the last we saw of them they were desperately trying to escape the ship simulation, and apparently some of them were crew on Prometheus.

[johandrytenias]

I was already sick of the "protagonist has memory loss" trope and "mysterious kid doesn't talk" trope, so I was tuned out from the beginning

[augustvonmacksen]

THANK YOU. What a waste of a show that could have been exceptional. As soon as they broke the “reality” of the steamboat, I knew it was going to be a sci fi McGuffin laden bore. I have so many gripes.

[Valentin-vems]

Lost ist awesome, & this is nothing like it, & is awesome too.