Spoke too soon. Had only finished s1e2. Episodes 3-8 took off like a rocket fueled roller coaster created by some demented asshole that loves corkscrews and loops. Now that I've finished s1, and am starting s2 (there is a s3)., all I have to say is wtf! But, in a good way. Production is top notch, color quality, acting, etc. One major complaint is that they left the sound guy as last in line for editing, so he's got the same deep ominous tones dragging out too long on scenes and repeated all the damn time = annoying af. BUT, he also does a good job of laying in soundtracks to help with the story line. I'm still having a real hard time mapping people between who they are in 2019...and when we warp to 1986 to see them as teens, but it is intentional on their part. Not the confusion, but the fact that everyone's lives are intertwined in real messed up ways.
Let me attempt to restate what this is, because my 2 episodes summary sucked in representing the whole. We begin with some teens in 2019 in a small German town, with our focal lead Jonus not so much the 'leader' but the central figure in the teen group. The parents all know each other from growing up there as well. A boy goes missing, and some weird things are happening (dead birds everywhere, for example). The missing boy is the son of a current cop....who's brother also disappeared like this 33y ago (part of why he is a cop). We then start alternating between 2019 and 1986, when the cop used to be the focal leader of the teen group of that era. A few boys go missing in 2019, and a few were missing in 1986, we get shown some parallels, but it isn't about the parallels so much as who the characters are and the relationships between them = who lies, to whom, and why; who ends up marrying who and having which kids. There's your spaghetti mess of relationships getting it's foundation. Next, we start learning there is a wormhole of sorts connecting 2019 & 1986, and Jonus goes thru looking for the missing 2019 kid. The entire s1 is following a few characters moving thru the time hole trying to fix things, independent of one another, and questioning if they can make a difference, or if this is what already occurred - meanwhile, people in 'their time' are dealing with the fallout. Wrinkle in an antagonist, Noah, who doesn't get much background but presents as a preacher all the while doing evil, along with his henchman Hegle. As time travelers go back and forth, and we further twist together people's lives, we late in s1 introduce a leap (by accident?) of the cop trying to stop Hegle, and ending up in 1953 (another 33y gap) but Hegle is a child.
To conclude s1, we have people trapped in the wrong times, some aware and some not, of the implications of their out-of-time presence and what it means, what they can do. And we transition from s1 to s2 with Jonus leaping thru another hole, and ending up in the future (2020, months after the 2019 events), while we start alternating with scenes from 1920 (33y gap to 1953) with our evil priest, Noah, as a man digging in the wormhole area.
One could say they are widening the time brackets to extend the tv series, which is likely true, but it also fits quite well with the developing plots and twists. IMDB gives the ongoing series an 8.7/10, and I'd have to agree. Aside from annoying sound effects, and the trouble of following who-when, this is clicking along very well. It doesn't drag, it doesn't skip, it has appropriate special effects as opposed to sucky or over-the-top, it doesn't waste time on tangents with no meaning. You're strapped in, and they just launched the roller coaster rocket. Hang on.
) is just icing on the cake. I've found it to be gratuitous humorous nostalgia fest in my case. Something not at all serious to watch at the end of the night. In terms of Netflix originals I'm slowly but surely making my way through 'Trial by Media'. It hasn't leapt out at me like some other Netflix doc's (IE. Dirty Money, Rotten) but it seems decent. IIRC I've watched the first three episodes. Just finished up the episode on Richard Scrushy yesterday.
The backstory is complicated (& long) enough that for me anyway I want to be paying attention to get the most out of it. Other than that example I can't think of to much that I actually focus on. 
