The 1899 series welcomes everybody aboard the ship on a journey across the Atlantic Ocean. The series is created by Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar, who apparently loves creating mystical and thrilling series. Their previous series called Dark was received so well by the audience that the series has set a benchmark for the directors.
1899’s grand opening in the first episode
The series’ first episode opens up with a magnificent setting that must have cost a lot of bucks as the scenes look stunning – rather than using a green screen, the directors went for LED walls that changed the game.
The episode’s name suggests an opening scene at the ship, however, that’s not the case. The episode opens with some woman being dragged by her father into a dingy mental hospital. The woman talks something about losing her memory, and the next moment she opens her eyes, she finds herself onboard the Kerberos – a steamship on its way to New York, and the year is 1899. also read:- Chris Hemsworth likely to get Alzheimer’s due to his DNA composition
1899 unfolds with existential questions
The first episode makes everyone question whether it is the lady dreaming about the ship, or whether the mental hospital part was a dream? The passengers of the ship and the audience seems to be confused in equal measures. Further, the ship residents speak in their local languages, so no one on the ship really gets what the other tries to say, making it all vaguer.
The passengers on the ship come from various places across the globe, however, all of them carry one common thing – secrets. Everyone tries to hide some secret by lying and something in the air sounds fishy!
The episode constantly points to mystical metaphors as it begins with Emily Dickinson’s poem “the brain is wider than the sky”. Also, the names of the ships suggest a probable connection to Greek mythology. Prometheus, a Greek god, stole fire to gift it to humans, for which he suffered the consequences of being tortured forever. And Kerberos? It is the name of Hade’s triple-headed dog which used to block the dead souls from making an exit from hell.
