4 out of 5

Created by: Joseph Mallozzi, Paul Mullie

Launched on SyFy at the same time as the would-be hipper, sexier Killjoys, Dark Matter might’ve had the more sciencey title but lost out press-wise to the soundbyte KJ concept – bounty hunters in space! – and that show’s cool opening music, general sassitude, and grainy blue and orange filtered cinematography.  To battle it, Dark Matter had 90s-esque wide-open sets – better to accommodate its ensemble cast – fairly cheesy effects, given the era, and a “6 strangers with amnesia find themselves on a spaceship” premise that maybe felt a bit too kitschy to some.  Alas, in the long run, guess who won out?

But you’d be forgiven for checking out, initially, as Dark Matter runs from its opening into identifiable at a glance stereotypes – the mean guy, the buff nice guy, the buff mysterious guy, the naive guy, the sciency girl (also an android), the sexy stern leader girl, and, y’know, the oracle oddball,  played by Jodelle Ferland, who’s a dyed hair quirky code to all these grown-up types and probably knows more than she’s letting on.  Right right, we’ve seen this in various formats, and surely we’re to get Lost-esque flashbacks that bring us up to speed.  And we do.  But creators Mallozzi and Mullie hustle us through these stereotypes – even having fun with the amnesia, everyone naming themselves after the number of the stasis pod they woke up in – purposefully to set our expectations, so that when the team gets fleshed out over the course of the season, it feels like growth.  That “fleshing out” is at its best when it’s organic, part of the plot: whether it’s dealing with unlocking a mysterious door in the bowels of the ship or having to tough through their own expectations about each other (which are the same as ours, natch) in order to keep pretending that they’re this rough and tumble group of mercenaries that people seem to remember them as.  Sometimes we do pull a Lost, via Ferland remembering something and then we’re off on something of a side quest, but to the creatives’ credit, there’s always a through-line that’s worthwhile to the main story and emotional hook that begins to develop between the characters; these side quests ain’t just Jack’s tattoos.

The best trick, of course, is that these faceless stereotypes become likeable, and that we want them to stick together, even as their discoveries about their pasts might necessarily drive them apart.  Discoveries which the show doles out wonderfully, mind you; no disgusting baiting cliffhangers, just fascinating revelations at the end of a mission or episode.  The acting can be a little raw and, as mentioned, the effects are a bit embarrassing at points, but on the whole, Dark Matter surprises by taking its forced-mystery plot and letting it play out fairly logically and intelligently, letting the audience in on discoveries along with the characters and making sure to keep the focus on those characters instead of whatever twist is around the corner.  Result?  It’s a show I want to watch; one that rewards viewership with story evolution, and one that feels like a legitimate sci-fi show to boot.