Terri Harrah 12/7/2025
Today I’m talking about the series Dark Matter on Apple TV+. I started watching it because of the talented Joel Edgerton (a current Golden Globe nominee) and Jennifer Connelly, who has been an icon since Labyrinth & was brilliant in A Beautiful Mind (where she met her husband, Paul Bettany). Joel Edgerton is one of those rare quadruple-threat artists — writer, producer, director, actor — who is consistently excellent in everything he does. If you haven’t seen his Australian indie work, put that on your list.
In Dark Matter, Edgerton plays Jason Dessen, a physicist and family man, and Jennifer Connelly plays Jason’s wife Daniela Dessen, a talented artist. They have a teenage son, Charlie, played beautifully by Oakes Fegley. The supporting cast — Alice Braga, Jimmi Simpson, Dayo Okeniyi — all add depth, but the heart of the series is this family and the choices that shaped them.
The premise is gripping: Jason is abducted one night and wakes up in an alternate version of his life — a reality where he never married Daniela, never became a father, and instead poured everything into scientific ambition. In this other timeline, the love and family he could have had simply don’t exist. And when this alternate version of Jason realizes what he missed, he tries to steal the life of the Jason who did choose love.
This whole “what if” concept is something very human. What if I had turned left instead of right in 2000? Some people are more concerned with this idea than others, but it is the human condition to ponder “What If’s.”
And it hit me personally.
I’ve been in a committed, monogamous relationship for 25 years. And anyone who’s done that kind of long haul knows: it changes you. Raising kids, staying through the hard seasons, showing up when it’s uncomfortable — it softens you. It grows you. It pushes you out of self-focus and into something bigger. That’s what happened to me. I’m a better person because of the path I chose — and watching Dark Matter show both versions of Jason, the one with family and the one without, felt unusually honest and real and a much-needed element to entertainment. Family is good, and choosing to have children is good. Staying is good.
It actually reminded me so much of one of my all-time favorite films: The Family Man with Nicolas Cage.
Both stories ask the same question:
What if you had taken the other path — the road you didn’t choose?
And who would you have become?
If The Family Man is the emotional blueprint, Dark Matter is the high-concept, quantum-physics version of it. Both explore identity, love, and how relationships reshape who we are at our core.
This show also does not feel politically ideological. There’s no heavy-handed messaging, no cultural agenda being shoved in your face, no “here’s the moral you MUST take from this.” And I cannot tell you how refreshing that is. There is a very subtle and positive message of love and the simple choice of family, your special place in the world, being the things you have overcome with your very specific loved ones, and the security of this trust, and memory building events that truly create our realities.
Dark Matter lets the story breathe; it lets these ideas unfold. It allows the characters to be human, and it trusts the audience to think for themselves. The Art Direction is not to be underestimated here either; the subtle differences created to guide the viewer into the correct reality are masterfully painted.
If I were rating it, I’d give it four stars. I’d go five, but there are a few confusing parts — moments where my husband and I literally paused and looked at each other like, “Wait… who brought that box?” or “How did THAT version get here?” But even with that, the writing is strong, the acting is phenomenal (especially the multiple-version performances), and you will not be disappointed. I am leaving a lot out to avoid spoilers.
What a fun gig for the actors — playing different shades and versions of themselves. They handle it beautifully. There is some violence, but nothing worse than most dramas, and probably not something young kids should watch. But overall? This is absolutely a must-watch. It’s thoughtful, emotional, well-acted, and refreshingly free of ideological noise.