Does ‘Dark Matter’ mean ‘Bridge’ won’t make it to TV?

Some television shows are good and even excellent; you watch them and enjoy them and then they are over and you move on to the next boxed set – or eagerly await a ‘next’ series.

But some shows really get under your skin and you have to watch them again. And again. And many years later you rediscover them and enjoy them. They have stood the test of time.

Shows made in the 60s and 70s still seem clever, out-there, imaginative and inventive today, like The Avengers and The Prisoner to name just two. I have a television ritual that may seem odd to some people. About every 3-5 years I watch Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley’s People all through – my all-time favourite television series from 1979 and 1982 respectively. A recent remaster to high-definition and release on blu-ray meant I had to dip into my savings.

The Shining Girls (Apple TV+) was for me one of those remarkably rare things: a television drama that I have watched twice since its release in 2022 and which I am about to launch into for a third time. An excessively clever and convoluted plot, superb acting and great writing. A thoroughly absorbing story that keeps you on the edge of your seat, desperately trying to figure out what the hell is going on and, when the penny finally drops, it bounces right back up again and flies off in a completely different direction. I had to watch it a second time just to see if there were any clues dropped in the first three episodes that I missed. I thought I knew what was going on but I was wrong. How did I miss that?

This for me is a sign that this television show will last and, like Tinker Tailor – or Les Revenants or Engrenages or a few others – I will have to revisit from time to time. So, imagine my delight when Lauren Beukes, the author of Shining Girls, published her new book Bridge in 2023.

“There are infinite realities. She’s looking for one…”

Bridge is one of may favourite books of recent years – one that requires caffeine and eye drops because you just have to keep reading… I was tempted to read it again – for the same reason I wanted to watch Shining Girls again, but I kind-of assumed it would be adapted for television – with any luck by Apple TV, who seem to have a knack for excellent and stylish material with high quality cinematography and sound.

HOWEVER… I have been watching Dark Matter – also Apple TV+ (I watch other channels too!). This is yet another multiverse drama but with an interesting and shocking twist that plays heavily on what we know about quantum entanglement. It is good but not great – and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I was pleased to see Dark Matter but it struck me towards the beginning of the first episode that the story is broadly similar to Bridge. The quotation on the cover of Bridge – “There are infinite realities…” could apply equally well to Dark Matter.

Oh no! The dawning was such a downer!! If Apple TV have just made Dark Matter they are hardly likely to adapt Bridge. I must confess I may have felt a slight tinge of resentment at Dark Matter having been made at all, but that was unfair.

So, where does that leave us? Will we ever see Bridge search for her mother, dead in this world but who she suspects might be alive in another reality? I hope so; over to Apple, Disney, Netflix (not Paramount; please not Paramount). If you liked Dark Matter you will like Bridge – possibly even more. I can certainly cope with two excellent multiverse dramas and I am sure I am not alone. Even if all those others are just me in other dimensions…

#TV #drama #AppleTV #Bridge #Lauren_Beukes #scifi #books