Apple TV’s 2-Season Sci-Fi Thriller Has Officially Switched Genres

Image via Apple TV Published Oct 28, 2026, 7:49 AM EDT Julio is a Senior Author for Collider. He studied History and International Relations at university, but found his calling in cultural journalism. When he isn't writing, Julio also teaches English at a nearby school. He has lived in São Paulo most of his life, where he covers CCXP and other big events. Having loved movies, music, and TV from an early age, he prides himself in knowing every minute detail about the things he loves. When he is older, he dreams of owning a movie theater in a small countryside town. Sign in to your Collider account One of Apple TV's best science fiction series is about to have its second season finale later this week, but it has already achieved something incredible: completely switching genres while remaining every bit as good. When Dark Matter debuted back in 2024, its multiversal setting felt more like a background to the story of Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton), who has his life stolen by a different version of him from another reality; by the end, it's almost like a thriller with a mind-bending premise. In Season 2, however, Dark Matter shifts gears to a whole other tone and approach to Jason and his family's saga, leaving the thriller and mystery behind and focusing on more existential aspects of what happens to you after opening Pandora's multiversal box. ‘Dark Matter’ Season 2 Feels More Dramatic and Philosophical Than Season 1 Watching Jason 2 trying to settle within Jason 1's life without raising suspicion is the kind of thing that sets Dark Matter Season 1 apart from pretty much every other multiverse-based story. The sheer suspense is rivaled only by the complicated science of it all, which allows for infinite Jasons to arrive in Chicago looking for the same family. Suddenly, Jason 1's ordeal becomes an intricately twisty thriller, to the point where it was almost impossible to distinguish him from his other versions. Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive. 💊The Matrix 🔥Mad Max 🌧️Blade Runner 🏜️Dune 🚀Star Wars TEST YOUR SURVIVAL → 01 You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one. APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone. NEXT QUESTION → 02 In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires. AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely. NEXT QUESTION → 03 What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of. AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run. NEXT QUESTION → 04 How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything. ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen. NEXT QUESTION → 05 Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are. AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are. AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts. NEXT QUESTION → 07 Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of. AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are. NEXT QUESTION → 08 What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another. AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot. REVEAL MY WORLD → Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In…Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for. The MatrixYou took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things. You're drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it. You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines' worst nightmare. You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it. The Matrix built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door. Mad MaxThe wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you. You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon. You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you're good at all three. You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider. In the wasteland, that distinction is everything. Blade RunnerYou'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely. You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer. In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional. You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either. In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything. DuneArrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards. Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they're survival tools. You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory. Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic and earn its respect. In time, you wouldn't just survive Arrakis — you'd begin to reshape it. Star WarsThe galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way. You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion. You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken. You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn't something you're capable of. In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ It was difficult to even imagine how that story could continue in a second season, as one would naturally expect the tension to continue rising. Turns out, the answer was the opposite. Instead of following the Dessens as they run around the multiverse and from other Jasons, Season 2 looks at the toll this takes on them from a personal point-of-view once they finally settle down. Thriller and mystery take the backseat, and a more dramatic and even philosophical approach as everyone starts to contemplate who they really are. The beauty of this idea is that it also applies to other Jasons and even new characters, too, as everything is possible in the multiverse. Incredible episodes, like "Love and Be Loved" and "The Basic Oneness of Everything," might initially feel like simple bottle episodes, but they really give a dimension of what it's like to find one's footing among infinite possibilities. A Jason finding love again and Laurel (Margo Martindale) establishing her way station after a lifetime of heartbreak is incredibly wholesome, thanks to this change in genres. Season 2 Still Focuses on Jason 1, but From a More Complex Approach Image via Apple TV As much as the scope of Dark Matter has grown, though, the protagonist is still Jason 1, of course. In Season 2, his arc — as well as Daniela's (Jennifer Connelly) and Charlie's (Oakes Fegley) — is defined by questioning who he has become after going through so much. If no one steps into the same river twice, what about entire worlds? Direct contact with every possible what-if is what drives the Dessens in Season 2, allowing them to contemplate not only who they are, but also who they wish they were. For Jason 1, this takes a potentially dark turn. What distinguishes him from Jason 2 is that he chose love and family over an accomplished scientific career, but, with the box weighing on him and his family, the need to understand it grows. And understanding the box means becoming more like Jason 2. With Daniela out to come to terms with everything that's happened and Charlie looking for Max, there's nothing between Jason 1 and the darkest corners of his persona. There is still a bit of mystery and suspense to the story, especially concerning antagonists like Leighton (Dayo Okeniyi) and MacNamara (Chris Diamantopoulos), but even that serves to force Jason 1 to deal with the box and everything about it, considering the urgency that comes with having infinite Leightons, too, for example. This makes him one of the most interesting characters in recent sci-fi, given the complexity of his task. The risk of losing his own character is only rivaled by the threat to his family, and that's as existential as it gets. ‘Dark Matter’ Has Surpassed Its Source Material, Allowing for More Creative Freedom In many series or franchises, such a radical shift would be enough to get most fans and viewers worried about what the endgame is or what's happening behind the scenes, but not with Dark Matter. Actually, Season 2 is completely uncharted material, as the original Blake Crouch novel only covers the events up until the end of Season 1. This "blank slate" allows for greater creative freedom in the new season, without the need to strictly follow a pre-existing narrative framework, hence the change in tone. Much of Season 2's successful approach to the story comes from Crouch himself being part of the writing team for every episode. Usually, when a series goes beyond the source material, the results aren't good precisely because of the lack of commitment to the original author's vision, but, with Crouch himself as the showrunner, this risk is non-existent in Dark Matter. Quite the contrary; when "Love and Be Loved" came out, for example, he called it "the story that made me want to do Season 2 at all." Perhaps what makes this change in genres work so well from a narrative standpoint is precisely having the creator of the original novel behind the wheel. It's quite refreshing to see a series like Dark Matter pull this off after having performed so well in Season 1. If it became a trend among other similar series, we definitely wouldn't complain, either, as long as the conditions are right. Dark Matter is available to stream on Apple TV.