Confession: I bailed on Stranger Things season two last summer. I wasn’t getting that out-of-nowhere magic of its first season, nor did I love the feeling of the 1980s being repackaged and sold back to me. Yes, the young actors are charming, and I gather that I should have stuck around for the Mind Flayer—but it all seemed a touch cynical, more like a product of nostalgia than a thrill ride. And in today’s more-is-more-is-more TV landscape, you have to be ruthless. I think I had Better Call Saul to catch up on.

So, as the Stranger Things hype machine has revved into gear for season three, which came out on July 4, I have been searching for counter-programming—and, my God, have I found it. Dark, also on Netflix, has elicited Stranger Things comparisons since its first season debuted in 2017 (Dark’s second season appeared last month). Sure, this moody German sci-fi drama includes period-perfect scenes from the 1980s and gangs of teenagers trying to solve the case of a missing kid—but Dark is genre escapism of an entirely different order. On its simplest level, this is a time-travel show set in a small village in Germany, but nothing about this show is simple. There are forces of good and evil warring through different dimensions, a nuclear-disaster dystopia, advanced physics, child abduction, a police procedural, and so much more—all of it wrapped in such impeccable German melancholic art direction that you long for a rain-drenched Mercedes station wagon to call your own, not to mention some slim-cut rainwear. Dark is stylish and mesmerizing—it’s also the most fearsomely complex show I’ve ever seen. Watching it is like playing three-dimensional chess.

I realize that does not sound like summer fun, but don’t be afraid. Dark is a series to lose yourself in and scratch your head about and hunt around online for someone to help you follow its many time shifts and character relationships (there are Reddit threads and fan sites galore, and a very useful Netflix explainer site). Think of puzzle shows you’ve enjoyed: the first seasons of True Detective, Mr. Robot, Russian Doll. Child’s play, every one of them. But Dark’s relentless complexity means that it never condescends and always treats you like an adult. It is well built and comprehensible for sure, but also fiercely, unapologetically demanding.

Are you up for a plot summary? I’m not sure that I can manage one—not without spoilers, and honestly, because I just...can’t. The show is that hard to summarize. I will say that there are four main families who drive the action in Winden, the rural village the show is set in, all of whom are tangled by friendship, infidelity, and loss. There is, at the beginning of season one, a missing boy, a cave in the woods, and a nuclear power plant it leads to. The tunnels also lead to other time frames, each separated by exactly 33 years. There are travelers who move between them, carrying nifty gold clockwork time machines that fit neatly into battered suitcases, and there’s a hideously deformed puppet master from the future named (rather biblically) Adam who seems to be controlling everything. By that I mean philosophical conundrums where characters meet themselves at different ages, discussions of fate and free will, dark matter, a futuristic landscape full of Mad Max–esque gangs, a looming apocalypse...

Dark is steadily turning into a cult hit, and a third season is on its way (following a gang-buster’s cliffhanger at the end of its second). Give it a try if you haven’t already. You’ll know pretty quickly if it’s your thing. It is definitely mine.