Would someone please explain 1899 to me?

Yesterday, after getting an oil change and a tire rotation for my car, I came home and fired up the Netflix. And among all the shows Netflix could recommend to me, it proposed a drama called 1899.

Well, I already sat through 1883 on the Paramount+ network, so why not another period drama?

Hooo boy was I not expecting THIS kind of period drama.

From what I can surmise, 1899 is the story of a luxury liner and its passengers, who encounter a sister luxury liner thought to be lost at sea. And upon further examination of that lost ship … strange and weird and psychological holy-shit moments occur. All in eight episodes.

So is this science fiction? Horror? Fantasy? A mixture of everything?

Oh, and as an added bonus – the cast is multilingual, and everybody speaks in their own native language. There’s a French couple, a pair of Chinese women, some Danes, some Poles, nearly a dozen different languages and dialects – and unless you have your subtitles turned on (or, in my case, the closed captioning), you’re in for a ride.

This show sneaks up on you. Kind of like other Netflix shows like Squid Game or Orange is the New Black or shows of that nature. It’s all of a sudden the hottest topic on TV, must-see binge-watching content. Wow.

And I should be used to psychological science fiction / horror / fantasy shows. Snowpiercer, for example. Lost, for another. But 1899 goes even further. There’s something spooky on that abandoned luxury liner … and it’s affecting the passengers and crew of the second boat.

And I’m sitting here, watching it and wondering … what’s next? How long can this show last? And if the show remains popular … would it be renewed for another season? And if so … could the show creators keep this intensity for future episodes?

Don’t know. But I will say this. Check back with me in the next few days. I only made it through the first episode, I still have seven more episodes to binge-watch.