Apple TV's Dark Matter has hit new highs on Rotten Tomatoes with its second season, posting a 92% audience score and a 91% critics' score — both series records. Season 1, which premiered in 2024, had landed at 81% with critics and 80% with audiences. The season 2 audience figure is based on fewer than 50 ratings so far, meaning the number could still shift as more reviews come in.
Many audience reviews credit the season for a strong start following a two-year hiatus and for pushing the story beyond Blake Crouch's source material. Reviewers have also praised the cast, writing, and overall plot, with several expressing anticipation for where the story goes next.
Not every reviewer was fully won over. In ScreenRant's review of the season, Dani Kessel Odom awarded it seven out of 10 stars, writing: "The second season of the sci-fi show felt ambitious and thoughtful... Unfortunately, the execution was shaky, and Dark Matter season 2 didn't find its footing until the final few episodes, making it lower quality than the first season."
Joel Edgerton returns as Jason Dessen at the center of the expanded multiverse story, which now features even more universes and character variants than season 1 — including scenes where different versions of the same characters interact. The season also digs further into the Box, the device that enables travel between realities. The cast includes Jennifer Connelly as Daniela Dessen, Oakes Fegley as Charlie Dessen, Alice Braga as Amanda Lucas, Jimmi Simpson as Ryan Holder, Dayo Okeniyi as Leighton Vance, Amanda Brugel as Blair Caplan, and Chris Diamantopoulos as Mitchel McNamara.
Blake Crouch, who wrote the novel that inspired season 1, created the series and continues as showrunner — a rarer arrangement once a show moves past its source material. A third season has not been officially greenlit, but producer Jacquelyn Ben-Zekry has previously told ScreenRant that Dark Matter was built around a three-season plan, with season 2 pitched to Apple TV accordingly. The show's viewership numbers add to the case for renewal: it currently ranks third on Apple TV's worldwide and U.S. streaming charts, trailing only Silo and Ted Lasso, and ahead of Slow Horses, Widow's Bay, Lucky, Severance, and every other title on the platform.
Photo: Michael Bialas from Lafayette, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
