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Dark

Clear out your weekend plans because Dark on Netflix, one of the best sci-fi series around, is finally back. But before you dive into Dark‘s endless paradoxes and time travel angst: you need to switch to subtitles.

Co-created by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, Dark is one of the most complicated, well-constructed, and nuanced sci-fi dramas to ever exist. It’s an amazing show that absolutely deserves all of the note-taking and headaches it inspires. But it’s only worth all of this effort if you can actually stand to listen to it. Dark in its original German audio and with English subtitles is a masterpiece. Dark dubbed in English? Not so much.

Dark

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Thankfully, changing the subtitle and dubbing options on a Netflix show is incredibly easy. First, you need to press play on whatever episode of whatever show you want to watch. For the purposes of this explainer we’re going with Dark Season 1, Episode 1.

Once the episode starts playing, pause it. The pause menu will bring up options on the lefthand and righthand sides of the screen. Right now we’re only interested in those righthand options.

From left to right, Netflix will allow you to access a help menu, a next episode button, a guide to other episodes, an audio menu, and expand the show to fullscreen. We’re interested in that text box that’s the second from the right today:

Scroll over the audio menu. If you’re watching through a Roku or a smart TV, you may have to actually click on this menu. This will open up all of the dialogue and subtitle options Netflix has available for the show you’re watching.

If you don’t mess with this option, Netflix will typically select English audio as the default. While that’s OK for some anime, that’s not what you need if you’re trying to make the most of Dark. Scroll over the audio options and select German (original). As for subtitle options, select English:

This method works if you’re watching Netflix on a desktop or through Roku. However if you’re watching on an Apple TV, the instructions are a little different. If you’re watching on an Apple TV 2 or an Apple TV 3, hold down the center button of your Apple remote while the show is playing. This will pull up your audio options. If you’re watching on an Apple TV 4 or an Apple TV 4K, swipe down on the touchpad of your Apple 4 remote to gain access to the same menu. To learn exactly how to adjust the subtitles and dubbing options no matter what device you’re on, check out Netflix’s handy guide.

After you select both of those options, the episode should reload and you’re all set. Once you set up your subtitle preferences for one show, Netflix typically remembers. Just sit back and start obsessing over those paradoxes.