I wouldn't mind all the characters stories being fake if they were even a little interesting. I never cared about anyone other than Maura and we wasted so so so much time on everyone else and I have no idea why. Everyone else's story was just the most cliched bullshit, I felt like I was watching Days of Our Lives, and while I liked Maura's a bit more because it was tied into the mystery, "I put my child in a coma to stop him from dying" has also been done dozens of times before, and better. (I only watched the first few episodes of Dark so I don't really have any frame of reference, but this wasn't an amazing introduction honestly)