I want to start this by stating that I did know this series had been cancelled before I sat down to watch it. What can I say except that I'm a guy who likes being annoyed. I had always intended to give it a go and honestly the ridiculousness of Netflix cancelling it after only a month put me in such a blind rage, I felt I needed to watch it just to spite them.
Truly though, it was so worth the pain and I do not regret my decision one bit. It's such an intelligent and rewarding piece of television, and it is clear how much love and hard work went into it. I loved the setting and the characters. I also loved its multinational cast and that it allowed them all to speak in their native languages. It's so rare to see something like that, and it makes me wish that there was more television like this.
As far as what it's about, all I can really say is that it follows an immigrant ship travelling to New York in 1899 that picks up a signal from its sister ship that's been missing for the last four months. From there it gets weird and it's difficult to summarise anything else about it beyond that things are not as they seem. It is well worth the time if you are willing to accept that it won't reach any natural conclusion, although I don't think it ended on a total cliff hanger.
As a side note, if you also enjoyed 1899, and you haven't watched it yet, I can't recommend Dark enough. It's by the same creators and was fortunately not cancelled before its time. The story is very different, but there are certain similarities at the same time.
Now I'm going to see if there's someone at Netflix I can complain to or, failing that, if there's some good fanfics out there that can ease the pain a little bit.