When I finished watching Stranger Things I really wanted to find time to write all the things that got me excited about this show. Somehow by the time I was ready, all that could be written about it seemed to have been done already so I didn’t.
The OA has been heavily promoted on platforms like +YouTube and that’s how my interest got piqued. However when I started watching it it didn’t grab me like other Netflix shows have done so far. The show itself isn’t very long, only comprising 8 episodes but the story is quite convoluted.
I don’t really know how to avoid spoilers in my reviews so this will be your spoiler warning just in case.
The story is that of a young woman named Prairie, or at least that’s what shes more often named as, having two other names she goes by, who went missing for 7 years and is returned to her adoptive parents in a small town in rural America where everyone knows everyone else.
There are two streams to Prairie’s story, the present day and her dealings with people of the town with their own issues, and the story of her captivity as she recalls it.
The major theme of the series is Near Death Experiences and what it implies for people who have seen “the other side”. The show brings a mystical aspect to this topic, though you end up questioning whether this mysticism wasn’t just imagination. Psychology also plays a role in this and towards the climactic end it turns out premonition is also a major driver to Prairies chain of decisions.
What I liked about it was the notion that survival can be made more tolerable when you have others who can support you in your plight when they share it. Typically stories of kidnapping or abductions involve just one prisoner and the subsequent trauma that goes with it. This built strength in a group that was (allegedly) forced to participate in an experiment no scientific institution would have ever sanctioned.
The present day story was not terribly fleshed out at times. Sure you mostly want to know what happened to Prairie and how she managed to escape but at times the glimpse of the lives you see of the 5 helpers seem unbalanced compared to the broader story.
But mostly what I found disappointing was the fact that this first season did not feel self-contained. By the end of it you’re left wanting for answers to questions you’ve been asking since episode 1, instead feeling cynical in the show runner’s confidence of a second season. Why did she jump off the bridge at the start? What effect did the movements have in the final scene? How did she convince these 5 people to join here just by filming her eye? If she found footage of Homer on the internet why didn’t the helpers? What was the psychologist doing at her house? If they even exist where are Hap, Homer, and the others now? All these questions are a little frustrating, and they needn’t be so. A good quality self-contained story should be enough to make you ask for more. Hopefully if there is a season 2 it will explore more of that mystical aspect of the NDEs…
Overall this was a beautifully made show with very original choreography and tackling some very difficult topics one often associates with Small Town America.
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Its in the poster "Trust the Unknown".