*Warning: There will be spoilers in this review.*
With only 8 episodes The OA is the perfect one day binge obsession, and this is in fact how I watched it. My friend suggested I watch The OA although I initially had no interest in watching it. Low expectations were truly exceeded by this show.
Prairie Johnson, the titular ‘The OA’ has returned after being missing for seven years. The biggest surprise to her parents is that the once blind Prairie can now see. Hunter Hap was trying to discover the intricacies of death and the afterlife by experimenting on her and four other people who had also experienced near death experiences. The OA cant tell her parents or the FBI her story so instead she recruits four high school students and a teacher to help her. After the story of running away, capture, escape and the details of the afterlife, The OA ask’s for help to get back to the other captives, one of which she has fell in love with.
The show started off with a clip of Prairie running to jump off a bridge in a video styled as a phone screen. The first scenes are slow but pick up quickly and by the end of the episode I was fascinated. The OA asks her new friends to pretend they believe her until they actually believe. This resonated to me as a viewer as it was an encouragement to believe her as well.
Trailer:
The teens acting was especially excellent, all four were able to act which created emotion and attachment to them. I wasn’t particularly fond of Prairies adopted mother, Nancy Johnson (Alice Krige), although I think this was more about how she was written than poor acting on Krige’s part. Did anyone else think there was someone wrong with her throughout the series? I truly expected a twist about her adoptive parents as another reason for her to leave home mysteriously but nothing appeared from it.
The ending was fantastically written to tug on your heartstrings whilst also making you question the reliability of The OA’s narrative. Was this series a supernatural thriller? Was it just lost girl pulling the group of outsiders together in a strangely effective bond? The ending creates more questions than answers which I’m sure some will be solved in season 2.
Questions I have at the ending:
- A bit less plot based but how did a blind girl create such intricate braids? I cant even do things like that when I can see.
- Did the dance thing actually work as supernatural? Was it just so weird it just made the shooter pause?
- Where did Hap go? and did he take all four of the captives with him?
- What was the truth? Was Prairie lying? Were the books put there as a set up? What has the FBI agent got to do with it?
- Is Prairie really dead? Is she in the afterlife?
- Did she find Homer?
- How will the story carry on after her ‘death’? will it follow the kids? or her? or both separately?