Trailer:
8 episodes. Starts on Dec 16th.
Stars Brit Marling as Prairie Johnson.(The East and Sound of My Voice)
All episodes directed by Zal Batmanglij (The East and Sound of My Voice)
Co-written by Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij.
I watched the trailer and have no idea what it’s about. Amnesia?
I had the time today and binged through the whole thing. Which isn’t quite as crazy as it sounds, as it’s only 8 episodes and not all of them are even an hour long. I really enjoyed the first 7.5 episodes, lots of weirdness and mystery that gradually comes together in a (somewhat) coherent narrative. The ending didn’t do much for me, though I’m sure that’s a matter of opinion and there will be plenty who like it.
It didn’t bother me too much that we don’t know what really happened during OA’s 7 years gone, or that she made up a lot of the story. Makes for a nice little mystery thinking about which parts might have been real. What really broke the story immersion for me was having a gunman busily shooting up a school, who then just stood there slack-jawed when five random people jumped up and started doing interpretive dance. Really?
Watching it now… starting ep 4… better than Stranger Things for sure!!
I’d put both series in the same ballpark, but in my opinion Stranger Things was better. More likable characters, for one thing, and it has all that 80s-era nostalgia stuff. On the other hand, The OA doesn’t have the horror-movie-style reliance on a scary monster of Stranger Things, which was my least favorite part of that series. I can see how you could go either way.
We watched the first two episodes last night and generally liked it. The first ep starts pretty slowly though. We are definitely watching more soon.
I am on ep 7. This show is def better than Stranger Things. Really liking it so far for so many reasons:
I really like how they revealed the plot slowly. The cells are unique and interesting. The plot takes things one step farther than the old “flat liners” plot. I like the “movement technology” – that’s pretty unique. I also like the suggestions that the main character may just be insane… you never really know. The casting for Hab was excellent… he fooled me too. I may not have went in a plane with the guy but he certainly fooled me. Looking forward to the final episode…
I finally figured out what the OA stands for…
I thought it was Overeater’s Anonymous… lol…
watched the whole season
it could have ended in sooo many better ways… ugh…
I kinda liked how it ended
[spoiler]It’s left ambiguous. Was she mentally ill all along and using the books and story to somehow come to grips with what had happened to her? Did all the stuff really happen and the books were hew way of trying to learn more about it? Was the shooter just standing there dumb-founded because of these weird people doing a synchronized dance or did it really have power to “fix” the situation?
Her insistence on being called “The OA” and her miraculous recovery from 16 years of blindness both came prior to any chance to purchase the books. Same with the scars, which were really old.
I guess it’s possible that she was never abducted and was living out a delusion on the streets of New York, including carving up her back and such. And that’s what really is doing it for me; it’s impossible to know the right answer, short of a season 2 spoon-feeding[/spoiler]
All-in-all, pretty damn good story for a writer and director who aren’t exactly Hollywood elites. The first episode grabbed me hard. Even the way they handled the “beginning” credits during episode 1 was well done and not something I had experienced before. It felt more like an episode 0 followed by episode 1.
Well, I guess I should be happy that it was 7.25 hours of compelling television. Really could have done without the final 0.75 hours, though.
My advice is to either enjoy the ride or watch The Kettering Incident instead. Much more satisfying.
How does one etch runes on to one’s own back, anyway?
I did not love it. At times I felt like I was watching some theater student’s one-woman experimental show. Especially at the end. Terrible.
Just watched the first three episodes, very intriguing so far. Hello to Jason Isaacs.
The first episode: A 57 minute cold open before the opening credits? I’ve never seen that before.
I really enjoyed that. Really looking forward to episode 2.
Another question:
Why did she jump off the bridge at the beginning? She suggested that it was about entring some other plane, but we saw no reference to that. Was that the part that told us she’s just a crazy person?
From what I remember:
I think she was trying to drown and “cross over”, since that’s how Hap was killing them each time. She had said “I was trying to get back to them”. One of the first things she asked was “did I flatline?” and was disappointed when she heard that all she had done is hurt her feet. For her, she believes that Hap had acted as the 5th (in her place) and that him and the prisoners had traveled to another dimension already. Drowning was how she would travel herself to be with them
I think that JFrazer has the right idea, but I also think that he has put more thought into it than the writers did.
Damn, the more I think about that stupid - and frankly offensive - final school scene, the angrier I get. It was so trite and pointless! The box reveal was great, but they really didn’t need that final event. Just about anything else would have been better than what they chose.
So Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij decided to do an eight-hour remake of a ninety-minute movie they made five years ago? Well, at least the movie was pretty good.
And I’m with Kemper about the school shooting stuff. Offensively trite.
-Tom
Did you just binge watch all night Tom? I’m only half way through but enjoying it so far.
I will agree that the school shooting thing was a weird way to go. There were a number of other ways they could have finished the story that would have been better. Having drowning in the mix, somehow, would have been more fitting given the other 7 episodes.