The OA

This is the new Netflix show that hasn't gotten any message on the site but thought it should




its about A Young Girl Who disappears from her family (Brit Marling, the shows creator) and then comes back-at first she claims to have no memory but it soon becomes clear....shes changed. Or been changed. Or something.

Whats really happened? Well i don't want to spoil it-i will say it never goes into she lifts 10 tons over her head category. However it kinda of explores a lot of the themes on this site of the kinda of dealing with something and with people you can't explain and the seduction and fear that kinda produces. As well as the sence of power. this maybe the one TV show that really deals with the concept of being empowered.

This is by the same people who made "In the sound of my voice" And "The East", both very low budget and despite the fact that this is a TV show you do get the sence they have a little more budget room to play with, and they use it well-its a nice looking show. Though its perhaps its TV format hurts it. I have heard a lot of people tend to have a "oh come on!" momment wih the show, which i didn't quite have, though i am not going to claim its the greatest ending ever. Its a show that kinda of invites a desire to go with it, that if your not on it-i could see it flat. But it is neat, and bueatiful and has some haunting performances so i would say its worth a watch.

I've been following Brit Marling closely in the last few years and she's an incredibly talented artist. Although she's been part of several productions as an actress with no producing/writing credits (of which I recommend her leading role in The Keeping Room and her small role in Arbitrage ), she shines when she's also co-writer of the story and script she has to play.

Another Earth , a fantastic sci-fi twist on the coming of age topic, is one of my favourite movies of all time. Incredibly low budget yet so ingenious, delicate and heartwarming, is the kind of movie that makes you think about it several days after you've seen it. It's probably her best performance yet and it clearly shows she put her heart in it. She co-wrote it with her friend Mike Cahill who also directed it.

Sound Of My Voice she co-wrote with another friend and director, Zal Batmanglij, with an even lower budget. Although AE is by far my favourite among the two, SOMV is another ingenious pearl that deserves all the attention it can get. Playing on Marling's natural beauty and charisma, it explores the phenomenon of small cults with charismatic leaders who have their followers do big leaps of faith.

And now she's back again as the lead actress and co-writer with director Batmanglij with The OA. With a much bigger budget, bigger sponsors (such as Brad Pitt's own production company) and a leading distributor such as Netflix. Marling is playing a "natural leader in distress" once again but the scope of the project and its ambitions are something else entirely. The plot revolves around NDEs, or Near-Death Experiences, and Marling's character Prairie (aka "The OA") is closely linked to them. To give away anything else would spoil the show for you.
My opinion is that the show is absolutely worth watching if you enjoy delicate, intimate and very slow-paced shows whose dreamy atmospheres are more important than answers and consistency. If you enjoy being carried along by a current of low tones, subtle shocks, mysterious characters and soft surrealism, this could be for you. Avoid at all costs if you're the kind of guy who goes for hard facts, hard evidence and fast-paced unfolding of events only, you wouldn't go past the first episode.
I don't think the TV format hurt the show at all. Indeed it is not a TV format at all. Episodes have dramatically different lenghts (one episode is more than an hour long, another one is half an hour) and they don't have mid-episode cliffhangers strategically made for ad placements since there are no ads on Netflix. It's literally a long movie cut in eight individual pieces, it doesn't follow TV rules at all.

This show sucks bigtime.

Had to switch it off after like 20 minutes into it, couldn't even go through the first episode. Completely boring, braindead dialogues and the main actress has the looks of a broken bicycle.