Spoiler free review Do yourself a favour, don't waste your time on this. It's a perfect example of all sizzle no steak. The show starts off weak then eventually hints at a decent mystery which you expect will come to some satisfying conclusion, but as the season reaches its crescendo it turns into one of the biggest let downs ever.
Admittedly it has some pretty moments but is mostly shot in drab, uninteresting settings, which doesn't really feel intentional. All the characters apart from the OA are wildly predictable, but she eventually falls into this category once you learn more about her. Any character relationships that are built up don't feel at all worth investing in, and any semblance of a subplot is swept under the rug quickly. Despite being eight episodes the show feels heavily padded, yet they decided to barely dedicate any time to develop side characters, because Brit Marling has to dominate every scene she's in, and the result of which feels massively self-indulgent.
If there's one thing I have to warn anyone watching The OA is that it completely cons viewers with a vague, nonsensical ending. I can only assume that they thought they were a shoe-in for a second season from Netflix and left it completely open, or they were trying to create an ending that was open for interpretation - which this show definitely didn't have the smarts to accomplish. The ending literally makes no sense, and only serves to add another gaping space to a plot already filled with holes; after seeing it I thought "wait, is that it? What the hell was that?" It's honestly like they reached the deadline for the script and figured "screw it, we'll make it vague, I'm sure Netflix will throw cash at us next year, we'll pretend to explain it then".
The OA is a interesting but lazy and frustrating mess. If you can put aside common sense and a desire for a decent plot and story for eight hours, then by all means go for it. The ending was such a huge "screw you" to the viewer that I refuse to return for resolution should they get another season. Oh, and this show shouldn't be called sci-fi at all, it couldn't be any further from it, if anything it's profoundly anti-science and unashamed of it.
Review by JSalariBlockedParent2017-01-06T05:46:16Z
Spoiler free review
Do yourself a favour, don't waste your time on this. It's a perfect example of all sizzle no steak. The show starts off weak then eventually hints at a decent mystery which you expect will come to some satisfying conclusion, but as the season reaches its crescendo it turns into one of the biggest let downs ever.
Admittedly it has some pretty moments but is mostly shot in drab, uninteresting settings, which doesn't really feel intentional. All the characters apart from the OA are wildly predictable, but she eventually falls into this category once you learn more about her. Any character relationships that are built up don't feel at all worth investing in, and any semblance of a subplot is swept under the rug quickly. Despite being eight episodes the show feels heavily padded, yet they decided to barely dedicate any time to develop side characters, because Brit Marling has to dominate every scene she's in, and the result of which feels massively self-indulgent.
If there's one thing I have to warn anyone watching The OA is that it completely cons viewers with a vague, nonsensical ending. I can only assume that they thought they were a shoe-in for a second season from Netflix and left it completely open, or they were trying to create an ending that was open for interpretation - which this show definitely didn't have the smarts to accomplish. The ending literally makes no sense, and only serves to add another gaping space to a plot already filled with holes; after seeing it I thought "wait, is that it? What the hell was that?" It's honestly like they reached the deadline for the script and figured "screw it, we'll make it vague, I'm sure Netflix will throw cash at us next year, we'll pretend to explain it then".
The OA is a interesting but lazy and frustrating mess. If you can put aside common sense and a desire for a decent plot and story for eight hours, then by all means go for it. The ending was such a huge "screw you" to the viewer that I refuse to return for resolution should they get another season. Oh, and this show shouldn't be called sci-fi at all, it couldn't be any further from it, if anything it's profoundly anti-science and unashamed of it.