OA Netflix's New Mysterious Sci-fi Show

[Cli-Fi]

At least I think it's sci-fi. Looks like it might have to do with either death, alternate realities or cloning. Perhaps someone else can help me decipher this trailer???

Netflix really fooled everyone with this. There's literally no buzz about it anywhere until today, and I am one of the people who follows this stuff really closely and I didn't even know about it! Besides for the fact that no one saw this coming and the trailer is out, plot details are still thin-nonexistent.

Release date: 12/16

 

[Cli-Fi]

i Watched the first three episodes today: I'm three episodes in and I am hooked. I hope I am not disappointed by the ending like some have said they were. The best thing I can say is that it is part Black Mirror, Part Leftovers, and part Lost. Even that is defining it very, very loosely. It's very, very good storytelling.

 

[Lenny]

I enjoyed it. The trailer is quite awful, and the series itself is all airy-fairy, hippy-dippy... things I usually hate... but it's sincere, doesn't preach, and it's gripping. Brit Marling and Jason Isaacs are fantastic, and I was pleasantly surprised by Phyllis Smith. The sci-fi aspect is also pretty cool.

Not sure how much I'll recommend it, though. It's marmite television of the highest order - something people should probably get into themselves, without a push.

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As an aside, if people like this, they should also watch Upstream Color. The subject matter is entirely different, but it's equally beautiful and thoughtful.

 

[Cli-Fi]

I enjoyed it. The trailer is quite awful, and the series itself is all airy-fairy, hippy-dippy... things I usually hate... but it's sincere, doesn't preach, and it's gripping. Brit Marling and Jason Isaacs are fantastic, and I was pleasantly surprised by Phyllis Smith. The sci-fi aspect is also pretty cool.

Not sure how much I'll recommend it, though. It's marmite television of the highest order - something people should probably get into themselves, without a push.

---

As an aside, if people like this, they should also watch Upstream Color. The subject matter is entirely different, but it's equally beautiful and thoughtful.

I agree with you in part the series is hippy dippy and it can basically be summed up as either

Spoiler

Psychotic Millennial makes up crazy-ass story in order to fool everyone into thinking she is special.

[the bad] or

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Angel hijacks five poor sapless souls in order to get back to her soul mate

[the good].

The problem with the series is that we don't know which scenario actually turns out to be right in the end. Still the journey is pretty cool and thought provoking. I can probably take only one or two of those types of shows/movies a year tho.

WTF happened to HAP? I expected him to

Spoiler

be the shooter at the end, but he wasn't. That would have tied up more loose ends.

 

[Cli-Fi]

Like or not The OA is returning for Season 2. It's good news for Netflix's Sci-Fi Push: ‘The OA’ Renewed For Season 2 On Netflix

 

[Dan Jones]

I caught up with this on the recommendation from a friend. I enjoyed it from a technical and visual - and, to a certain extent, emotional - perspective, but there was something not quite right about the storytelling aspect for me.

I can understand the Lost parallels, and that's not meant to be a compliment; it felt at times that the audience was being taken for a ride, and disparate elements were being handled a little sloppily. There were so many different speculative elements as to almost be overwhelming. There were beautiful moments, such as

Spoiler

Scott's resurrection

, and

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the use of the movements to distract the shooter

(which, by the way, felt like an overly spectacular - bordering on beautiful - ending that the series hadn't really earned).

It felt like a piece of auteur art rather than a commercial series. I hope there is some serious story editing to be done on series 2; they're asking a lot of the audience; I do like the idea of a drama laden with clues that could help the viewer unravel the meaning behind it, but I can't help feel that the writers will fall back on the modern, "open-ended" drama, which has no discernible end point, a la Lost, The Walking Dead, and ends up becoming just another shaggy dog story.