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[cormack12]

Season 1 OT
I've not watched season 1 - what;s it about?
The series centers around Prairie Johnson, an adopted young woman who resurfaces after having been missing for seven years. Upon her return, Prairie calls herself "The OA" (for "Original Angel"), exhibits scars on her back, and can see, despite having been blind when she disappeared. The OA refuses to tell the FBI and her adoptive parents where she has been and how her eyesight was restored, and instead quickly assembles a team of five locals (four high school students and a teacher) to whom she reveals that information, also explaining her life story. Finally, she asks for their help to save the other missing people who she claims she can rescue by opening a portal to another dimension.
Spoiler etiquette
As all episodes drop at once, it's fair game to assume people posting will be up to different stages. It's probably best to wait until you've finished before posting/reading. But if peopel could spoiler major story beats, I'm sure it would be appreciated.

So season 2 dropped recently of Netflix's 'The OA', and I finally caught the first episode of it last night. Without going into too much detail, it hooked right after the first thirty minutes when you see the strands of what happened last season intertwining as Prairie and Nina. I'm digging the AR game that Karim has found to try and find Michelle as well. Anyway not saw a thread on this so thought I'd create one to highlight it more.

Trailer

 

[Kev Kev]

***i tried to spoiler tag this but it wouldnt let me. read on at your own risk. the show is supposed to be weird and mysterious so if you think you might want to watch it stop reading now.***

sorry i just had to bump this bc ive been watching this show again and its just so damn good, i wanted to talk about it.

season 1's ending was only weird bc they did it in the context of a school shooting. i guess the idea was to make them seem heroic by saving the students...? i dunno, it was a bad choice. but really, the movements they were doing is an ancient, ritualistic dance that when done correctly will transport you to another dimension of your choosing (which was left mysterious on purpose for effect, but ultimately it was just poorly explained. most people didnt even realize they were creating a portal to another dimension). this was never explicitly shown or explained tho, and they even muddled the ending leaving doubt as to wether or not the main character was a psychopathic liar or not. all of that, on top of how mysterious and cryptic the show generally was, was enough for people to say "no thanks".

myself included.

then season 2 came out. and i had honestly forgotten about the show. i decided to rewatch season 1 and had a way better experience with it. understanding what the show was about, or at least digesting it a little better, certain scenes and musical themes and contexts just took on this whole other, deep meaning. i fell in love with the story and characters and moved right on to season 2.

and season 2 blew my socks off.

its some of my favorite television (not necessarily "the best") of all time. but people were checked out by this time. no one wanted to watch the show and ultimately The OA was canceled, and i was heart broken. critics and viewers all agree the second season is way better than the first, an it even helps makes sense of the weirdness of the first season.

except for doing the movements during a damn school shooting. that was a weird and awkward choice and it always will be.

and i think its a big reason, among many others, as to why the show was canceled. or at least thats why people didnt tune it for season 2. but if you give it a chance, season 2 is a rollercoaster of a television show. it goes absolutely off the rails in the best way possible. i always take time to watch The OA parts 1 and 2 every year, despite the fact that it will likely never be finished and its so bitter sweet for me

does anyone else like this show? anyone at all?

would you like to see them finish the story? have you thought about watching it but decided to pass until reading my post and now you want to watch it and come back here and talk with me about it? yes you do, yes you do, yes you do

to those who have seen it, did you like it? why or why not?

 

[dorkimoe]

Its EASILY one of my favorite netflix shows of all time. Yes its cheesy in some part (the movement) but the story was fucking awesome and i wanted to see where it went. I was furious when it wasnt renewed. I believe the creator said she had all 5 seasons planned out already too

 

[Catphish]

Deserved a 3rd season. The end of the 2nd was REALLY interesting. Very unhappy to see it cancelled.

 

[Husky]

God it's better and better with each rewatch. Easily one of the best things I've ever seen. I'm fucking obsessed with the show.
I've actually got a fanmade The OA hoodie that I conceptualized (final art not by me, I just made the mockup)

 

[AJUMP23]

I thought the end of the 2nd season was legendary, I was sad to see it go. I thought season 2 meandered a bit but brought it all together for the finale.
Season 1 I didn’t get what the ending was about.
Overall I enjoyed the show.

 

[Kev Kev]

God it's better and better with each rewatch. Easily one of the best things I've ever seen. I'm fucking obsessed with the show.

my man! same here, i absolutely love it, its hard to explain to other people why its so meaningful to me.

I've actually got a fanmade The OA hoodie that I conceptualized (final art not by me, I just made the mockup)

duuuuuude these are amazing!

BBA!

my heart...

why am i such a nerd for this show!?! i want every single piece of that merch lol. thanks for sharing that, i had no idea it even existed.

 

[Kev Kev]

Season 1 I didn’t get what the ending was about.

youre not alone, and that okay bc it was explained poorly. but at the same time, the show creators left it open ended and mysterious on purpose, so people would talk about it in between seasons and the viewer wouldnt know what was going to happen. it was effective, no doubt about it, but i think it pushed people away too, which was the first of many reasons why the show was considered for the chopping block...

what about the ending of season 1 confused you?

in as few words as possible, ill try to explain... OA taught the movements to the five people (the ones from her hometown: steve, jesse, french, buck and BBA) so they could open a portal to another dimension where she thought her other friends (the ones she was in captivity with: herself, scott, homer, rachel and renata) would be located.

why in the fuck they decided to throw a school shooting int heir is anyone guess. my thoughts are bc school shootings were front page in the news at the time and they were trying to create buzz around the show, while at the same time tryig to create a "heroic" ending for our characters.

i think it would have been a better choice for them to forget the school shooting and heroics part, and just focus on them opening the portal for The OA, and having her transported to that other dimension, and thats how the season ends. it would have been more clear, and people wouldnt have laughed and made fun of the awkward and out of left field school shooting ending.

the only thing they would have lost with that ending is the mysteriousness of it all. when seaosn 1 ended, none of us knew wtf just happened. we werent sure if they actually opened a portal or if Prairie was just crazy af. it wasnt until season 2 released, and we see she DID travel to another dimension, that we get that pay off. but by then everyone checked out, the season performed well but not good enough and it was canceled as a result.

its heartbreaking because they had all 5 season written out already, so the show was layered and they were calling back things from season 1 inside of season 2. it was brilliant because so many things that didnt make sense in season 1 were now being made clear in season 2, and more questions and mysteries were injected into season 2 that i fully expected to be explained in season 3, 4 and 5. but now we may never know

oh well, at least we still have part 1 and 2 to watch...

 

[AJUMP23]

what about the ending of season 1 confused you?

The school shooting. Was sudden and unnecessary.

 

[Kev Kev]

The school shooting. Was sudden and unnecessary.

yeah, agreed. it was a weird move and didnt make sense.

and the movements on their own are weird too, but on the other hand they are supposed to look tribal, ancient and ritualistic, so that explains the bizarreness of them. so the movements arent a problem for me, but the school shooter part is just so dumb. they should have rewritten that and just had another reason to do the movements with a sense of urgency. for instance, they could have had the FBI coming after The OA, giving them that sense of urgency to do the movements and open a portal, but i guess they didnt think that was "heroic" enough... i dunno.

there could be a reason for the school shooter that they tried to explain in later seasons, that might have helped it make more sense, but we'll never know now.

i honestly think it was a shock factor thing to manufacture hype for the show, but it backfired...

 

[Kev Kev]

just finished season 2 again and i love this fuckin show!! its better every time. i just had to make one last corny post about how much i love it...

i notice things about the show that i missed the first few times around, as well as just understand some of the more intricate plot points a little better. when dealing in multiple dimensions and 4th wall breaking cliffhangers, its easy to see how one could get a little lost! but that just makes it that much more fun to watch again and try to understand.

The OA is absolutely one of my favorite TV shows ever, and just one of my favorite things ever in this world. its so good and touches on a lot of deep interpersonal questions i have for myself on an almost daily basis, and i just love how weird and mind bending it is. and music plays a big role in the show too, and being that im a musician that could not be any more perfect.

this post is less about bumping the thread again and more about making a kind of definitive/final post on the topic, since it seems there just arent that many fans of the show around here, which is understandable because its a weird, "out-there" fucking show lol. i just wanted to say that i believe the show really was canceled, and i dont think Netflix planned on bringing it back.

however, if you search The OA on google, reddit, youtube, twitter, instagram, etc., you will see there is still an outpouring from the fanbase to continue the story, even if that means in some other form like a book or movie. every year around May 23 (a significant but cryptic date from the show) things like "The OA" or "Save The OA" and other OA related things start trending again. people like Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, Jason Isaacs and Emory Cohen have their social media accounts flooded with fans from the show asking for any sort of info on if The OA is coming back or not, or if they will at least finish the story.

most of it is ignored, some of it is at least up-voted and liked by the actors, and in some cases their instagrams are deleted because they are annoyed with people constantly posting "#SaveTheOA" (im not 100% sure but i believe Zal Batmanglij deleted his twitter for this reason).

currently, The OA crew is working on a new Netflix series, and I wish all the best of luck to them. they are a unique and talented crew and i look forward to checking out their work in the future. when the new show was first being announced and teased, fans of The OA thought it might be about season 3 of The OA, which it turned out not to be. but we did get this little snippet from Brit Marling herself, which gives me hope we havent seen the last of The OA...



and before he deleted his insta (i think he deleted it? im still not 100% sure but i cant find it when i search) Zal posted these...

i believe they will finish this story one day, and i know for myself and many others, it is a oddly meaningful thing that they do. i can only hope Netflix has seen the outpouring from the fanbase and will bring back the show to the platform, but id be happy just to get a few books, or maybe even a short synopsis of what the rest of story included, that way we can piece together something ourselves and finally have some closure.

more conspiracy theories...

YCFM = "You come find me" which is the last thing that OA says to Homer before she jumps to our dimension. some have taken this to mean that an IRL ARG is on and it's a clue, while others (myself included) just believe its a reference to the show, but a sign of hope none-the-less.

but something peculiar has happened in the last few months. it turns out that searching YCFM on Netflix can bring up some interesting search results, including The OA itself! here are some others shows it brings up in the search results, some of which seem to be suspicious references to things from The OA show...

The Travelers
The Croods
How it Ends
Perfume
The Titan
Love, Death, Robots
The Woman in the Window
The Darkest Hour
Two Sentence Horror Stories
Singularity
The I-Land Freud
Lost in Space
LunaNera/ Luna Nera
Start Up
TimeTrap
The Twilight Zone
The Time Travelers Wife
The Letter for the King
Code 8

if you ask me, its probably all coincidence, but man that "The Woman in the Window" one is just way too strange. like... how? why does that result come up when you search for YCFM? why do any of those come up? it seems you would just get no search results. yet there is The OA as first result, with a bunch of other shows that sound like references to The OA. so either they did that on purpose as part of some viral marketing (unlikely), or The OA and terms from the show have created such a buzz around the web that algorithms have picked it up and now we find a lot of peculiar results that the algorithm thinks we will be pleased to see (much more likely... INSANE, but still nothing ground breaking and definitely not viral marketing)

we may never know! but i love the show and i have faith that the story will be finished one day. and now all i can say is if you havent watched it, give it a chance, and if youve only seen season 1, give season 2 a try (youll probably need to rewatch season 1 to have any idea whats going on though), and come back here and tell us what you think about it. id love to discuss the show more with some gaffers, and maybe one day the story will be finished and we can continue the discussion

until then, safe travels and ill see you on the other side, angel's