Reviews

This had the pedigree to be good - creator, budget, casting...but what happened?

An almost total lack of credibility of character, setting and story line as exemplified by the following highlights..

A completely contrived main plot with different sub plots each episode, each designed to not so subtly message the audience.

A narcissistic self important sentimentalism with - for example - unlikely heroism and selflessness from all the main characters.

Magical scientific breakthroughs and miracle like cures.

An apparently over stressed medical system where one doctor can spend days helping one patient.

A category 6 super storm that never happens and the consequences of which appear to be one fallen tree.

Padding out its lack of any real substance with extended soundtrack sequences, completely unrealistic, gratuitous and repetitious scenes of injections, it doesn't seem to have any courage of its convictions and ends up being an insipid mess.

This series is dividing its audience, perhaps because it is straddling so many genres, or rather refusing to pigeon hole itself into any one.

It only bears resemblance to Stranger Things because of its use of outlier characters if you like, beyond that, there are few similarities - Stranger Things has clearly got a sci-fi bent, The OA is about the boundaries of science and the human mind/experience.

It recalled to my mind, in certain scenes where contracts are made, of the deals made in the fairy tales of my childhood by various princesses. So it could be described an adult fairy tale...but it is much more than that.

Having seen The East, I was aware that Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij have a lot of courage as film makers to challenge their audience and conventional thinking. Which The OA does, in spades.

It is slow and it is artful and full of beautiful imagery (and colour; look at that purple everywhere). I am only up to E5, but I love the choice of the 5 helpers, the unease between Prairie and her parents, the movements/dance, and even the slightly tacky NDE scenes.

Thoughtful and daring, it packs an emotional, spiritual and artistic punch, in some ways mindful of its audience and the requirement to be commercially successful and in other ways daring that same audience to take an imaginative leap.