Then yesterday, I watched it all over again.
And today...I'm considering watching it again.
As an English teacher, I do think my vocabulary is probably more expansive than the average person, but I am also very aware that I rarely even begin to utilize the capacity of words that I know exists within me. Instead I come to the table of description like an excited pre-teen, overusing words like awesome, great, brilliant, love, and most recently, fantastic. These words are all just different heights of the word good, capturing slightly different aspects and excitement levels of whatever song, movie, book, or TV show that I've recently experienced and happen to be sharing about.
I have deep regret over this today as I type, because I have misused, and possibly even abused language in my previous descriptions of pop-culture. I should have been more specific, more measured, and more grounded in my enthusiasm for whatever it was I had just taken in. I cried wolf too many times.
My regret comes today because, like the boy who cried wolf, I want you to believe me this time. And I'm afraid I've wasted all of my words on lesser things. So I'm going to try to present my thoughts about The OA in this blog with more consideration than my usual tag-lines of: "Amazing! So good! Brilliant!" Though be sure, all of that and much more is true about this show.
Given that I have a blog that is dedicated to pop-culture, you can assume that I spend a lot of time engaged with it. I will watch just about anything, though I definitely have my preferences. If you're new here and trying to calibrate my tastes, my all time favorite comedy is 30 Rock and my all time favorite drama is Six Feet Under. Both are acquired tastes that many people don't see through to completion. So if Full House is your "go to" comedy and SVU is your idea of drama, (both of which I have watched), then I can't promise you'll enjoy The OA. It's definitely a risk.
The best way I can describe The OA is like this: If Lost and Flatliners and Stranger Things had a TV show baby, it would be The OA. For me it's the most reminiscent of Lost. The characters are strong, the music is good, the story is incredible, but there's this other-worldly element to it. I was hesitant at first, because once the writers of Lost confessed that they had no plan, it made me cynical toward anything with a "fantasy" component to it. They let us down, and that was rude and irresponsible to the fans and the story. So naturally, I did some reading and found out that The OA's creators started with a storyboard that led them through different dimensions, lives, and timelines. They storied it all out to completion before they ever wrote an episode. This should alleviate any lingering distrust for those of you who have been burned before. Not that EVERY loose end gets pleasantly wrapped up, but that there is POTENTIAL for it to be wrapped up. Everything is on purpose, even if it isn't addressed in the first season. And THAT is damn good writing.
While there is talk of a second season, the first season can and does stand alone. That's a feat in itself for a show like this. There are only 8 episodes to work with in order to give the season enough completion but also, to stop the season with enough potential to keep going forward in a second season. In some ways this feels like a very long movie. I would highly suggest watching it that way if you can. The gift that Netflix gives us is that we get to experience things in their entirety all at once if we'd like to. Be sure that this is a gift. Think of it like listening to an album instead of just one song. Fleetwood Mac's album, Rumours, gave us the song Dreams, but you can't really understand and fully appreciate Dreams unless you understand The Chain. Maybe Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon is the best example of this. Albums are meant to be consumed as a whole, and I think The OA is too.
The OA isn't everyone's cup of tea. In fact, according to Twitter and comments on articles I've read, a lot of people have abandoned it. For this reason, I recommend that it is best viewed in solitude. There are some things that happen that you might feel silly about or maybe you won't know how to feel, and having someone else in the room going through that same thing will probably result in awkward giggling or comments, that I honestly believe will pull you out of the show and belittle the intensity and experience of it.
Even though I think you should watch alone, I think you should definitely have a support group ready after you watch. Not because it's such a horrifying ending, but because I have never wanted to talk about a show as much as I want to talk about this one. For those of you who know me, this is me begging you to understand that THERE REALLY IS A WOLF THIS TIME. I'm sure I've said it before, but this show has left me with a deep desire to connect to others who appreciate, enjoy, and ideally, are as overwhelmed by it as I am. I'm ready when you are....
I want to address a few key moments, and while I don't intend to give outright spoilers, I don't want to ruin any of it for those of you who haven't watched and intend to.
I will limit myself because I could truly go on and on, but I will save some material for actual discussions. Here are a few of my favorite parts/things about the show:
1. Whoever thought to run credits almost 50 minutes into the first episode as Prairie starts to tell her story is a genius. I wasn't sure what was even happening. But when she begins her story and the music changes and suddenly you're flying over a snowy Russian landscape, it feels transcendent. I have never seen anything like that in a show before, and it drew me fully in.
2. Prairie (played by Brit Marling), clearly exists on another level, and her voice while she tells her story and her facial expressions are so perfectly acted. Marling had a hand in the creation of the story and her investment shows.
3. My friend Amy, who recommended the show, described it as "intimate." And I completely agree. At times, I felt like I was intruding on the characters. The connections they develop made tears stream down my face uncontrollably and unexpectedly. I had no idea I would be moved the way I was, or that I COULD be moved the way I was. And through that feeling, I am so very aware of the need for intimacy in life, something that transcends the day to day catching up and pleasantries, and reaches deep down into me, stirs me and settles me simultaneously. It's a call to the deep, not in some religious way that overshadows faith, but in a coming home kind of way. The dialogue, the movements, it's all pushing you to access some part of yourself you've probably hidden away. Which is why it feels intimate. It's almost like the show is revealing that it knows you are capable of this, and it's calling you to show that side of yourself, it's reminding you that everyone has the capacity for this intimacy.
4. That leads me to my favorite scene, which is in episode 5 toward the end. The song Downtown by Majical Cloudz plays during the scene, and at some point I just got lost in it. I won't spoil it, but this is probably the point in the show where people either bail or fall in. I fell in. And I've had the song Downtown on repeat, that is when I haven't been watching the show itself.
5. The ending is terrifying and gorgeous and breathtaking and full-circle enough, but full of curiosities all at the same time. Even though I was crying, I felt such a hopeful peace while I watched. I want to explain a little more about the feeling I'm talking about.
This feeling can most closely be associated with the feeling I get at a Baseball game when everyone sings the National Anthem or when 9/11 happened, or even when Coldplay performs Fix You and the crowd sings the end together. The feeling I had, and still have, is more about the connectedness of humanity. The way we are constantly striving for that level of intimate connection and we all have it to offer and it's right there to reach out and grab, but we get in the way with pride and fear and even the mundanities of day to day life. We have told ourselves to ignore the need for that feeling, in order to survive, to not have to feel the deep hurts that come from really knowing and loving each other. But we sacrifice the beauty of being truly known and loved when we run from that feeling. Yeah, the show evoked all of that for me. (If you're reading this and you think I might need to be committed, can you just give me a 30 min heads up so I can go take a shower before they come for me?)
I could go on and on, and if you're my friend and you decide to watch, just know this might rival my obsession with Hamilton...you should probably just get out while you can...because I want to discuss this show. With ANYONE and EVERYONE who is willing. In my classes I often talk to my students about the necessity to be versed in both politics and pop-culture because it's all connected. The key to making something meaningful is sharing it with someone else. The conversations that come because of shows like The OA are the gifts from the artists who created them. For those of you who think that pop-culture is somehow the lesser of possible cultural interests a person could have, you're doing it all wrong. If this were a book, we would be celebrating it and bragging about having read such a masterpiece, but for some reason, visual formats have to work harder and some never get the same kind of appreciation, or if they do, it takes decades. The conversation about the art is what builds its legacy.
In the 1993 movie, True Romance, Patricia Arquette's character, Alabama, says she likes to get a piece of pie and talk after she's seen a movie. If a character in an old Tarantino film, who has just watched a few kung-fu movies, can engage in a conversation about it afterward...I'm sure you and I can too.
(Bonus points to anyone who can make a connection between True Romance and The OA)
Listen, I usually lean into things that are accessible to all. I like my poetry horoscopic and my horoscopes nice and vague. But in the case of The OA, I will just go ahead and acknowledge that not all of you will enjoy it. Please know that it is still very accessible to you, just maybe not today, or not in the room with the person who is sitting there with you now, or not in the midst of your multi-tasking. But if you will suspend your disbelief, open yourself up just a little, and let yourself get lost in it, I think you will find that The OA has more to offer than you can possibly imagine.
Did I do it? Did I get my words right this time?
Amber, thanks for this post. I appreciate your advice to watch the show alone. That's how I watched it, and I was keenly aware while I was watching it that I would feel too exposed to watch it in the company of others, even with my closest friends. The show does reach in and remind the viewer/(participant!) of their humanity--and their spirituality within that humanity. Thanks for taking on the feat of advocating for this unique show.
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