Although Netflix has only been in the original content game for a few years, the streaming service has absolutely made its mark when it comes to producing some extraordinary and unusual film and television content. And you really don't get anything more extraordinary and unusual than its recently canceled mystery drama The OA.
The OA is the story of a blind girl who goes missing for years, and then suddenly returns with the ability to see. And honestly, it's kind of hard to describe The OA beyond that point, both because there are too many spoilers and because it's such an off the wall, esoteric series that it's hard to explain it all in under a thousand words. The OA was a small show that earned itself a pretty strong fan base, and its story was so compelling and unusual that the show's cancellation has left a significant gap in the TV landscape. So here are 10 reasons why we're already missing The OA.
Because Of Its Gripping Mysteries
Presumably, anyone who is reading this article has already watched The OA, and if you have then you understand how once you've started the series it's absolutely impossible to stop. It's pretty tough to find any TV series that builds up the kind of story where the audience literally has no idea where it's going, but The OA managed to do that.
And although it was fond of building up a lot of questions and drawing out the answers, it's one of the few TV shows that built itself on a foundation of mystery but that had an answer that was worth all of that buildup.
Because There's No Show Like It
Something that clearly made The OA stand out from the insanely crowded TV marketplace was that it was simply unlike any show that has ever been made before. If you enjoyed The OA there might be some other kinds of shows or movies that you would enjoy, but there is nothing that could actually replace what The OA was delivering to its audience.
It isn't a show that was bound by certain ideas or rules, and the storytelling was so off the wall and unexpected that there's really nothing else out there that The OA could be appropriately compared to.
Because It Wasn't Afraid To Push Boundaries
Everyone who gets into filmmaking or television production probably dreams of creating something that is truly unique and that doesn't operate by the guidelines that most traditional media does, but it's very hard to find a project that actually does that. The OA, however, is one of those rare projects.
It's an extremely unusual narrative that is told in an extremely unusual way, and it's clear that when Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij created the series they weren't trying to restrain themselves artistically in any way. Television is oftentimes a blend of artistic vision and practicality, but The OA let its vision really run wild.
Because Its Characters Were Unique
A TV show or film can tell the greatest, most interesting story ever told, but if that story doesn't include characters that are appealing and that offer something for the audience to hold on to, then the story itself kind of ceases to matter. But what made The OA feel like such a compelling story is that the characters within that story were complex, dimensional, and for the most part characters that hadn't really been seen on television before.
If you were to ask someone about a TV or film that included a character like OA, BBA, or Buck Vu, it seems pretty unlikely that they'd be able to even think of one.
Because Its Imagination Was Limitless
The OA is a series that is very grounded in metaphysical, spiritual ideas, and its fictional universe is quite literally a multiverse with any number of different dimensions inside of it. Plenty of fictional worlds have included a planet, galaxy, or even universe worth of potential, but tackling something like a multiverse is a huge undertaking that most television creators would shy away from.
With a seemingly limitless array of options to explore, it's more than tragic that The OA only got two seasons. The potential for the narrative and the fictional world seems like it was enormous and endless.
Because Of The Characters Who Loved Each Other
Although The OA loves to play with a lot of lofty philosophical concepts, something that always kept it very grounded in a reality that the audience could understand was the relationships between the characters. Clearly The OA's viewership would never have experiences like OA, Homer, or the rest of the characters.
It was easy to relate to how much they loved each other and how intense their bonds were after experiencing some severe emotional trauma. That is something that unfortunately a lot of people probably can relate to, but it also gave the show a lot of emotional weight and meaning.
And Because Of The Characters Who Hated Each Other
It's difficult for any long term narrative to function without some kind of villainous presence, and when it comes to The OA their villain was one of the worst. Hap the angel hunter is obviously the focal point of everything terrible that happens within The OA, but there are plenty of other supporting characters whose animosity towards the amazing core group of characters made them difficult to watch in the best way.
The bizarre relationship between OA and Hap was definitely unusual, and the added element of Hap as both their captor and the man who desperately needed something from them really made the tension palpable.
Because We Need Answers
When you're dealing with a show that thrives on mystery it's very difficult to strike the right balance between giving the audience more questions and providing some actual answers to those questions. But The OA was pretty good a getting that balance right on the money.
However, it's clear from the conclusion of season 2 that the show's writers were not expecting the show to be canceled afterward. That means that there is a metric ton of questions that The OA has built a lot of mystery around, and that will apparently never get answered within the show, which that is quite a bummer.
Because There Was A Lot More Story To Tell
According to the show's creator, actress, and writer Brit Marling, there were a grand total of five seasons planned out for The OA. So for those of you who aren't that great at math, that means that the two seasons that have aired for The OA aren't even half of the story that the storytellers were actually planning on telling.
I don't think anyone who has actually seen The OA would be that surprised to hear this though. Even though it was completely unclear where the story was going, it seemed pretty obvious that it was at least going somewhere and there was still a lot of journey left.
Because The End Wasn't The End
From the bigger picture perspective on The OA, it seems obvious that the story had just started to scratch the surface, and even the show's creators themselves have explained that there was a lot more than they wanted to cover. However, the actual ending of the show leaves its viewers desperately wanting more too.
Much like the closing scene of season one, season two's grand finale was a moment that left off on the biggest, fattest question mark imaginable. It's clear that something huge happened, but we have no idea what, and it seems incredibly unfair that The OA's fans will never get the answers to that question.