Appearing from nowhere without any promotional efforts, the OA was a weird experiment from Netflix to just drop a show into it’s line up and see what happened. As people tuned in to scroll through their library, they’d stumble upon the supernatural sci fi mystery and as a young girl who’d been missing for years sat a group of strangers down to tell them her story, viewers were captivated by the weird tale of finding the space between life and death.
After being missing for years, Prairie returned home a completely different person. She was seasoned, tough, and despite being blind when she vanished, she could now see perfectly. It’s hard to get into specifics without spoiling it for anyone who hasn’t seen the mystery, but as she returns to her home town under the careful supervision of her parents, Prairie begins to have an effect on the people around her, drawing in a group of wildly different individuals as she tells them the secrets to her upbringing, who she was before her parents adopted her and how her quest to find her real father landed her in the private prison of a mad scientist hoping to gain access to a dimension beyond our living realm; a dimension she had already visited and long forgotten.
The story is complicated, to say the least. It’s got a bit of everything. Crime. Drama. Teenage struggle. Adults finding their path. Interpretative dance. In fact, it’s just the weirdest combination of things that delve into the philosophical curiousities of the supernatural whilst delving into how far science will go to unlock the key to all those metaphysical questions of our world; all bound by a stellar cast including it’s lead and co-creator Brit Marling and the curious captor Jason Isaacs.
Aside from it’s compelling story telling and chilling mysteries, co-star Jason Isaacs emphasised it’s brilliance came in it’s promotion, or lack thereof. “Just to commission something like this in the first place, which is ballsy, but to decide not to tell people about it.” He mentioned back in 2016, commenting on the lack of promotion or even a trailer “So much of the joy is having the story unfold to you but not knowing where it’s going.”
The mystery of the first season was a slow drip that, while seemingly confused at times, turned out to all lead to a Donnie Darko-ish conclusion where all that confusion and the open questions lead to a point of clarity where suddenly it all makes sense. But then, that clarity also brought with it a cliffhanger that made sure those who found the show wanted more.
This time round there is a trailer. Or at least, a teaser. But there may well not have been as they’ve made a point of making a confusing snippet of information that tells you practically nothing on purpose other to remind you it’s been commissioned for a second run. Cast and crew have confirmed filming has been happening, with Isaacs briefly commenting on twitter that his portion was complete while Marling gave slightly more detailed updates about their shooting schedule but would then be vague about when we’d see the second instalment.
Leaning on the mysterious nature of the show, Marling would comment on twitter that the OA doesn’t work the way normal TV series do, highlighting that there is no pattern to their schedule or their style; everything is different in tone and even budget. “As a result, at every step along the way nothing can be imitated, it has to be invented.”
To her and her team, this is a new kind of storytelling. And Netflix to their credit are keeping in line with inventing something new. There’s no scheduled date for the second seasons release, no hype machine ready to tell us when it’ll be there. We can expect it some point in the first quarter of 2019. We can hope. But in reality, one day it will just arrive without warning.
The OA Season 2 will launch on Netflix from Friday March 22nd.
This article was originally published in it’s full form in SFCQ2 Comms Discover More Edition published January 2019. Members can read the full review by logging into Comms or by downloading their latest copy. If you’re not a member and want to read more or enjoy more of our membership benefits, you can enlist today for free!
About the author
Mark Mitchell; 1969-2026
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