by Haley Mitchell, managing editor
Months of dust-bowl-like on my Netflix feed were remedied when I saw an ad for this show on Instagram. The premise is nothing short of clickbait—Prairie Johnson (Britt Marling), blind since an early childhood near-death experience, disappeared from home seven years prior and upon her miraculous return, she can see. Still, it was enough to draw me in and fall for its lovechild-likeness to Stranger Things and 10 Cloverfield Lane.
Prairie is an unlikely heroine. She’s quiet, but has an undoubtable strength about her that makes it apparent to everyone she’s seen unfathomable stuff. She also has a magnetic way with words and practically nonexistent temper that makes her very difficult to dislike, even even the FBI agents questioning her whereabouts for the span of her disappearance and her parents whose concerns she constantly exploits. But because she’s so likable, she quickly makes friends with the neighborhood bully (Patrick Gibson), the somewhat pathetic schoolteacher (Phyllis Smith, The Office), the manipulative scientist (Jason Isaacs, Harry Potter) the quiet trans boy (Ian Alexander in his acting debut) (but bonus points for that LGBTQ+ representation!) and many more. But her goodness is also her hubris, and lands her in a situation of Kimmy Schmidt-like proportions.
I was already impressed that the show’s lead, Britt Marling, not only portrayed a blind woman but also co-created the series with Zal Batmanglij as well. Marling and Batmanglij are frequent collaborators, and their familiarity and willingness to push at the limits of logic has paid off in the show’s writing. Though the material often seems odd and arbitrary, as the show progresses in a rather orderly fashion despite one tomato-related plot hole and confronts some pretty interesting topics.
Spanning the gap between soft-edged images of Prairie’s dreamy childhood in Russia and conjuring an abandoned suburbia to fill the same timestamp makes The OA seem a more than a little discontinuous—the only thing holding the sporadic storyline together is Prairie herself. Prairie’s calm narration gives the watcher the opportunity to experience her flashbacks from an almost third-person point of view. I mean, she’s a blind and sheltered child with a naturally kind disposition—can you be more impartial?
Through Prairie’s lens a crazy story develops that made me delve deeper into 2-AM territory with art school apps due than I’d like to admit, but I would say it was a valuable way to waste my time. Netflix has struck gold with this one.
The show also has one of the coolest Instagram feeds I’ve ever seen, so honestly this marketing team deserves all the points.
