Following Stranger Things, Netflix came out with a new series called The OA. The series follows the story of Prairie Johnson played by Brit Marling through flashbacks and the present timeline.

Through captivating experience the creators, Marling and Zal Batmanglij, manage to encompass a whirlwind of emotions into the eight episodes that make up season one of the show. The series is a combination of mystery and sci-fi and entertains an audience that appreciates plots regarding the magical and imaginative endeavors of characters.

Having gone missing seven years previous, Johnson is found after being caught on film in what appeared to be a suicide attempt. Johnson is reunited with her family after which it is revealed that before her disappearance she was blind, but seven years later, her eyesight has returned.

The plot entails Johnson’s, who prefers to be called OA, experiences from her childhood, the past seven years, as well as her encounters in the present. It is conveyed in the first episode that OA has new physical and mental abilities and has made it her mission to find five individuals to pass her knowledge onto.

While the show is set in present day Michigan, Johnson tells the tale of her disappearance through a series of flashbacks. These flashbacks are centered in New York as well as Russia. The actual production of the Netflix series took place mainly in New York and a few scenes and shots in Pennsylvania, Iceland, Russia, and La Habana, Cuba.

Through captivating experience the creators, Marling and Batmanglij, manage to encompass a whirlwind of emotions into the eight episodes that make up season one of the show. The series is a combination of mystery and sci-fi and entertains an audience that appreciates plots regarding the magical and imaginative endeavors of characters.

I personally enjoyed The OA as a series in its entirety. Initially the first episode did not entice me, however as I kept watching, into the second episode, I was hooked. Throughout the season the plot unfolds and the audience is able to make new discoveries. I especially enjoyed the structure of the splot. Johnson is telling her journey in the form of a story, to her five recruits. As the audience watches, they learn what the recruits know.

The story of Johnson is unusually unique from the characters of other popular shows. The series is very contemporary in its creation, which is both effective and ineffective. It’s effective in the sense that the show is very visually appealing and the acting is very raw and relatable. There are moments where the contemporary feel is ineffective because of bland areas of the story that are confusing and anticlimactic.

Often the end of the episodes left me confused or not hooked to continue watching. Though I don’t want to include any spoilers, the season finale left me surprised, but also a little underwhelmed. I would hope that season two begins with an explanation of the appalling events that took place.

Overall, though, I loved the show and it was a refreshing and beautiful story. I would rate the show a 4.5 stars.

As I mentioned earlier, the show is very modern and contemporary. There are scenes that contain mature content as well as foul language. Due to those reasons I personally would consider the show Rated R, for those who may be concerned with the content. While the mature content is minimal to only a couple scenes in a few episodes, the foul language is spread across the series.