Netflix is not new to the world of creating highly talked about shows on the internet. From “Orange is the New Black” with its four Emmy wins to “Stranger Things” and its wildly popular debut, the streaming service has a number of well-known series under its name. The latest, “The OA” is a groundbreaking 8-episode miniseries that combines elements that have made Netflix’s most popular releases such successes.
Like “Orange Is The New Black”, “The OA” features a strong female voice. The series creator, Brit Marling, also stars in the series as a mysterious woman who calls herself the OA. The OA, known by her parents and the media as Prarie, has returned home after being missing for years, and for the first time in her life, has eyesight. As her parents try to coax the truth out of their daughter while welcoming her back into their home, the OA draws further and further away from them, and makes a deal with a mischievous high school student that results in him bringing five locals together to meet the OA in an abandoned house. Though the five locals’ lives are slightly intertwined before their meeting with the OA, the true drama lies within the story she tells them- after being born and orphaned in Russia, she was involved in a near death experience, was adopted by her current parents, and was seduced into being the subject of group experiments led by a cunning and disturbed man whose clutches she escaped only recently.
As the OA tells her story in a series of flashbacks, it becomes clearer to her ragtag team of locals that she needs something more from them than their attention- her plan is to get revenge on the man who held her captive and rescue her fellow test subjects with their help.
“The OA” is like “Stranger Things”, a twisty, multi-layered new masterpiece from Netflix, and one that deserves the hype surrounding it. Brilliantly plotted and well-acted, “The OA” is the perfect one-day Netflix binge for winter break.