The OA

I’ve been watching the new season of the OA this week. To prepare, I rewatched season one. It was great. I stumbled upon the OA a couple of years ago on Netflix and it blew my mind. That the opening credits come up about an hour into the first episode when things start getting crazy was had a big impact on me. I had to pause the show and get up to walk around my room and consider what I was seeing.

Terrible things happen to our favorite characters in the OA. But instead of them resulting is something sad and even more terrible, the bad things give rise to strange and wonderful new ideas.

The movements. I love them. That they have real power is the amazing reality of the show. I saw a performance by Elevator Repair Service back in the mid-90’s that kinda blew me away with how synced dance moves outside the context of a music video could be so powerful. To have a show with characters who believe in collective movement and get real results is pretty wild.

In the last episode of season one, with the kids jump up and do the movements under pressure, it felt like a triumph of insanity. I loved it.

Season two doesn’t provide those high highs, but doubles down on the movements and their power. It introduces a house that functions as a puzzle and portal, which reminded me of Gregor Schneider’s “Haus ur.” I like the PI character, but it wasn’t clear to me why he is the one who has to navigate the house.

I wondered why the kids didn’t use the movements more among themselves in season two. For healing, in particular. Why did they give up on it during the scene on the beach? and what about the cubes? They seem like a cool way of negotiating the movements, but how does a traveler keep them? And why are the ones in the final scene so big? And when does HAP have time to do all that?

Anyway, I’m in for season 3. Curious to see where it all goes.