The OA

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Gravel

Mr. Poopybutthole
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0.00 star(s) Rating: 0.00/5 0 Votes
Title: The OA

Genre: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery, Drama

First aired: 2016-12-16

Creator: Brit Marling, Zal Batmanglij

Cast: Emory Cohen, Will Brill, Patrick Gibson, Brendan Meyer, Brandon Perea, Chloë Levine, Jason Isaacs, Phyllis Smith, Brit Marling, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Ian Alexander, Sharon Van Etten, Paz Vega

Overview: Prairie Johnson, blind as a child, comes home to the community she grew up in with her sight restored. Some hail her a miracle, others a dangerous mystery, but Prairie won’t talk with the FBI or her parents about the seven years she went missing.
 

Gravel

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Another Neflix original, released today 12/16. I'm not actually all that sure what I should post, because it all seems spoilery. I'm only two episodes in, and I watched half of the trailer and I regret how spoilery it is as well.

But this one looks like it will be another one that knocks it out of the park. More than likely I'll binge the shit out of this over the weekend.

Watch this trailer at your own risk:

Edit: Okay, it was weird and intriguing for the first 3 episodes. The 4th brought it into "fucky" territory. I'm pretty sure I've figured out the kitsch, but we'll see.
 
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Caliane

Golden Baronet of the Realm
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made it about 30minutes into the first episode before getting annoyed and turning it off.
Horrible pacing.

also, what really annoyed the fuck out of me was the sociopath being treated as normal. and, apparently a sympathetic bully that just needs some compassion. The fuck?
"we are thinking of expelling your son." thinking of expelling? He attempted to murder at least 2 people in the last 15 minutes of this show. how the fuck is he not in jail? Attempted murder is not bullying. Attempted murder does not require the student to press charges.


My, theory on direction from those 30minutes. probably changling related?
 
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Brikker

Trump's Staff
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aliens or weird experiment. final trailer scene kinda gives that away but could be a misdirection
 
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Gravel

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Stranger Things, this is not.

It had an interesting enough premise to keep me watching, hoping for more. But no, this wasn't good. At all.

Characters were written poorly, and the plot was kind of shit.
 
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Guurn

<Bronze Donator>
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It has horrible character development but by the end of the second episode they at least make an attempt at it. The wife likes it so I think we'll finish the season. I think my main problem is that there aren't any relatable people.
 
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Gravel

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It's good and compelling for the first few episodes. It draws you in with mysteries that you hope get some resolution.

But it's completely ridiculous and poorly done, unfortunately. I think it could've been really good with just a few changes to how the characters were written (and a complete rewrite of the final episode).

I think by episode 4 or 5 it really just started unravelling. I really can't recommend the show to anyone as it was completely disappointing and unfulfilling. If you just watched the first 4 or 5 episodes, you'd probably rate it an 8 out of 10. As a whole though, maybe a 4.
 
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Khane

Got something right about marriage
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I couldn't even make it through the first episode.

I think Netflix knew they had a stinker on their hands so they didn't advertise at all and then tried to plant "The Next Stranger Things!" crap on various media sites at the last minute just to create views.

I got up to the scene where Prairie bit the dog before I just couldn't take it anymore. I guess I didn't give it much of a chance but shit... everything up until that point was just bad and that was the tipping point.

The jarring scene where the two "high school" kids are fucking in front of a wide open window in the middle of the day and the ensuing after fuck dialogue was just laughable. Never has there been a pair of kids that young that spoke like that. And then the scene where there is a line of kids waiting to buy drugs in a new construction house which led up to the dog bite scene. Holy shit.... it's just really bad.
 
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Gravel

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The high school student shit was definitely ridiculous and really hurt the first episode. Luckily for most of the rest of it, that didn't play much part in the show; it was there, but in short enough sequences to not be too jarring. In fact, my wife had started watching it and I saw the 2nd half of the 2nd episode, and that's when I decided to go back and watch it from the beginning. I'm not sure if I would have stuck with it had I not seen the 2nd episode first.

I was going to make a post about the final episode in spoilers, but the whole thing was just so ridiculous that even if I did, none of it would make sense to someone who hadn't watched it but just wants to know how it ends.

I guess I will anyway, and you can wtf at it.

The finale scene is the group of kids (who Prairie has been telling her story to) back with their original group of friends at lunch in the high school. We see a kid walking outside towards the building (at which point I said to my wife, "Holy shit, was this entire setup just a PSA about school bullying?"). We slowly notice that he's got body armor and an M-4 looking carbine with a ton of magazines. One of the kids notices and tackles another to the ground to get him out of the way before shots start firing outside the building.

So, here's where it's even worse. The premise of the story is that Prairie is an angel (the "Original Angel" or OA), and the other captives were also angels. But their angel power is limited to not dying, and dancing. Each of the 5 captive angels learns a different portion of some super awkward dance. The 5 dances together are...who the fuck knows? It's never actually explained. And worse than that still, in the last episode it's heavily hinted at that Prairie is actually just a nut job and stole from a bunch of literary works to make up her story. It's ambiguous though. So anyway, Prairie taught the students (and 1 teacher) her angel dance moves. And they're fucking RIDICULOUS looking.

With that explanation out of the way, the school...the shooter makes his way into the cafeteria. The Prairie story group (4 kids and teacher) give each other eye/head nods, like they know what they need to do. They all get up and start doing their awkward angel dance. I should also mention that Prairie had a premonition that this would all happen, so she runs to the school while this is taking place. The real hero of the story, a cafeteria worker, tackles the shooter while they were doing their angel dance, and the shooter lets off a few rounds that hit Prairie. She's taken away in an ambulance, the kid who throat punched the other kid chases it saying "take me with you" and the show ends.

Cue disappointment at what the fuck you just witnessed.

Edit: Wow, I even found the scene (for now).

 
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Abefroman

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Can't fucking believe I binged this crap. It was a cross between K-Pax and the African anteater ritual dance with a heaping dose of cringe.

african.gif


I watched this because of Gravel's comments from his first two posts. You mother fucker you.
 
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Gravel

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I'm sorry!

In my defense, the show really was intriguing. The first few episodes I was like, "damn, I can't wait to see where this goes." But then, well, it got to the "fucky" part (in my edit on the 2nd post).

Had they cut out some of the idiocy and written the characters a bit better, it probably could've been a good show.
 
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Abefroman

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I'm sorry!

In my defense, the show really was intriguing. The first few episodes I was like, "damn, I can't wait to see where this goes." But then, well, it got to the "fucky" part (in my edit on the 2nd post).

Had they cut out some of the idiocy and written the characters a bit better, it probably could've been a good show.


I actually really enjoyed it despite the awkward shit like the movements. It has a lot of potential and with a few tweaks could have been great. That fucking ending though.
 
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SorrowsEnd

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The ending to this just fucking killed it for me.

Save yourself the 8 hours.

Do not watch this train wreck.
 
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Caliane

Golden Baronet of the Realm
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The high school student shit was definitely ridiculous and really hurt the first episode. Luckily for most of the rest of it, that didn't play much part in the show; it was there, but in short enough sequences to not be too jarring. In fact, my wife had started watching it and I saw the 2nd half of the 2nd episode, and that's when I decided to go back and watch it from the beginning. I'm not sure if I would have stuck with it had I not seen the 2nd episode first.

I was going to make a post about the final episode in spoilers, but the whole thing was just so ridiculous that even if I did, none of it would make sense to someone who hadn't watched it but just wants to know how it ends.

I guess I will anyway, and you can wtf at it.

The finale scene is the group of kids (who Prairie has been telling her story to) back with their original group of friends at lunch in the high school. We see a kid walking outside towards the building (at which point I said to my wife, "Holy shit, was this entire setup just a PSA about school bullying?"). We slowly notice that he's got body armor and an M-4 looking carbine with a ton of magazines. One of the kids notices and tackles another to the ground to get him out of the way before shots start firing outside the building.

So, here's where it's even worse. The premise of the story is that Prairie is an angel (the "Original Angel" or OA), and the other captives were also angels. But their angel power is limited to not dying, and dancing. Each of the 5 captive angels learns a different portion of some super awkward dance. The 5 dances together are...who the fuck knows? It's never actually explained. And worse than that still, in the last episode it's heavily hinted at that Prairie is actually just a nut job and stole from a bunch of literary works to make up her story. It's ambiguous though. So anyway, Prairie taught the students (and 1 teacher) her angel dance moves. And they're fucking RIDICULOUS looking.

With that explanation out of the way, the school...the shooter makes his way into the cafeteria. The Prairie story group (4 kids and teacher) give each other eye/head nods, like they know what they need to do. They all get up and start doing their awkward angel dance. I should also mention that Prairie had a premonition that this would all happen, so she runs to the school while this is taking place. The real hero of the story, a cafeteria worker, tackles the shooter while they were doing their angel dance, and the shooter lets off a few rounds that hit Prairie. She's taken away in an ambulance, the kid who throat punched the other kid chases it saying "take me with you" and the show ends.

Cue disappointment at what the fuck you just witnessed.

Edit: Wow, I even found the scene (for now).

hahahahhahahha. HOLY SHIT.
 
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yimmien

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The jarring scene where the two "high school" kids are fucking in front of a wide open window in the middle of the day and the ensuing after fuck dialogue was just laughable. Never has there been a pair of kids that young that spoke like that. And then the scene where there is a line of kids waiting to buy drugs in a new construction house which led up to the dog bite scene. Holy shit.... it's just really bad.

That was hilarious. The dad came in and just told him he was in trouble at school again and left. He should have flipped his shit and yelled at Steve to get his goddamn dong out of the window again.
 
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Gravel

Mr. Poopybutthole
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hahahahhahahha. HOLY SHIT.
The finale was totally out of left field. The entire rest of the show had been pretty cohesive (outside of the awkwardness). My only complaints before that were that it was kind of slow, and a lot of the characters acted quite unrealistically at times (I think Prairie's parents were the worst about this).

But then halfway through the finale, you're just like, "Wut?" The entire story just crumbled in on itself. There was no resolution, only awkwardness.

I should also point out that the video I posted is only a small portion of the awkward. Starting at episode 4 I believe is where it began. And every episode I sat there uncomfortable for a good 3 or 4 minutes per...wondering how the actors agreed to this, the writers came up with it, and how anyone kept a straight face while doing it.

 
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chaos

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Thanks for the warning. Almost got into this one this past weekend, started on The Magicians instead
 
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Drinsic

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The high school student shit was definitely ridiculous and really hurt the first episode. Luckily for most of the rest of it, that didn't play much part in the show; it was there, but in short enough sequences to not be too jarring. In fact, my wife had started watching it and I saw the 2nd half of the 2nd episode, and that's when I decided to go back and watch it from the beginning. I'm not sure if I would have stuck with it had I not seen the 2nd episode first.

I was going to make a post about the final episode in spoilers, but the whole thing was just so ridiculous that even if I did, none of it would make sense to someone who hadn't watched it but just wants to know how it ends.

I guess I will anyway, and you can wtf at it.

The finale scene is the group of kids (who Prairie has been telling her story to) back with their original group of friends at lunch in the high school. We see a kid walking outside towards the building (at which point I said to my wife, "Holy shit, was this entire setup just a PSA about school bullying?"). We slowly notice that he's got body armor and an M-4 looking carbine with a ton of magazines. One of the kids notices and tackles another to the ground to get him out of the way before shots start firing outside the building.

So, here's where it's even worse. The premise of the story is that Prairie is an angel (the "Original Angel" or OA), and the other captives were also angels. But their angel power is limited to not dying, and dancing. Each of the 5 captive angels learns a different portion of some super awkward dance. The 5 dances together are...who the fuck knows? It's never actually explained. And worse than that still, in the last episode it's heavily hinted at that Prairie is actually just a nut job and stole from a bunch of literary works to make up her story. It's ambiguous though. So anyway, Prairie taught the students (and 1 teacher) her angel dance moves. And they're fucking RIDICULOUS looking.

With that explanation out of the way, the school...the shooter makes his way into the cafeteria. The Prairie story group (4 kids and teacher) give each other eye/head nods, like they know what they need to do. They all get up and start doing their awkward angel dance. I should also mention that Prairie had a premonition that this would all happen, so she runs to the school while this is taking place. The real hero of the story, a cafeteria worker, tackles the shooter while they were doing their angel dance, and the shooter lets off a few rounds that hit Prairie. She's taken away in an ambulance, the kid who throat punched the other kid chases it saying "take me with you" and the show ends.

Cue disappointment at what the fuck you just witnessed.

Edit: Wow, I even found the scene (for now).


fucking lol
 
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Gravel

Mr. Poopybutthole
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fucking lol
So in defense of the show, the rest of it was really fucking good.

Massive spoiler, explaining the entire plot:
The plot of the story is basically, this woman (Prairie) has been missing for 7 years. She shows back up on a bridge which she then leaps off of, it being captured on video. Her parents receive a phone call that it may be their daughter. They go to the hospital and Prairie says, "Who are these people?" Cue her mother putting Prairie's hands on her face (and saying "mom?"), and the father says she's never seen us cause she was blind. Oh, and she doesn't recognize her name, and instead wants to be called "The OA." The real interesting part is she gathers up these 5 people, and she's telling her story.

She claims she was the daughter of this rich Russian guy (oil tycoon) and she gets these weird premonitions. She has one about drowning, and sure enough, eventually her and a bunch of other rich kids have their bus go off a bridge and they all drown. She goes to some weird starry looking place and this woman asks her if she wants to go back, which she replies yes; the caveat being she has to give up something, which is her sight. She gets adopted by the above family (not before some other shit that doesn't matter much).

Prairie starts having premonitions about meeting her (now dead) father again on her 21st birthday at the Statue of Liberty, so she runs away to NYC. Her father doesn't show, so she starts being a hobo and playing violin in the subway. Some guy approaches her and asks her if she died and came back to life. Mind fuck begins. He says he does research on near death events (NDE's) and convinces her to come with him to participate in his study. Unfortunately she gets there and realizes she's been abducted and there are other prisoners there. It's a kind of awesome setup; the guy builds a compound at some abandoned mine area far from civilization. Underground he builds his prison with a small stream that runs through it, and these plexiglass cells that are all adjoined. Over time she gains his trust (because she's blind) and tries to poison him, another prisoner is dead, yada yada and a bunch of other shit happens. Prairie also escapes at some point, but when she realizes she's trapped by the fact that this place was built around a mine, she gets smacked in the back of the head by her captor (goes by 'Hap'). Aaaaaand, she gains her vision back. But Hap doesn't know this. The fucky part starts now too though, because while she was dead from the smack to the head, she eats a fucking bird that I guess teaches her dancing.

Every couple weeks one of them gets gassed. They eventually figure out that it's just something to make them forget, so they devise a way to suck the air from the intended victim's cell so that the person remains conscious. It's at this point that they learn the guy is putting them in this contraption that fills with water to drown them, because these people don't die and he wants to know where they go. This takes dozens of attempts though, each time with these people drowning over and over. Homer, one of the prisoners, is the one that gets drowned the most. Prairie tells him to eat something alive to bring it back when he dies. He finally remains conscious enough and in his death he eats a fish....and learns to dance.

One of the other guys I guess is sick for some reason and says that if Hap takes him again, he's not coming back. He's taken to the experimental machine where he begs for his life with information. He tells Hap that Prairie can see now. The experiment goes wrong, dude dies, and Hap dumps his body in the cell while yelling at the others that they did this, and he's pissed about Prairie lying. For some reason, Prairie and Homer start doing their two dances together (apparently for 11 hours), and the dead guy is revived. They figure out that they're angels, and they call Hap the "Angel Hunter." Prairie thinks that the 5 dances (can't remember why she thought 5) are the key to opening a portal to an alternate dimension. Now they play the waiting game.

Hap finds a 5th prisoner, but she doesn't want to come. He forces Homer to come along to seduce her. Plan: success. Eventually 4 of the 5 of them die and learn their dance move. The 5th prisoner never gets one. Hap has been watching the prisoners and realizes what's up, and he learns the dance moves too.

Eventually the sheriff comes and Hap has headphones on and doesn't hear him enter the house. He's immediately arrested, but Hap convinces him that his captors perform miracles and can cure his ALS ridden wife. Dumb shit sheriff drives him off like he's being arrested, but instead picks up his wife to bring back to Hap's dungeon of angels. Prairie and Homer do their fucky dances with the sheriff's wife and she wakes up saying that she has the 5th and final dance. Homer and Prairie hug and Hap loses his shit, killing the sheriff and his wife, and then takes Prairie to the middle of nowhere and drops her off, saying that she'll never find her friends again.

That kind of summarizes the 7 years. In the present, she's trying to teach these 4 kids and their teacher the dance moves so that they can open the portal for her. Most of the shit in the present day is fucking retarded though. One of the kids, in the final episode, breaks into Prairie's house in the middle of the night and finds a bunch of books that seem an awful lot like she drew inspiration from them (Homer's 'The Illiad,' a book about NDE's, and some other shit). Prairie had been seeing an FBI psychologist, and for some reason he's also in the house and stops the kid. Then hugs him. None of this shit makes sense. And then we get that finale scene, where the kids do the fucky dance and apparently save the day.

So reading that, there was a really fucking cool plotline somewhere hidden in that. But it just went all kinds of weird when it didn't need to. There's a reason why a lot of people were drawn in for several episodes. But by about episode 4 or 5 some of that weird shit started creeping in. By episode 8 it was a trainwreck.
 
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