# The OA (2016)

> A young blind woman returns after seven years missing with new abilities and gathers five strangers for a secret mission between dimensions.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/60550

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 16
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Canceled
- Genres: science fiction, mystery, drama
- Created by: Brit Marling, Zal Batmanglij
- Network: Netflix
- Cast: Brit Marling, Jason Isaacs, Emory Cohen, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Phyllis Smith, Patrick Gibson, Brendan Meyer, Brandon Perea
- TMDB rating: 7.8/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4635282/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: labyrinthine
- Violence: mild
- Tone: surreal, intimate, melancholic, tense, eerie

## What critics say

Audiences praise its mystery, performances and dimension-hopping ambition while many find its ambiguity divisive and its cancellation a loss.

## Synopsis

The OA (2016-2019) is an American science fiction mystery series created by Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij for Netflix. Brit Marling plays Prairie Johnson, later called OA, a young blind woman who vanishes for seven years and then returns home with mysterious new abilities. She recruits a small group of strangers, including a former teacher played by Jason Isaacs, a troubled teenager played by Brendan Meyer, and a skeptical family man played by Emory Cohen, for a secret mission she insists is urgent. The engine of the show is the tension between her testimony and the disbelief of families, police, and a doctor who wants proof, while the group gathers in rooms and trades stories that keep shifting. Across two seasons of eight episodes each, the series alternates between tense present-day scenes and unsettling accounts of the lost years, building a layered puzzle about parallel dimensions and near-death experiences. Its tone is surreal, intimate, and melancholic, with dreamlike movement sequences and a sense of dread that lingers. Fans of Lost, Dark, and Twin Peaks will find resonance in its patient mystery and its refusal to explain everything. Netflix gave the story two seasons before cancellation left it unfinished, and the show rewards close attention and open interpretation.

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