After two years in the making, The OA Part II is finally here, and it is glorious. Premiering on Netflix this past Friday, I was front and center waiting to watch the show, and it was quite the experience. Whether it’s the flow of streaming tears down your face, or your eyes glued to the screen, or even the uncontrollable chills with each new plot twist and revelation, this show will have you feelin the feels.
My review of the show is spoiler-free, so feel free to sit back, relax and read to decide for yourself if you should watch the show. But if you don’t… what is wrong with you?!
After watching the first season, one can’t quite be sure if it is possible for season two to be even remarkably close to weirder. Boy, can you be wrong. Part II is by far more bizarre than season one, but in doing so, the show really brings out a different emotion from its audience, asking them to trust them in this mind-bending journey, and take a leap of faith, into a different dimension.
I think that is what is so special about Part II. The audience has to really give their trust to the story of the show and its characters, in a new way other shows don’t quite ask for. Viewers go into the show with open minds, and are rewarded by something completely new in television that breaks ultimately many of its own rules.
Without giving too many spoilers, Part II follows ‘The OA’, played by the show’s co-creator Brit Marling, as she finally arrives in a different dimension. Along with ‘The OA’ we also follow a new lead character, detective Karim Washington, played by the talented Kingsley Ben-Adir, as they unravel the mystery of a missing teenager, and how it all connects to a mysterious mansion.
Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, as you will find out in episode one of part II… my own personal theory was right! After years of unanswered questions, writing The OA articles and theorizing, my theory was spot on right in every way possible! Dang, somebody should pay me just to theorize TV show’s future seasons. Hey, even maybe life’s existential questions. Meaning of life? Pfft! Easy! Let me just theorize on that for a bit, and write an article about that. I’ll get back to you…
If you have no idea what on earth I’m talking about, read my article “5 The OA Theories That Will Blow Your Mind” and then you’ll understand my pure excitement and revelationary joy. Anyway!
I will try not to give any more details to part II of The OA, as it is so much more enjoyable to watch the series knowing nothing!
What I can promise you, is that the show will be doing far more for you than following a simple narrative. You’ll find yourself delving into many of the several mysteries, characters and plot lines at once, theorizing how they may all connect as the show grows more bizarre and strange. You will not be aimlessly watching the show for action or easy plot points, you will be participating in this show on a whole new level. You will connect emotionally to so many characters — ‘The OA’, Homer, BBA, the boys — and you will be turning over every question, possibility and theory in your head, unlike any other show. Right when you think you know where the show is going, the story will throw you another curve ball, and plunge you into the depths of the farthest reaches of your mind.
The show gets weird, real weird. And with it comes a vulnerability requirement the audience has to give away, to fully experience the show in all it’s possibilities (and to fully engage with the questions it asks you.) And you’ll want to give it away! You’ll gladly break down your walls other shows have built up, because within episode one The OA will break them down with a breeze, and the payoff from the final episode of part II is just that good!
Which brings me to my last point. It’s been a bit hard to review The OA without giving away any spoilers but, I need to talk about the finale of part II without spoiling anything.
The last episode does something really no other television show has done before, and that is what makes the finale of part II even that more unexpected and shocking. It’s quite the experience, that watching part II, I was literally jumping up and screaming: “Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! I can’t believe they did that! They’re amazing! Oh my God! Brilliant!” (as you can tell I really, really like The OA. Can you blame me? It’s been two years! And it was worth the wait! Thank God!)
The part II finale breaks every rule of television and is truly an experience to be a part of. Through every twist and turn of the show, every emotional rollercoaster and every interpretive dance sequence of “The Five Movements”, The OA Part II is just that bizarre, just that groundbreaking and just that brilliant.
For me? I’ll be off perfecting “The Five Movements” while waiting for part III, in hopes of opening a portal to a different dimension where part III has already been made to perfection. I still do need five people to join me in doing “The Five Movements”. Are you with me?
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