Finding it hard to review this show. The first season was wonderful. A slow-paced spiritual mystery that poses many deep questions but doesn't answer them for you in any satisfying manner, forcing you to think about the possibilities. Could Prairie really be who she says she is? Or is she just suffering from PTSD? The ending is ambiguous and can be debated wholeheartedly either way. The bond between the main characters is very strong and shines through. I thought the experience was moving and thought provoking. I fell in love with Brit Marling after this.
The second season, on the other hand, completely undoes the first. It answers all the mysteries of the first season immediately in the guise of a detective drama, and then introduces its own set of incomprehensible mysteries, and not the good kind. The second season is a mess, introducing too many plot lines and dropping most of them, changing the tone of the show, changing character motivations, completely changing the concept/promise of The OA, and generally suffering from trying to do too much. The mysteries are random and seemingly have nothing to do with each other or the main plot. It's a jumble of pieces from different puzzles...trying to be profound but ends up amateurish. And the end... the end started full of promise and was ruined by a completely random, cheap deus ex machina.
My advice is to savor the first season, but skip the second. The first season is like a classic intellectual film, and the second is a straight to DVD sequel. American Psycho vs American Psycho 2. I will choose to pretend it doesn't exist, because the first season left me with a sense of acute wonder, while the second made me angry at its handling.
The second season, on the other hand, completely undoes the first. It answers all the mysteries of the first season immediately in the guise of a detective drama, and then introduces its own set of incomprehensible mysteries, and not the good kind. The second season is a mess, introducing too many plot lines and dropping most of them, changing the tone of the show, changing character motivations, completely changing the concept/promise of The OA, and generally suffering from trying to do too much. The mysteries are random and seemingly have nothing to do with each other or the main plot. It's a jumble of pieces from different puzzles...trying to be profound but ends up amateurish. And the end... the end started full of promise and was ruined by a completely random, cheap deus ex machina.
My advice is to savor the first season, but skip the second. The first season is like a classic intellectual film, and the second is a straight to DVD sequel. American Psycho vs American Psycho 2. I will choose to pretend it doesn't exist, because the first season left me with a sense of acute wonder, while the second made me angry at its handling.