Russian oligarchy, suburban America and the not-so-sweet hereafter collide in “The OA” when a young, blind woman goes missing, only to return some seven years later with her vision restored.
But what really happened to Prairie Johnson (played by the show’s co-creator, Brit Marling) is the mystery that drives this eight-part original Netflix drama released in its entirety on Dec. 16.
Prairie, who dubs herself OA upon her return, says she was kidnapped and used as a lab rat by a scientist obsessed with finding proof of life after death.
Whether her story is real or the byproduct of extreme trauma is one of many questions at the heart of this haunting, graceful and often frustratingly cryptic series.
Yet an even bigger mystery surrounding “The OA” is why the streaming service chose to release it — and dozens more original series — with little promotion or fanfare.
In the last two months alone, Netflix has made available more series — some original, some partnerships or acquisitions — than HBO, Showtime and Amazon Prime combined, and done so with such stealth that you’d swear the streaming service was conducting its own experiment: Just how alert are you, dear audience?
The streaming platform’s throw-it-all-against-the-wall approach has produced some of the best and most ambitious series this year. But many more have quietly been slipped under the tree at year’s end: some are treasures, others are white elephants.
In that latter category is the recently released 14th century drama “Medici: Masters of Florence” starring Dustin Hoffman — yes, you read that correctly — and Richard Madden (Robb Stark on HBO’s “Game of Thrones”).
It follows the influential Medici family as it turns its small business into a banking empire that helps fund the Italian Renaissance.
As artful as the premise sounds, the eight-part story is too dense, wrought with too many players and edited in such a way that it often feels thrown together. The dialogue is in English, and almost all the characters here speak with British accents — except Hoffman. His accent is a puzzling 20th century Brooklynese (perhaps he’s been time traveling with OA?); and every time he opens his mouth, 1390s Florence sounds more like 1950s New York.
It’s also near impossible to render banking sexy, no matter how many bodice-ripping scenes you throw at the problem — and there are many. Couple that with beautiful scenery and creators Frank Spotnitz (“The Man in the High Castle”) and Nicholas Meyer (“Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”) deserve credit for at least trying to make the early world of loans and mortgages look pretty.
Is “Medici” good? No, but it’s been commissioned for another season.
More binge-worthy is the modern-day British/German detective series “Paranoid.” Released last month on Netflix, the eight-episode series focuses on small-town detectives who stumble on an international pharma conspiracy while investigating the murder of a local woman.
In classic British form a la “Happy Valley” or “Broadchurch,” the characters’ back stories are often as disturbing as the crimes they investigate, and their fight for justice is as much about battling their own demons as it is about solving the brutal murder of a single mother.
The best in this sampling of late-year, below-the-radar releases also happens to be the weirdest: “The OA.”
Created by Marling and Zal Batmanglij, this metaphysical tale features OA’s fantastical abduction story, as told through a collection of surreal flashbacks.
Her audience of unlikely listeners/friends serve as a grounding element in this otherwise supernatural narrative. A counselor, played by “The Night Of’s” Riz Ahmed, tries to make sense of it all via logical explanations.
Her story may or may not be true. Ultimately, it’s up to you decide.
It’s been reported that Netflix intentionally left the task of finding “The OA” among its billion other shows up to the viewer with vague trailers revealed barely in advance of its arrival last week. They were marketing a mystery with mystery.
