# The OA Review: The Strangest Sci-Fi Show Netflix Ever Cancelled
Jaxon here, writing what might be the most contentious review we’ve ever published. The team has been arguing about The OA since Netflix murdered it in 2019, and honestly, we’re still nowhere near consensus. Diane thinks it’s profound metaphysical storytelling that transcends genre boundaries. Max calls it pretentious nonsense masquerading as deep television. Luna defends its commitment to mystery and interpretation. Quinn just wants to know why everyone’s dancing.
I’m writing this because The OA represents something crucial about speculative television that we rarely see executed with such uncompromising vision. Whether you think it’s brilliant or insufferable, The OA attempted something genuinely unprecedented in science fiction media. It constructed a narrative framework that demanded active interpretation whilst refusing to provide comfortable answers. The series cancellation after two parts (Wikipedia) remains one of Netflix’s most baffling creative decisions, cutting short a story that was building toward something genuinely revolutionary.
The OA emerged during Netflix’s peak experimentation phase, when the platform was willing to fund ambitious projects without clear commercial appeal. Co-created by Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, the series followed Prairie Johnson, a young woman who returns after seven years missing with her sight mysteriously restored (Metacritic). But that premise barely scratches the surface of what The OA actually explores across its two intricate, maddening, brilliant seasons.
| Creators | Brit Marling, Zal Batmanglij |
| Network | Netflix |
| Years Aired | 2016-2019 |
| Seasons | 2 (16 episodes total) |
| Genre | Metaphysical Science Fiction |
| Our Rating | 8/10 |
This earned a complex place in our ongoing debates about television science fiction that pushes boundaries versus shows that mistake obscurity for profundity.
## Consciousness Transfer and Metaphysical Framework
The fundamental question The OA poses isn’t about parallel dimensions or interdimensional travel, though it employs those concepts extensively. The series interrogates whether consciousness exists independently of physical substrate, whether identity persists across multiple iterations of self, and what constitutes authentic experience versus constructed narrative. These aren’t casual philosophical gestures; they form the structural foundation of everything the show attempts.
Prairie’s initial story about being held captive by Dr. Hap, learning mysterious movements that facilitate dimensional travel, appears straightforward until the series systematically undermines every assumption about reliability and truth. The show doesn’t present Prairie as unreliable narrator in the conventional sense. Instead, it questions whether narrative reliability has meaning when dealing with experiences that transcend ordinary physical constraints. When Prairie demonstrates movements that seemingly enable consciousness transfer between dimensional variants, we’re forced to evaluate evidence that operates outside empirical frameworks.
Part II escalates this interrogation by revealing that Prairie’s story exists as television show within another dimensional variant, collapsing the boundary between fictional narrative and experienced reality. This isn’t postmodern cleverness for its own sake; it’s serious exploration of how consciousness might navigate multiple simultaneous existences. The show asks whether our commitment to singular identity and linear experience might be cognitive limitation rather than metaphysical truth.
What makes this philosophically rigorous rather than merely abstract is the series’ commitment to exploring consequences. Characters who experience dimensional consciousness transfer don’t simply accept new realities; they struggle with identity fragmentation, competing memories, and the psychological burden of existing across multiple versions of themselves. The OA treats these complications seriously, showing how metaphysical flexibility creates genuine existential crisis.
The movements themselves function as more than plot device. They represent attempts to translate consciousness between dimensional states through physical expression, suggesting that identity might be communicable through embodied action rather than linguistic description. This connects to genuine philosophical questions about whether qualia can be shared, whether subjective experience can be transmitted across different conscious entities.
## Narrative Structure as Philosophical Method
The OA constructs its storytelling to mirror its thematic preoccupations with multiple simultaneous truths. Rather than following conventional dramatic progression, the series operates through recursive revelation, where each apparent explanation generates new interpretive frameworks that retrospectively alter understanding of previous events. This isn’t confusion for its own sake; it’s methodical exploration of how meaning emerges from incomplete information.
Consider the series’ treatment of temporal sequence. Events don’t unfold chronologically but through associative connections that privilege emotional and symbolic resonance over causal progression. Prairie’s captivity experiences, her adopted family relationships, and her dimensional awareness develop simultaneously across multiple narrative threads that intersect in unexpected ways. The show argues that consciousness itself might operate through similar non-linear patterns, assembling coherent identity from disparate experiential fragments.
The storytelling refuses conventional exposition or explanatory dialogue. Characters don’t articulate what’s happening to them; they experience it directly and attempt to translate those experiences into communicable form. This creates genuine interpretive challenge for viewers, who must actively construct meaning from suggestive evidence rather than passive absorption of provided information. The show assumes audiences capable of sophisticated analytical thinking.
Part I establishes this pattern through Prairie’s interaction with the five individuals who become her dimensional collaborators. Each character brings distinct perspective and capability, but their group function transcends individual contributions. The series suggests that consciousness transfer might require collective effort, that dimensional navigation depends on shared interpretive framework rather than individual mastery. This isn’t mystical nonsense; it’s exploration of whether complex cognitive tasks might be genuinely distributed across multiple minds.
Part II complicates this by revealing that their collaborative effort exists simultaneously as lived experience and fictional representation. The characters discover they’re being portrayed in television series, forcing them to navigate relationship between performed identity and authentic self-experience. The show asks whether this distinction has meaning when consciousness operates across multiple dimensional variants, each equally valid from internal perspective.
## Visual Language and Dimensional Representation
The OA develops distinctive visual vocabulary for representing consciousness transfer and dimensional multiplicity. Rather than relying on conventional special effects or obvious metaphysical imagery, the series creates subtle environmental and performative cues that suggest reality’s fluid boundaries without explicitly depicting them.
The movements themselves are choreographed as precise physical expression rather than mystical gesture. They appear awkward and unfamiliar, requiring genuine skill and coordination to execute effectively. This grounds the metaphysical concepts in embodied practice, suggesting that dimensional consciousness transfer demands actual technical competency rather than mere belief or intention. The show respects the difficulty of what it’s depicting.
Dimensional variants are distinguished through production design choices that emphasise similarity rather than dramatic difference. Alternative versions of characters and environments appear almost identical to their original iterations, with subtle variations in colour palette, architectural detail, or behavioral pattern. This creates uncanny recognition effect, where viewers must actively notice small discrepancies rather than obvious transformation. The approach suggests that dimensional multiplicity might be closer to our experienced reality than conventional science fiction implies.
The series uses mirror imagery and reflection extensively, but not as heavy-handed metaphor for dual identity or hidden truth. Instead, reflections appear as windows into simultaneous dimensional states, suggesting that what we interpret as mere optical effect might represent actual access to parallel existence. Characters frequently interact with their reflections in ways that imply genuine communication with dimensional variants.
Sound design reinforces these visual strategies through ambient acoustic environments that blur boundaries between internal mental states and external physical reality. The series often presents audio that could originate from character’s psychological experience or actual environmental source, forcing viewers to navigate same interpretive uncertainty that characters experience regarding their dimensional awareness.
## Scientific Speculation and Theoretical Framework
The OA approaches consciousness transfer and dimensional travel through frameworks that engage seriously with actual neuroscience and quantum mechanics research, rather than deploying these concepts as convenient plot mechanisms. The series doesn’t claim scientific accuracy, but it constructs speculative scenarios that extrapolate logically from genuine theoretical questions.
Dr. Hap’s research into near-death experiences and consciousness preservation draws on legitimate scientific inquiry into whether consciousness persists through clinical death, whether subjective experience can exist independently of measurable brain activity. The show doesn’t provide definitive answers, but it explores these questions with genuine intellectual curiosity rather than predetermined conclusions.
The dimensional travel concept operates through quantum mechanics principles regarding multiple simultaneous states and observer effect on reality determination. Characters don’t simply jump between alternate universes; they navigate probability spaces where different potential outcomes exist simultaneously until consciousness collapse determines specific experienced reality. This connects to genuine debates in quantum mechanics about measurement problem and role of conscious observation in physical system determination.
Part II’s exploration of simulated reality and artificial consciousness construction engages with contemporary AI research questions about substrate independence and consciousness upload feasibility. The series asks whether digital consciousness representations could achieve genuine subjective experience, whether artificial neural networks might support actual qualia rather than mere behavioral simulation.
The show’s treatment of collective consciousness and distributed identity draws on neuroscience research into social cognition and shared mental representations. It explores whether individual consciousness might be less discrete than commonly assumed, whether complex cognitive functions might genuinely occur across multiple minds rather than within singular brains.
## Cultural Impact and Premature Cancellation
The OA’s cancellation after two seasons (Pitchfork) represents Netflix’s broader retreat from experimental storytelling toward algorithm-driven content production. The decision eliminated one of television’s most ambitious attempts to create genuinely speculative science fiction that trusted audiences to engage with complex ideas.
The series developed devoted following precisely because it refused conventional narrative satisfaction. Viewers formed interpretive communities dedicated to analysing symbolic patterns, theoretical frameworks, and philosophical implications across both seasons. This kind of active audience engagement represents what speculative media can achieve when it commits fully to its conceptual premises.
The show’s influence appears in subsequent science fiction television’s increased willingness to embrace interpretive ambiguity and metaphysical speculation. Series like Dark and Westworld owe conceptual debts to The OA’s demonstration that audiences will invest in complex, non-linear storytelling that demands genuine intellectual participation.
The cancellation also highlighted Netflix’s algorithmic approach to content evaluation, which struggles to measure cultural impact that extends beyond immediate viewership metrics. The OA created conversations about consciousness, reality, and narrative possibility that continue years after its elimination, suggesting value that transcends simple consumption data.
## Why The OA Deserves Recognition
The OA succeeded where most metaphysical science fiction fails because it committed completely to its speculative premises without hedging through genre conventions or commercial compromise. The series asked genuine philosophical questions about consciousness, identity, and reality whilst constructing narrative frameworks sophisticated enough to support serious exploration of those concepts.
Whether you find The OA profound or pretentious ultimately depends on your tolerance for interpretive uncertainty and philosophical speculation. The series offers no comfortable resolutions, no clear distinctions between truth and delusion, no conventional dramatic satisfactions. It demands active intellectual engagement and provides genuine conceptual challenges in return.
The show represents television science fiction’s potential to function as legitimate philosophical inquiry rather than mere entertainment. It demonstrates that speculative media can explore complex theoretical questions whilst maintaining dramatic coherence and emotional resonance. The OA proved that audiences exist for genuinely experimental storytelling that respects their analytical capabilities.
Its premature cancellation remains tragedy for anyone interested in science fiction’s capacity to push conceptual boundaries and explore ideas that conventional media cannot accommodate. The OA was building toward something unprecedented in television storytelling, and we’ll never know what revolutionary narrative territories it might have explored in subsequent seasons.
Jaxon Trent is Dystopian Lens’s resident intellectual powerhouse, providing sharp, critical analyses of sci-fi media with a focus on realism, scientific accuracy, and complex narratives. A lover of hard sci-fi and dystopian themes, Jaxon dissects films, TV shows, and games with academic precision, offering thought-provoking insights backed by deep research. He thrives on debating the philosophical and ethical questions that sci-fi raises, and isn’t afraid to challenge the conventions of the genre. Readers looking for well-reasoned, serious content will find Jaxon’s analytical style a perfect fit for exploring the deeper themes of speculative fiction.