During the lockdown, people have been consuming massive amounts of Netflix. I mean I hate to admit it, but I have as well. I’ve watched so many shows that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise given the time of day.
One such series was called The OA. I’m going to be honest, it took me more than a show or two to get into it but once I did I couldn’t stop watching. I consumed the entire first season in two days and the second season over the weekend.
The OA is a story about a blind woman, who has been missing for the last 7 years. She’s found and while that in itself is a huge surprise, even bigger shocker, is that she can now see.
The OA is a young girl named Nina Azarova, who was born to a wealthy Russian oligarch. As a very young child (like elementary school age), she gets into an accident, on the bus to school. This accident kills all of her classmates and leaves her blind.
Her father apparently thinks it was a hit by the Russian mob so to protect her, he sends his daughter off to a boarding school and leaves his dead wife’s sister (his wife died during childbirth I think) to care for Nina.
I don’t know how much time passes, a year maybe, and Nina’s aunt shows up to the school to inform her that her father is dead and all the money is gone. She has to leave her fancy boarding school to go live with her aunt, who runs a really low-end house of prostitution in Russia, and when the girls get knocked up, they sell off the children, oftentimes to America, or really anyone who will pay, I guess.
An older couple — Mr. And Mrs. Johnson travels to Russian to adopt a newborn baby, and while they are there, they run into the adorably cute little blind girl who is helping her aunt to care for the babies that are being sold off.
The American woman falls in love with the little girls and insists they adopt her instead. The aunt is all too willing to get rid of her burden and agrees to sell her to the American couple who properly renames her Prairie.
They raise the child as their own and by all accounts give her a loving home. Nina (now going by the name Prairie), appreciates all that her adoptive parents have done for her, but at the same time, she believes with all of her heart that her father is alive.
She runs away, well – I mean she is over 18 now so running away isn’t really the right phrase, I guess it’s more accurate to say that she sneaks off to go and try and find her father in New York.
It ends exactly how you think it might, with her being kidnapped and held in an underground dungeon for the next 7 years.
While she’s there she meets a few others who are also being held captive and one particular guy, “Homer”, who is about her same age, and the two fall in love.
That connection is what the story is about and it is the reason why once released, she tries to get back because she wants to save Homer and the others.
That’s really what season one is about – her trying to coup with being back home after being gone for seven years, her trying to find a way back to Homer and the others.
The show has a way of creeping up on you and getting into your head. It’s a good watch and a show I highly recommend.
Just remember it’s a slow burn. It takes a while to get into it. Give it a few episodes before turning it off. It’s kind of weird at first but once you really get into it the storytelling is utterly amazing.
Season two takes a very different turn. She has success with her “ritual”, and gets back to her friends but well … it’s hard to explain without spoilers. I’ll just say things really get crazy in season 2.
