On the OA

After being recommended by multiple people to watch The OA I have finally given in and watched the premier episode. After finishing the episode I can definitely say the the story writers have done a fantastic job of opening up questions about the characters like OA and Steve, as well as to build up these characters without giving too many details.

Throughout the show the audience is left wondering a large number of questions:

• Who is "the OA?"
• How did she loose/regain her sight?
• How does she know so much about people?

As well as many more questions that even after sitting through one hour are left unanswered. The show gives you just enough to want to know more about the characters and what happened to the OA, but doesn't yet give you enough to answer any of the questions it asks. This is aided by the producers use of camera angles and the lack of information that is given to you throughout the show. The producers did a fantastic job of giving you details through the camera and making you feel that they are picking and choosing what you see very carefully.

For example in the beginning when the OA first meets Abel and Nancy the room is very bright and the camera lighting itself is very bright. When there's a close up on Nancy and the OA you can see the sun shinning through. This is a stark contrast to the darker, grayer and ultimately more dreary feel that the show begins to give you after the OA is our of the hospital and once she's back at home with Nancy and Abel. Along with this the camera tends to be very close in almost all the shots and tends to make you feel closer to the characters and perhaps even give you a certain tunnel vision that the characters might have. Overall after watching the first episode I got a strong sense that the writers of the show wanted to make you feel like you were getting more of a first person narrative (much like the OA's story at the end of the episode) where they pick and choose what information you have about the environment and what is going on instead of giving you an abundance of information and allowing you to wade through everything. This is further expanded upon when the OA goes into her story near the end of the episode. Up until her story the show hadn't given you any information outside of the acting. You weren't aware of the show's title, producer, or acting line-up. This made you feel more like the story is from the characters perspective and then the writers went on and didn't introduce the show until it was time for the OA to begin telling the story. It gives the general feel that everything is happening in real time and that the real story of The OA is being told by the OA instead of by Netflix and their writers.

Overall I think the show was very enjoyable and will be looking forward to see if the writers will answer some of the questions they asked and see what they will be leaving us in the dark about.