The Strange Reason I Want Netflix’s The OA to Be Canceled

Last Christmas, Netflix dropped a bombshell on the bingeing public, in the form of Making A Murderer. The show dominated nearly every holiday conversation, and made Dean Strang an internet god.

This year, Netflix has chosen to go with The OA, a slow-burning mystery/teen drama/sci-fi/interpretive dance promotional video that is far harder for viewers to wrap their minds around. In Making A Murderer, the takeaway was clear: the criminal justice system was a terrible and flawed system that often missed its mark, and did so to devastating ends. Even if the real-life story was a bit more complicated than that — thanks to the directors of Making A Murder leaving out a few key details from the proceedings — the message that the viewer was given was extremely straight forward.

This year, The OA does the exact opposite. The show’s creators: Zal Batmanglij and Brit Marling (who also plays the titular character) seem to thrive on leaving their viewers with as many questions as they possibly can.

So we’ve gone as far into the article as we can without spoilers, because an actual discussion about The OA simply demands discussion of the ending. As readers who haven’t seen the show can prob tell from the show being described above as a: mystery/teen drama/sci-fi/interpretive dance promotional video, this show is very difficult to discuss in vague terms. So if you haven’t seen the show, go ahead and binge away with the knowledge that there is likely better TV out there, but not a lot of shows that will make you wonder whether you actually like them or not. When you’re finished come back and finish reading this article.

When the show ends, we, as viewers, have such important questions as: whether the main character is dead or not; whether two-thirds of the show we just watched was entirely made up by said main character; whether there are multiple dimensions in the world in which The OA is set; whether four of the central characters are still in captivity, or for that matter, whether they are even real; whether or not the FBI is planting evidence on the main character and whether this is being done to protect her or for more nefarious reasons; who he school shooter was; and, of course, whether Phyllis Smith will ever land a role in which she doesn’t have to play a sad sack.

Those are a TON of unknowns. Batmanglij and Marling actually used the finale to open up more questions instead of answering the ones the set up in the first seven intriguing episodes.

So with all that said, the reader must be wondering why the author named this piece: The Strange Reason I Want Netflix’s The OA to Be Canceled, considering all those unanswered questions.

Well, let’s think about the case of Westworld. Westworld, throughout its inaugural season, was one of the few shows that was able to raise as many questions as The OA. Of course Westworld took a different approach than The OA, answering the vast majority of the questions it raised as the season went on. Due to the popularity of the show, and the week-by-week released of the show, however, internet sleuthers were able to guess just about every twist and turn that happened in the first season. Now I am not among those that discredited Westworld for this, or even enjoyed it any less because of this phenomenon (in fact, all the internet theories actually made me like the show a little more, I think), but there’s something to be said for unsolved mysteries. There’s a reason we all got hooked by season one of Serial.

There’s also something to be said for TV shows that are canceled prematurely. I hate to break it to every white male between the ages of 25 and 35, but Freaks and Geeks isn’t really that good, it just got canceled a bit prematurely. And to turn that snark on myself, there’s no way I would have Carnivale as one of my top ten shows of all-time if it had been allowed to attempt to answer some of the bizarre plot lines it began in its two season run.

And I think that’s a good ceiling for The OA. Right now The OA is just one of numerous solid Netflix shows. If the show wants to truly be remembered, and probably gain a cult following, it should secretly wish to be canceled. A show with as many open ends as The OA has at the end of season one could become an all-time classic if simply left out to dry by Netflix. The internet message boards could reverberate with theories on Prairie’s sanity and Elias’ true motivations for years to come.

It seems callous to root for any show to be canceled, especially when the creators clearly poured a lot of effort into creating a fascinating world for the show to reside in, but it may be for the show’s best long-term profile if does get the ax after this one season.