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Electro-Boogie Jack posted:This. I have plenty of other problems with this show, but them dancing at the shooter in the last episode was just the dumbest fuckin' thing I've ever seen. Very deeply stupid. it would look less silly n goofy to me if the "movements" were bowel related and they all started squatting and making GBS threads in the cafeteria to distract the evil shooter instead of the hokiness we got
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Jan 3, 2017 02:08
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Any real shooter would have shot them instantly because they were easy targets.
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Jan 3, 2017 02:11
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No, they were doing gun-kata you see..
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Jan 3, 2017 02:14
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I loved the first 7 1/2 episodes of this show and now I hate it. What a waste of time. paz vega status: still hot
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Jan 3, 2017 02:23
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There was some discussion about when OA arrived during the big dance finale I was re-watching that scene just to see if there was something I was missing, and hey look - Right after they begin doing their fancy disco jive dancing - 
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Jan 3, 2017 02:33
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Gaunab posted:This show is like seeing how a cult is formed. I wish it was..it would have been much better if it was..but their dancing actually 'working' instead of getting them killed kind of ruins it in the end. also the whole coincidence of her being at the right exact place to get shot in the heart (not even going to bother trying to figure out how she would survive longer than a few seconds, much less the minutes it would have taken for an ambulance team to come get her and for her to have life left to talk to anyone)
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Jan 3, 2017 03:42
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What the christ. Leftovers is way better, but apart from the mysticism I think the only other article linking the shows is that watching is like some kind of self punishment. Enjoyable punishment but punishment all the same. The last 2 episodes felt rushed. The school shooter felt cliche, dancing the shooter to distraction fit but was lame, then death woosh followed by "Homer?" felt condescending after after the very practical solution to the school shooter. I can't tell if they were trying to hard or if they ran out of budget. But whatever, it was entertaining so that's fine. Cant wait for another season of Leftovers. E: when I say practical i mean not mystical DiHK fucked around with this message at 03:51 on Jan 3, 2017 |
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Jan 3, 2017 03:49
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savinhill posted:it would look less silly n goofy to me if the "movements" were bowel related and they all started squatting and making GBS threads in the cafeteria to distract the evil shooter instead of the hokiness we got That would have been preferable, yes.
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Jan 3, 2017 05:48
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I was hoping instead of the dance at the end that made me go "fuckin' really?" one of them was going to get up, get shot and go through their own NDE or something. Preferably Steve. Would have been much, much better than the "hey let's simultaneously do that dance we were taught and just hope this dude doesn't mow us all down in seconds". Hell, I would have been mildly interested in a hokey sci-fi portal opening sequence or some poo poo which OA gets sucked into. Give me more visual stimulation.
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Jan 3, 2017 18:00
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Elendil004 posted:So do we think the FBI guy was in the house planting those books? They were basically new, unread books, I feel like they were a plant During the school shooting scene, I found myself jokingly singing Chandelier by Sia. Interestingly, I found out that the choreographer for that video DID choreograph the 5 Movement thing. There were a lot of things that bothered me about the OA but it wasn't quite an M Night Shyteshow. I kinda hope there's a 2nd season just so the big bowel movement that was dropped in the last episode can be explained. resting mitch face fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Jan 3, 2017 |
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Jan 3, 2017 18:06
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I was digging the show early and then I read Brit Marling's wikipedia page and got to this sentence "In the summer of 2009 she joined a group of freegans with friend Zal Batmanglij, living in tents and retrieving food from dumpsters, to explore how other young people were constructing a meaningful life" and I thought, uh oh this is going to end badly. Since then I found out her other two films involve her as as semi-mystical cult figure where it's up in the air whether she's just an unreliable narrator or there is some supernatural poo poo going on and there is also a veneer of real-sounding science laid over the pseudo. It's very What the Bleep Do We Know. I reflexively groaned when they all did interpretive dance at the school shooter, it's the lamest thing I've ever seen and I own several mirrors.
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Jan 3, 2017 19:22
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I feel like people who look at the ending and think Interpretive dance saved the day. missed the point bigtime. The point is that regardless of the truth of the story, OA brought those 5 people together, and saved them from being the shooter selves (with BBA as the exception). Only because of the story OA told could the 5 come together to stand up to the school shooter. It wasn't that they danced, it was that they stood up together, offered resistance. And remember, the shooter was just another kid, not some military trained sharpshooter. Five people standing up and dancing, in unison in front of you would give you a little pause even if it was just "what the gently caress?" and that was enough for the guy to jump him.
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Jan 3, 2017 23:39
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Elendil004 posted:I feel like people who look at the ending and think Interpretive dance saved the day. missed the point bigtime. The point is that regardless of the truth of the story, OA brought those 5 people together, and saved them from being the shooter selves (with BBA as the exception). Only because of the story OA told could the 5 come together to stand up to the school shooter. It wasn't that they danced, it was that they stood up together, offered resistance. No no no no, you all have it wrong. Cantrips 1 & 2 are able to heal the sick and revive the dead, Cantrip 3 & 4 is able to hypnotize young men with guns into a form of temporarily paralysis. There are many different spells that can be cast with the various combinations of the cantrips.
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Jan 3, 2017 23:52
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Just going to reiterate my previous opinion that it was supposed to look as dumb and awkward as possible because it's meant to represent the absurd dream that there is an afterlife/something more than this reality. The beauty is in what happens because of/after it, it's supposed to look like sheer insanity to pretty much everyone and they did an amazing job making it as goofy as possible. It's the same idea as the insane story the OA told these people, they had to suspend disbelief.
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Jan 3, 2017 23:58
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Luvcow posted:Just going to reiterate my previous opinion that it was supposed to look as dumb and awkward as possible because it's meant to represent the absurd dream that there is an afterlife/something more than this reality. The beauty is in what happens because of/after it, it's supposed to look like sheer insanity to pretty much everyone and they did an amazing job making it as goofy as possible. It's the same idea as the insane story the OA told these people, they had to suspend disbelief. I like this interpretation, but the problem I see with it is that the entire show took itself too seriously for that to be the case. I stopped paying super close attention after episode 3 or so, but was there any other scene where it wasn't played 100% straight?
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Jan 4, 2017 01:54
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Luvcow posted:it was supposed to look as dumb and awkward as possible Mission accomplished
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Jan 4, 2017 04:01
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Luvcow posted:Just going to reiterate my previous opinion that it was supposed to look as dumb and awkward as possible because it's meant to represent the absurd dream that there is an afterlife/something more than this reality. The beauty is in what happens because of/after it, it's supposed to look like sheer insanity to pretty much everyone and they did an amazing job making it as goofy as possible. It's the same idea as the insane story the OA told these people, they had to suspend disbelief. that wont hold water if they are making more seasons of this though and there was somehow more meaning to it. if it was a one and done story, then sure.
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Jan 4, 2017 15:37
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Solice Kirsk posted:I like this interpretation, but the problem I see with it is that the entire show took itself too seriously for that to be the case. I stopped paying super close attention after episode 3 or so, but was there any other scene where it wasn't played 100% straight? It just seemed like the whole thing was always on shaky ground, the five were always questioning the veracity of her story. Obviously something happened to her in those seven years she was gone but no one really knows what he truth is. We never even really know if she was adopted or not. The one thing we do know is she was raised essentially as a special needs kid, they talk about her one boyfriend who was awkward while in the restaurant. If it was true about her russian oligarch father then Homer seems to be a stand in for him, when she first meets him and finds out he is a father who only wants to let his kid know he's alive and thinking about them she asks if he is sure he had a son and not a daughter and seems bummed it's a son. All of the other prisoners seem to correspond to different facets of herself in one way or another and originally they were all just essentially voices in her head. I guess the biggest question that's never left answered is how she got her sight back, unless it really just was a bump on the head. And if the story of her escaping the van was real then maybe the whole thing was her guilt at not being able to save the other kids. She escaped through a broken window after telling the others that they might be able to do the same, she became blind afterwards, was kept behind glass for seven years then eventually got shot through a window at the end.
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Jan 4, 2017 16:03
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What the gently caress did I just watch. Still not sure if I liked it or hated it. Early on I fast-forwarded through some very slow scenes but later episodes played in full. At least it has me thinking... Like the 5, at first I thought OA was batshit crazy, but started to buy in to the abduction story. By the time I got to the reverse-blood scene I was thinking 'all that goofy dancing seems pretty legit!', instead of the obvious 'welp you are a crazy lady and there goes the last shred of credibility'. It really was a cult-like mentality, a special few entrusted with hidden secrets and being pulled in and altered by it. Cultish behavior really showed in the teacher, giving away her cash for the cause, taking a new name, not caring about her livelihood. Or maybe OA wasn't crazy? It seems like there's evidence or bad writing to back that up. -The FBI character was bullshit from the start. As if the FBI gives a gently caress about feelings instead of solving crimes. That's confirmed when he breaks into the house to cover things up with the book plant. Grief counselor my rear end, he's part of the ~conspiracy~. -Scenes like Angel Hunter in Cuba and the morgue, told from a neutral narrator, made them seem validated and reliable when a lot of OA's story is unreliable. They were also some of the better scenes overall, with the calculated cruelty of piping the lovemaking sounds into the cells, or the casual evil of morgue guy when you realize Angel Hunter isn't even the worst one out there. Angel Hunter was by far the most interesting character. Really missing a final scene with him doing the crazy dance. And I thought the shooter was throatpunch kid for some reason. If this thing hits season 2 I'll probably watch to see how it really turned out.
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Jan 6, 2017 06:22
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My wife and I finished ep.8 this afternoon. After the first 2 episodes we were somehow unsure if we wanna keep on watching, but we are glad we did. Several goosebumps moments and we are still talking and discuss about everything that happened. This series is a welcome addition as you can not brain afk watch this. I tell you this, if you liked Movies like Donnie Darko and The Butterfly Effect - just because of their "style" and strange moments and approach of the narration- you might really enjoy the OA. We both give The OA a deserved 8 of 10 in our personal Series score
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Jan 7, 2017 19:24
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Luvcow posted:It just seemed like the whole thing was always on shaky ground, the five were always questioning the veracity of her story. Obviously something happened to her in those seven years she was gone but no one really knows what he truth is. We never even really know if she was adopted or not. The one thing we do know is she was raised essentially as a special needs kid, they talk about her one boyfriend who was awkward while in the restaurant. See, this is what I'm talking about. At least some of it is undeniably true (a blind orphaned Russian girl has visions of the future and regained her eyesight) so it either has to be 100% true or things happened just kinda differently offscreen without any indicator that's the case, which makes it muddled as hell when you get into "well it was probably roughly 39% true" territory. And if it is 100% true we never see the payoff for the much more interesting plot thread of HAP and the gang so it's unsatisfying that that's just abruptly dropped.
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Jan 7, 2017 22:19
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There have been plenty of famous impersonators and that seems to tick all the right boxes. You'd have to be very good at picking up on subtle ques to make that kind of approach work. No reason why she had to regain her sight. She always had it and isn't Prairie.
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Jan 8, 2017 03:28
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When BBA realizes what's going to go down and runs into the cafeteria going "My boys!!" Well that drat near killed me. People are bound to either love or hate the show and the 5 movements coming together right at that moment is a little much but it still was effective and had me holding my breath.
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Jan 8, 2017 05:11
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Plus the school shooter was the gay kid that got throat punched.
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Jan 8, 2017 05:39
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I tried watching this, becuase I love Villain Jason Issaacs and as soon as Prairie gets the Bully off and it's treated like she's done some great kindness to a cruel, violent and sadistic rear end in a top hat who committed felony assault on a random kid because his gently caress buddy said she liked a guy in the Glee Club and it's shown as some kind of quirkey and cute moment. Not to mention it was stupid as gently caress. Teacher: He's going to kill a student or me, he needs to leave and go somewhere he can be helped OA: Why don't you want to teach everyone? Teacher: OMG I never thought about that, I'll change my mind and not have him expelled so he can probably kill someone because his dad doesn't understand his anger. The whole thing smacked of the kind of philosophy 101 based memes that your aunt that's way too into crystals and gluten free cupcakes would post on their facebook about self improvement through being in nature and dancing and beating a drum. I'll have to check out The Leftovers though,
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Jan 8, 2017 08:00
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The Bully is a homosexual with misplaced rage. That's why he needs help to heal.
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Jan 8, 2017 09:39
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There are seeds of interesting ideas everywhere in this, which is typical of Brit Marling-written stuff. It's also a complete loving incoherent mess. Knowing Brit Marling's love for ambiguous endings even if this goes on for 10 seasons none of the mysteries will ever be resolved. It was awful and certainly had the most embarrassing scenes I've ever seen in any TV show or movie, but I still somehow enjoyed it and don't regret watching it. If it had just been a story of the captives and the gradual development of their relationship/the Movements with no framing plot line I would have preferred that. It reminded me a lot of Room.
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Jan 8, 2017 11:43
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Every time Jason Isaacs was on screen my brain would insist that he looks like Daniel Craig and Jon Hamm's illegitimate love-child.
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Jan 8, 2017 12:04
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twistedmentat posted:
This is how I feel. I remember trying to watch the Leftovers but it being a bit slow and me never returning to it... perhaps I'll give it a fair chance this time. I truly was interested in this stupid poo poo.
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Jan 9, 2017 20:42
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thanks audible https://twitter.com/audible_com/status/819725655352950784
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Jan 13, 2017 03:03
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People keep saying the OA healed the five people, can someone tell me what the problem was with the weed kid? Or even what his name was? By the end of the season nothing in his life changed. Or was bad to begin with. French was already on track to go to college full ride, he was handsome and popular... his mom is kind of embarrassing but otherwise he's perfectly normal and has everything going for him. The Asian boy is transitioning but isn't picked on or teased... he's a little odd but he doesn't have any personal growth at all. If you want to watch this series, do yourself a favor and just don't watch the last episode. The journey is better than the destination.
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Jan 13, 2017 05:35
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935 posted:People keep saying the OA healed the five people, can someone tell me what the problem was with the weed kid? Or even what his name was? By the end of the season nothing in his life changed. Or was bad to begin with. "Your mom killed herself and your dad abandoned you? NBD imo, fairly typical teenage years."
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Jan 13, 2017 06:47
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zoux posted:I was digging the show early and then I read Brit Marling's wikipedia page and got to this sentence "In the summer of 2009 she joined a group of freegans with friend Zal Batmanglij, living in tents and retrieving food from dumpsters, to explore how other young people were constructing a meaningful life" and I thought, uh oh this is going to end badly. That's not a very accurate description of their films. The Sound of my Voice doesn't have any 'veneer of real-sounding science lad over the pseudo'; it doesn't really deal with any kind of science. It's about a cult lead by a woman (Marling) who claims she's from a post-apocalyptic future. It's presented as a cult. Her behavior is typical cult leader behavior; she's manipulative, aggressive, weeds out anyone who shows any critical thinking, breaks down people's will, etc. She's basically the opposite of The OA; she's explicitly portrayed as someone you shouldn't really trust. The movie just does some fuckery with showing you ocassional out-of-context scene of some people outside the cult that kind of muddies your understanding a bit (and is a flaw, IMO). The East is about a bunch of ecoterrorists; I imagine they got the idea from their freegan adventures. But some of them are portrayed as petty, manipulative, flawed, etc. Their plans are also harmful. In both movies the main character is someone who goes undercover, but ends up attracted to certain aspects of these groups and/or the people involved in them. Both movies are about the seductive aspects of small, insular groups, as well as their pitfalls. They're quite different from The OA because in the show, the outsiders are the supporting characters; it is the insider (or the storyteller, in this case) who is the main character; this changes the entire dynamic of the story and how believable the story-within-a-story is to the audience. I'd say the movies are very enjoyable even if you disliked the show, because they really aren't as mystical. The only pseudo-scientific thing associated to The OA is the movie I Origins, but the makers of The OA didn't write or direct that.
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Jan 14, 2017 12:33
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935 posted:People keep saying the OA healed the five people, can someone tell me what the problem was with the weed kid? Or even what his name was? By the end of the season nothing in his life changed. Or was bad to begin with. French was already on track to go to college full ride, he was handsome and popular... his mom is kind of embarrassing but otherwise he's perfectly normal and has everything going for him. The Asian boy is transitioning but isn't picked on or teased... he's a little odd but he doesn't have any personal growth at all. The five people don't have good relationships with their families / don't have families at all. The weed kid doesn't have parents. The bully's parents don't really understanding him or engage with him in any meaningful way. French's mother isn't 'kind of embarassing', she is simply not a parental figure of any kind and doesn't care about him. The asian boy talks about his parents in a scene that I don't recall very well; I think they were not very supportive or understanding of his transition. The teacher doesn't seem to have a family anymore because she indirectly caused her brother's death. It's not that they need personal growth, it's that they have something absent in their lives that they're looking for. They spend a lot of time together when the OA is telling them the story, but when the shooter walks in, they're separated again. They've lost that bond. They get it back when they decide to stand up against the shooter. Pedro De Heredia fucked around with this message at 13:18 on Jan 14, 2017 |
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Jan 14, 2017 12:38
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drat that last episode messed things up. I expected either the season to end right before it got stupid or to end the show with the final confrontation that's been building to up... you know to save all her friends. Did not expect DDR school shooter edition.
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Jan 15, 2017 06:10
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Well hey, what a good loving show. The ending still has me pissed off, but I'm making peace with it. The only thing I can't accept are those books. So OA made it up, but also regained her sight? I don't know, you shouldn't undermine your own narrative like that. I can totally understand having issues with the plotting because mannnn there are a lot of them, but I haven't seen this much emotional depth in a show since The Leftovers.
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Jan 15, 2017 23:18
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FourLeaf posted:It was awful and certainly had the most embarrassing scenes I've ever seen in any TV show or movie, but I still somehow enjoyed it and don't regret watching it. Pretty much this. If the whole first season had been the captives vs Hap and flashbacks to their lives so that we know who the hell they are and why we care, this would've been so much more interesting. I don't really know anything about Rachel. Or Scott. Scott didn't even have anyone to write to, how is that not explored? And about half the drat kids had barely any time. Why do I care about them? It almost reminded me of OitNB because everything was about Prairie like everything was about Piper and I just wanted to know about literally any other character than Prairie/Piper because ugh. I could stand to watch quite a bit more of Emory Cohen, though. He looks like the epitome of corn-fed loveliness. e: If you thought Hemlock Grove had bad endings, wait until you see this! empty sea fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Jan 16, 2017 |
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Jan 16, 2017 03:59
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Somberbrero posted:Well hey, what a good loving show. The ending still has me pissed off, but I'm making peace with it. The only thing I can't accept are those books. So OA made it up, but also regained her sight? I don't know, you shouldn't undermine your own narrative like that. I can totally understand having issues with the plotting because mannnn there are a lot of them, but I haven't seen this much emotional depth in a show since The Leftovers. The books were planted by the FBI guy. We don't know his motive, but that's why he was in her house. Even if you don't accept that the FBI guy did it, the books don't fit into the timeline any other way. They were ordered from Amazon, but OA didn't get Internet access before the drugdealer helped her. She talked about Homer and called herself OA before she would've had the chance to get the books she supposedly got those ideas from. One of the books also implied she invented her Russian backstory. The gangster dad could be fantasy if you buy into the books being hers, but she was still originally Russian. That checks out with her adoptive parents. We also know the Russian bus accident happened, since the kids find it online. Attack on Princess fucked around with this message at 09:53 on Jan 16, 2017 |
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Jan 16, 2017 09:27
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Donnerberg posted:The books were planted by the FBI guy. We don't know his motive, but that's why he was in her house. Oh! Well that makes sense. Thanks.
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Jan 16, 2017 16:54
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This is one of the weirdest shows I've watched lately. As I can see, it's a very polarizing show as well. At first, I was delighted by the show. The self-transcendence aspect of it was very appealing at first. Mix that with all these symbols and religious-ish allusions, and it automatically classified as a fantasy show in my mind as soon as it started. But then, the dance moves came. I'm a bit weirded out, but I can accept that and still like the show. I mean I expect some magic, since it's fantasy. Then, the 2-3 final episodes come. And I don't know what to think anymore. As someone else said before, there are gems of genius to be found throughout the show. I see it as a "symbolic-heavy fantasy pseudo-science fiction" kind of show. I like open-ended-make-it-what-you-think kind of endings, but this one left me with a strange aftertaste. Maybe it's because it feels the last 2-3 episodes were rushed. Also, the cult argument is something that comes back a lot. For me however, I didn't really have the feeling she was really trying to start a cult. Maybe I've got it wrong, but if we assume the following:
Then it really looks like she's believing she's the original angel, and she's just asking for help. And these people joined her, and believed her story, for some reason. But if she doesn't believe her own story (i.e. made it up), then yeah it's not a story about NDEs and self-transcendance anymore, but rather about the beginning of a cult. Still, if they make another season, I'll be really curious to see where it goes.
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Jan 16, 2017 23:00
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