Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij
Netflix
Like many film fans, I was heartbroken by the recent death of David Lynch. A trailblazing director and painter, he was perhaps the most influential visual artist of the past 50 years, responsible for haunting works of film and TV like Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway and, of course, Twin Peaks. 鈥淰isionary鈥� seems too small a word to describe him.
While reading tributes to Lynch, I stumbled across a list of TV shows influenced by his work. One of those was a series I had been meaning to check out for a while: The OA, a Neflix science-fiction drama from 2016 about a woman called Prairie Johnson (Brit Marling) who goes missing for seven years. Blind when she disappears, she returns to her adopted parents鈥� Michigan home with her sight restored and a universe-altering secret to tell.
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Her confidants are four troubled teenagers and their teacher, drawn together for reasons they can鈥檛 quite fathom. Prairie 鈥� who comes to refer to herself as 鈥渢he OA鈥� 鈥� recounts her life and her time spent as a captive in the hands of a man known as Hap (Jason Isaacs), a doctor with a dangerous fixation on people like her. The OA鈥榮 story shouldn鈥檛 be spoiled, beyond it involving prophetic dreams, doppelg盲ngers, parallel worlds and near-death.
If that all sounds a bit Twin Peaks to you, you aren鈥檛 alone. That is exactly what drew me to the show 鈥� and made me suspect I鈥檇 dislike it, for being so reminiscent of something I love.
The OA is about a young woman facing abuse, whose image reverberates through a small town
There are plenty of similarities. Like the short, tragic life of Twin Peaks鈥�s homecoming queen Laura Palmer, The OA is about a young woman facing unspeakable abuse whose image reverberates through a small town, the subject of more misinterpretation than understanding. It shares the same sincerity, with a full-throated belief in love, dreams and other phenomena transcending death. There are wildly implausible plot developments, mystic rituals, out-of-nowhere dance scenes and lapses into melodrama. In other words, it鈥檚 Lynchian to the core.
I craved these similarities, but I began to see The OA on its own terms: a singularly weird show of a kind that doesn鈥檛 often get made these days. This is particularly true in the second season, where a kaleidoscopic expansion of the narrative leans further into sci-fi, building a tone reminiscent of a superhero comic series.
Crucially, we visit another world, where private investigator Karim Washington (Kingsley Ben-Adir) searches for a missing teenager in San Francisco. In the process, he learns about Q-Symphony, an augmented-reality puzzle game where advanced players can win hundreds of thousands of dollars.
This noirish plot adds yet another layer to an already mind- and genre-bending series, but these threads are surprisingly well-balanced overall. And if The OA shows scant interest in the mechanics of its multiverse-hopping events, that鈥檚 something I can overlook in favour of its awe-inspiring view of a reality where death isn鈥檛 always the end.
When an artist you love dies, you see their influence everywhere. It has been tempting to live in David Lynch鈥檚 work for a while 鈥� and I will certainly be revisiting some favourites. But it is also important to find your way back to the new and undiscovered. I am grateful to have found The OA at a time when I needed something in between 鈥� familiar but altogether different, like a friend from some alternate plane.
Bethan also recommends鈥�
Mark Frost and David Lynch
Parmount+
Practically every TV show of the past 30 years has been shaped by this uncanny series. After a high school student is murdered in a small town, the FBI sends in Special Agent Dale Cooper.
Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij
Disney+ (UK); Hulu (US)
The minds behind The OA created this mystery where hacker Darby Hart is invited to a billionaire鈥檚 Arctic retreat.
Bethan Ackerley is a subeditor at New Scientist. She loves sci-fi, sitcoms and anything spooky. Follow her聽on聽X @鈥宨nkerley
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