Back in December, a mysterious new TV show entitled The OA arrived almost without warning on Netflix. And despite its softly-softly marketing approach – the first trailer arrived only seven days before the entire series debuted – it has become a modest hit, sneaking its way onto Netflix watchlists everywehre and becoming another social media head-scratching sensation. It also ended on a confusing, ambiguous note, so it will come as some relief to many fans that Netflix have officially commissioned a second season.
For a show that casually blends drama, mystery, science-fiction, fantasy, and just plain oddness, the season two announcement was typically opaque and full of intrigue, taking the form of a 15-second trailer of impressionistic imagery relevant to the show, including the Golden Gate Bridge and the whisper of ‘Homer’, an important character.
The show centres on a young woman named Prairie (played by creator/co-writer Brit Marling), a blind woman who resurfaces, sight restored, years after going missing, and recruits a group of misfits to tell her story and help her rediscover her true self. Also, there’s magic interpretative dance. It’s pretty out there.
As Marling herself told Empire back in December, a second season was always hoped to be on the cards. “We conceived ways in which each potential season could feel like a book, and could have its own conclusiveness,” she said, “the way you'd have the satisfaction from reaching the end of a novel. I think there's certainly a lot more story to tell.”
There’s no word on when the new season will debut, or even when filming will begin, but given it’s only been eight weeks since the first season arrived, fans may have to be a bit patient on this one.