#43

Wait, though:

[spoiler]There clearly is some kind of investigation, but we’re not privy to that. I mean the story concentrates on her and these kids but not everything. And equally her ‘Five’ would normally assume that there is someone investigating all of this. Like I said, it’s more logical for them to assume that she is telling them things that everyone in authority already knows.

Once she’s found, they might expect the news to carry the names of the other captives but they might assume it’s to keep people protected. It’s definitely getting pretty stretched by this point. This comes back to the mass hypnotism thing.

It also feeds into your point about ‘how did she know the things she didn’t witness’. Partly I put this down to glib storytelling clichés of the genre, so I mean I just accept you get a bit more than a single perspective, but, like us as the viewers, I imagine in the midst of the storytelling they were assuming by the end they would get to find out how she knew this.

Once she finishes the story she’s immediately taken away from them which I think is part of where you see them get their ‘agency’ (I am really unsure about this word, sorry. I never studied anything around its use so I may be misunderstanding what it refers to) and start to assume the whole thing was a prank, so in a sense they are where you are.

The difference is in the finalé they are aware this is the dream she had so they change views again.
[/spoiler]

Anyway, fundamentally I don’t disagree with any of your points. It’s a TV show and it has a load of dodgy stuff, but I found I could still enjoy it a lot in spite of that. Unlike, say, Westworld, where its holes and story ideas over character meant I just lost any connection. Here there are really strong and interesting character dynamics which I think help.

I think within this story, if I just accept the big issues you have, there are still a lot of niggles, though.

#44

Started watching it because Sharon Van Etten is in it and it’s really really brilliant.

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#45

hmmm I think we’re going to have to agree to disagree here!

#46

^^^ 9.0 on the moker scale :wink:

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#47

I really couldn’t get on with it. It was beautifully shot, but I felt like I was watching an M Night Shyamalan film or some of the hokier bits of Lost.

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#48

This is such a vicious burn…

#49

Sadly this. I realised by the end of the second episode that I didn’t care if any of the characters lived or died and Brit Marling is insufferable - haven’t made it to episode 3.

#50

Don’t really understand why people are going on about the ‘FBI investigation’. So far as we know she never tells the FBI anything of what she tells the others. There is nothing for them to investigate and nowhere for them to start. Even if she did tell them they would likely just think she was crazy.

#51

Coming to the conclusion this must be right.

[spoiler]she has no Internet access and almost no ability to leave the house. Those books are in an Amazon box (may not be related) but basically where does she get them from in time to use them to build her story up for the five?

Seems they have to be a plant? [/spoiler]

#52

Exactly. Don’t you think as one of the five listeners that you’d expect her to have told them stuff? Wouldn’t you think it unbelievably strange that she wasn’t talking to them, you know, given that there’s still apparently four people in captivity with a lunatic scientist.?

We should as an audience see at least one conversation about this aspect. Because someone would ask her. They just would. Imagine you went missing for seven years and then came back and started telling your friends about your experience - your friends would ask you what the police were doing, right?

We should see her either lie to the five (telling them that there’s an investigation ongoing) or tell them the truth that she’s keeping it all from the feds. If it’s the latter wouldn’t we expect at least one of them to ask her why the fuck she’s not telling them stuff? If you told me all about your experience and then told me that you’d told the police nothing I’d call them myself.

It’s really shit writing.

#53

They clearly believe she told the authorities and her folks everything though.

She doesn’t start by telling them there are four others captive and later when they are ‘with’ her she makes it clear they’re beyond conventional help.

But like I said, Alfonso shows he assumes she already told her story to her parents and others so I presume they think they’re the only ones who take her seriously?

#54

I’m not at all sure why you’re saying they clearly believe it.

And I don’t accept that it’s clear they’re beyond conventional help. They exist within the material world, anyone who found out where they are could rescue them (the cop could have done if he hadn’t had a ridiculously convenient backstory).

I’d need to rewatch the final episode where Alfonso speaks to her parents to see if I agree or disagree on this point - I found the editing in that episode weird and confusing, quite unlike the rest of the series. However, the very fact that it’s only in the final episode that this proof comes about just supports my suggestion that the writing is bad. We shouldn’t have to wait till the end to find out that he thinks her folks know all about it.

I liked it but I think it’s pretty awful in places.

#56

Loved and hated this in equal measure really, some of it was really intense and compelling and very intriguing, all went to shit for me when the macguffin was revealed to be fucking interpretive dance though and despite thinking it would be interesting for her to have made it all up early in the series it felt like a massive cop out when it got to it. Thought the school shooter stuff was pretty exploitative and unearned as well.

#57

Remembered another issue I had:

[spoiler]Who the fuck, aside from Predator, uses Thermal Imaging? You use Infrared where you can SEE shit. He’s clearly got that camera IN THE ROOM so he would have Infrared. You’d use Thermal Imaging to see through walls.

But regardless there’s no way the prick could have seen the detail for the 5th movement using Predator vision. Fucking bullshit.[/spoiler]

#58

Ripped through this over the festive period and enjoyed it very much. Had no problem with any of the supposed plot holes, particularly given the whole unreliable narrator thing (apropos of nothing, I watched Mr Holmes last night and also liked that).

Found the finale exciting, and against all expectation actually thought that the interpretive dance was both really original and effectively exciting. I hope that they don’t make another series as this seemed to have a well contained story arc with just enough ‘what if’ at the end. Don’t think it would be enhanced by being spoon fed any more answers.

Going to check out some more Brit Marling stuff I think…

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#59

Up to about episode 5 or 6. I think it’s excellent.

Ho is britt marling though? is she someone I should have heard of before? I

#60

She’s not done a ton of stuff but that’s probably because, as with The OA, she has also written and produced much of the stuff that she has been in (almost all of which has been well reviewed and received)…

#61

If you’re into this, you’ll really like SOund of My Voice and Another Earth

The East is completely different really (focuses on a rebel group battling pharmaceutical companies by literally giving them tastes of their own medicines_) but is still good

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#62

Just finished it tonight. That was great. Will check out the other stuff.

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#63

but it probably never happened you nobcheese