Netflix launches a new series from “The East” actress and co-writer Brit Marling this Friday, December 16. The streaming giant just released a trailer for the genre-bending show, titled “The OA.” Marling co-created the series and stars in it.
“The show begins with a missing blind girl in her twenties, Prairie Johnson (Marling), who comes home to the community she grew up in with her sight restored,” Netflix’s official synopsis reads. “Some hail her a miracle, others a dangerous mystery, but Prairie won’t talk about her seven years missing with the FBI or her parents.”
The spot includes footage of Prairie reuniting with her parents after going missing for seven years, having futuristic-looking tests performed on her, and living in confinement. “I didn’t disappear. I was present for all of it,” Prairie hints. “The biggest mistake I made was believing that if i cast a beautiful net I’d catch only beautiful things.”
The mysterious trailer is more concerned with establishing the tone of “The OA” than its plot. Netflix promises that the “groundbreaking series [will offer] audiences a singular experience that upends notions about what long-format stories can be. “The OA” will explore “identity, human connection, and the borders between life and death.”
Marling has said that she is inspired to write because the roles available for women often lack substance. “I’m wondering why there aren’t more representatives of women that are like the women we know?” Marling questioned. “Where’s the film with the women who are complicated and strong and beautiful and sexy and interesting and of all body types? You don’t get to see enough of them. So there’s something important in attempting to write them for myself and for the insanely talented women out there,” the “Arbitrage” actress explained.
Zal Batmanglij, who often collaborates with Marling, co-created the series and directed every episode. Marling and he are among the executive producers of “The OA.”
Along with Marling, the cast includes Phyllis Smith (“The Office”), Emory Cohen (“Brooklyn”), Scott Wilson (“The Walking Dead”), and Alice Krige (“Star Trek: First Contact”).
