- Title: The OA – Paradise
- wiki: link
You know you’re in trouble with a show when the big dramatic reveal built up over half a season elicits laughter rather than appreciation, surprise, or even anticipated acknowledgment. The end of “Paradise” didn’t just make me laugh. It made me laugh out loud. Hard. And continuously. Seriously, WTF? I know there are still three episodes left to this season, but now understanding just what direction the show is heading I’ll be taking the off-ramp now.
Although the culmination of events takes place in Hap’s (Jason Isaacs) basement, it’s the events elsewhere which lead the the unintentionally hilarious final sequence as Hap takes Homer (Emory Cohen) on a trip to Cuba to capture another subject for his experiments both to add to his collection and break-up the growing resistance of his lab animals the scientist sees coming but doesn’t understand. The episode culminates with the death and resurrection of one of those subjects, the former by Hap and the later Homer and Prarie (Brit Marling) by using a strange bit of improvisational noises and yoga calisthenics. The result is Hap’s wet dream and a sequence so ridiculous I’m not sure I can take the series seriously beyond this point.