An Ode To Sincerely Weird TV

From The X-Files, to Twin Peaks, The Twilight Zone, and The OA, there’s something about shows that leave you asking, “what the fuck did I just see?”. Honestly, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy. Is it the impact of seeing something so unusual it’s burned in your retinas? Or is it that a story so out there is somehow more honest?

When I say weird, I don’t mean ironically weird like Rick and Morty, The Mighty Boosh or even Loki, shows where the weirdness is self-aware, attention-seeking, and practically begging you to compliment just how strange it is. Think of that person in your high school class who used to say how weird they were, despite being pretty normal.

I don’t mean shows that are just quirky either. Serialised monster-of-the-week nostalgia-fests like Stranger Things, or Supernatural have their moments, but they’re about fighting for a return to “normal”. Oddities in these stories are treated as an aberration, as something to be cured or defeated.

No, I am talking about shows that have a sincere respect for the unusual baked into their bones. Stories that draw their power from embracing the unlikely as a doorway to unlock the raw human experience.

I was recently reminded of this power when I watched the series Mrs Davis. Set in a future world ruled by AI, the series follows an expelled nun on a quest with her ex-boyfriend to find the Holy Grail. No spoilers, but the series has some truly bizarre twists that it wears like a glove. Through its unabashed hyperbolic strangeness, Mrs Davis explores questions of technology and religion that put the works of Dan Brown to shame.

Another series using surrealism to explore big feelings was Netflix’s limited series Brand New Cherry Flavor. The show follows a 20-something woman whose film is stolen by a handsy producer, but things begin spinning out of control after she commissions a witch for a vengeful curse. From vomiting kittens, to rearranging organs, and re-animated corpses drinking cocktails, Brand New Cherry Flavor is serious about the surreal, creating a supernatural LA underbelly that only spirals further into the bizarre.

Donald Glover’s Atlanta also used surrealism and urban science fiction to show how otherworldly it is to be Black in the United States. Episodes like ‘Teddy Perkins’ and ‘Van’s Baguette Attack’ use the horror of white-face and upper-class cannibalism to comment on the racialised class divide between Black and non-Black people. Sometimes experiencing racism is in and of itself a horror movie.

There’s a veritable army of ethereal TV shows out there. But the one closest to my heart was The OA, created by Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij. Arguably the series that began the modern wave of multiverse stories, The OA unpacks the mystery of a young woman named Prairie who reappears seven years after going missing. What’s so strange about that? Prairie used to be blind, but she has returned with her sight.

The OA remains one of the most wholly original shows of 2010s. I guarantee you won’t predict the places it takes you over two seasons. While it’s a shame The OA was cancelled, Marling and Batmanglij’s new series A Murder at the End of the World promises an equally eccentric journey full of amateur detectives, simulated realities, and AIs who witness murder.

As Sherlock Holmes once said, “Life is far stranger than any madman could invent.” Perhaps this is why the strange resonates so deeply with people. Because living in a small forgotten town can really feel as bizarre as Twin Peaks. Spiralling through the fury of betrayal does twist your mind to unnatural thoughts of revenge. And AI is so overwhelmingly uncomfortable and intimidating, who knows what worlds it might create? It’s a weird old world out there and shows unafraid to reflect that feeling with sincerity are the backbone of storytelling.