The Hunger Strike to Save Netflix’sThe OA Gives Us Complicated Feelings

For over a week now, Emperial Young has been standing on a corner outside Netflix corporate offices on Sunset Boulevard in L.A. with a simple sign that reads “Netflix Save The OA.” Below that, she notes how many days she’s been on a hunger strike to protest the cancellation. The OA was an original Netflix series that blended science fiction with mystery and boasted devoted fans, but was canceled earlier this month. Fans and critics lamented the loss of the show, but for Young, who had just discovered the show, it was more serious. So, she grabbed her materials and started her protest.

Since August 16, Young has stood outside Netflix to save the show. She started her hunger strike on August 19, consuming nothing but water and Gatorade and one meal on a weekend, until Netflix renews the series or releases it to another network. Young is a Los Angeles Native who has worked for years in the entertainment industry, and is currently seeking work, according to an interview with the Los Angeles Times. In that interview, she acknowledges the quixotic nature of her protest.

“It is an absurd overreaction to protest with a hunger strike over the cancellation of a television show,” Young told The Times. “And I acknowledge that, but it’s because my protest for ‘The OA’ is really a culmination of multiple factors.” Among those factors are the brutality capitalism and access to mental health treatment, according to Young, but also the unique elements of the show she loved.

(image: Nicola Goode/Netflix)

“Save our show” campaigns are nothing new in fandom. Back in the day, devoted fans wrote actual letters to NBC to save Star Trek, and more recently, lovers of Lucifer saw Netflix come to the rescue after Fox canceled their darling. But passionate fans don’t always translate to numerous viewers, and no matter how much a few people truly love something, networks are businesses that have to make tough, usually financially-based decisions.

Those hard and cruel business factors are part of what Young wants to protest, but also the reason her protest won’t have any success. Unlike another recent Netflix cancellation One Day at a Time, which was made by Sony and distributed by Netflix, The OA was made in-house by Netflix, so there will be no shopping it around to other platforms. Even more seriously, the cast has been released from their contracts. Series star and creator Brit Marling made a heartfelt post to social media, as well, thanking fans for their devotion but pretty definitively closing the book on the show. Marling acknowledged Young’s protest and quoted her in the post, ending it with Young’s declaration, “Algorithms aren’t as smart as we are. They cannot account for love.”

Even with Marling’s goodbye and business reality looming, Young is still out there, and the protest is still garnering attention. One the one hand, I admire Young. She’s taking a bold stance for something she truly believes in and that’s rare in this cynical world. She’s not just protesting about her favorite show, as she acknowledges. She’s protesting capitalism and inhumanity.

On the other side of it, however, I worry about what kind of message this sends to people both inside and outside of fandom. To the causal observer, this behavior doesn’t do much to dispel the belief that fans are over-invested weirdos who take television and movies way too seriously. We know that’s not true here, but many people only read headlines and will take this as another bit of ammunition against the irrationality and futility of fandom.

And then there are the people seeing this from within fandom, many of them young and impressionable who could find the hunger strike inspiring and admirable in the wrong way. There’s already far too much behavior on social media and in person designed to get celebrity or fandom attention, be it threatening self harm or suicide unless a celebrity acknowledges you or bullying and emotional manipulation to get a ship to go canon. How long before a copycat hunger strike for a ship or dead character? And what if someone gets seriously ill or hurt?

Media and fandom are powerful, and the loss of The OA hurts from an artistic and social perspective. The show was daring and innovative and starred one of the few trans men on television, Ian Alexander. But The OA wasn’t the only innovative show. Television fans are incredibly lucky to live in this peak TV era, when daring, diverse shows are all around. I can’t help but think that a better use of resources and energy would be to support those shows and artists that are still making art that moves us.

Then again, maybe Young has already succeeded. The OA won’t be saved, but she’s opened up a conversation about media and capitalism that’s getting national attention, and that’s not nothing.

(via: The Los Angeles Times, featured images: Jojo Whilden/Netflix)

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Jessica Mason

Jessica Mason (she/her) is a writer based in Portland, Oregon with a focus on fandom, queer representation, and amazing women in film and television. She's a trained lawyer and opera singer as well as a mom and author.

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