It has long been a streaming cliché that Netflix likes to end its series early without a decent conclusion. But it has rarely been as frustrating as in the case of the sci-fi mystery series The OA. Of the five planned seasons, only two were realized, which means Fans left with lots of questions five years ago became.
It even got to the point where some people didn’t believe in the cancellation at all and thought the whole thing was an experimental meta-narrative. One of the stars is still struggling with the early end of the ambitious format.
The OA on Netflix: Series star Jason Isaacs still mourns the sci-fi mystery
Actor Jason Isaacs, who many also know from the Harry Potter films or Star Trek: Discovery, played the ruthless near-death researcher Dr. Hap Percy in The OA. Even five years after the cancellation, he never tires of singing the praises of the former format and the creative duo Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, as a Collider report shows:
It is one of my favorite series I have ever done. The creators I think Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij are absolute geniuses and nothing they do is like anything I’ve seen before. […] They lived with this thing for years. They wrote it on a whim, without it being commissioned or developed or commissioned by anyone. It came out of their heads fully worked out.
In The OA, Hap kidnaps the protagonist, played by series creator Marling, to research life after death on her and other people, which eventually mutates into an interdimensional mystery drama with an indie film flair.
As our sister site Allociné quotes from the Collider report, Isaacs continues:
They built all the foundations and let the actors flesh it out, so I don’t think anything like it has ever been done before. I’ve never seen anything like this show. I really loved it. And by the way, we were canceled after two seasons, but they have all five seasons in their heads. And if you saw season 2, you know where we left off. We can continue at any time and would be willing to do so if given the chance.
In the meantime, Marling and Batmanglij have already released their follow-up project: an FX crime series called A Murder at the End of the World, which is streaming in this country on Disney+.
Podcast on the end of a Netflix era: Films like Rebel Moon will never be seen again
Netflix is facing a turning point. Films like The Irishman or Rebel Moon are a thing of the past, family-friendly entertainment is in, and at the same time the quality of the films is set to improve. At least that is what some forecasts promise. What is the truth?
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What has gone wrong at Netflix in the last five years? Why are films like Rebel Moon a thing of the past? And what does the future hold? Jenny and Jan Felix raise these and other considerations in their discussion about the end of a Netflix era.