Is 'The OA' brilliant, baffling, or both?

Netflix series The OA may have split opinion, but Jason Isaacs loved being a part of it, writes Ed Power

THERE’S a lot to take on board in new Netflix smash The OA. Life, death, resurrection, mad scientists, blind Russian orphans, choreographed inter-dimensional yoga. And that’s just the stuff that makes sense in this eight-part “mind bending odyssey” — Netflix’s description — from indie film-makers Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij.

The show has been hailed a companion piece to Stranger Things, the 1980s-set sci-fi thriller the streaming giant released to great acclaim last summer. But The OA is far weirder and more challenging. Depending on your tastes, it is either bravura slipstream filmmaking or bonkers art-house nonsense. Perhaps it’s a little of both.