wtf was the octopus about. This was a bunch of spooky concepts all mashed together without any clear theme. What was the main theme or central concept of season 2? Season 1 was clearly about the movements & what they did, whether they're supernatural or what. Season 2 was like "Silicon valley! Rhizomes! Time travel! Talking sea creatures!" just sort of a throw everything at the wall approach. Anyway it didn't work for me especially with how fantastic and cohesive the season 1 story was.

Check out the notes here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_OA#Production which make clear that the season 1 story was a cohesive, beginning to end story that the creators refined over a series of years (and it shows). Then "hey lets add a season 2."