This is my third attempt at writing about Sense8, the new Netflix series created by the Wachowski siblings and J. Michael Straczynski, and likely not my last. The problem is that I feel too much, too intimately about this show to be anywhere near objective; and yet I want to be objective, because I love it with the fire of a thousand suns and am therefore desperate to explain, in glorious, technical detail, exactly why everyone else should love it, too.
Which puts me at something of an impasse with myself: on the one hand, I don’t want to give any spoilers because, well, spoilers, and on the other hand, I want to give literally nothing else, because there’s just no way to discuss the intricacies of this show—the parallels between the characters, their histories and problems; the resonance of this moment with that—without spilling the beans upfront.
Sense8 is a deep, powerful show, its narrative simultaneously simple and complex, enriched by a level of background detail that rewards rewatching despite the comparative slow burn of the overarching plot. Over the course of twelve episodes, it successfully invests the audience in the lives of eight very different protagonists—to say nothing of the truly impressive range of secondary characters—and in the dilemmas they face. It’s a show that can make you howl with laughter and break down sobbing in the space of a single episode—sometimes, even, in the space of a single scene—and if it doesn’t get renewed for a second season, it’ll be because we, as an audience, have proved ourselves unworthy of such awesomeness. Beautiful cinnamon roll, I will say, weeping into my Netflix subscription, should such a travesty come to pass. Too good for this world. Too pure.
Like I said: not objective.
The conceit behind Sense8 is at once both simple and compelling: eight individuals from all around the world—the titular sensates—suddenly gain the ability to share their experiences, memories and feelings with one another, while in the background, a sinister corporation attempts to find and control them. It’s a familiar sort of comic book premise, but rather than focusing on superheroics, megadrama, and campy fun, the primary narrative drive is shaped instead by the lives of the individual sensates: their personalities, parallels, and points of connection and difference.
Which is, all by itself, a fascinating departure from the norm. Ordinarily, shows of this ilk tend to start with a local focus that steadily builds outwards, growing in scale and grandeur as the passage of seasons—and the desire to increasingly up the stakes—demands a bigger sandbox in which to play. This is why, for instance, Sunnydale, described in S1 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as “a one-Starbucks town,” steadily expands to include an airport, a university campus, docks (despite being landlocked) and more monstrous denizens than the original focus on vampires and the occasional demon ever hinted at: the story grew, and the setting was forced to grow with it. Similarly, traditional superhero stories tend to start out in a single, specific location—Gotham City, say, or Metropolis—and build outwards, the local focus only gaining global significance once the immediate, more intimate possibilities have been exhausted. Over and over again, the formula remains the same: establish a local space and a local threat in S1, then steadily make both things bigger, which is how Supernatural’s Sam and Dean Winchester went from tracking down a magic, demon-killing gun in 2005 to unleashing a Darkness that predates creation in 2015.
But Sense8, in direct contrast to this pattern, begins at the global level, with a conspiracy and characters whose stories span the world. As such, not only are the sensates highly diverse in terms their gender, sexuality, and nationality, but also their location. There’s Capheus, a Matatu van driver in Nairobi; Riley Blue, an Icelandic DJ living in London; Nomi Marks, a hacktivist and political blogger based in San Francisco; Sun Bak, a businesswoman and secret bareknuckle fighter in Seoul; Lito Rodriguez, a Spanish actor based in Mexico City; Will Gorski, a Chicago police officer; Wolfgang Bogdanow, a criminal in Berlin; and Kala Dandekar, a pharmacist in Mumbai. Rather than having local interests, knowledge, or problems in common, therefore, the sensates are connected on a deeper level: they often face similar problems, but in vastly different contexts, creating a narrative dialogue that simultaneously respects the differences between cultures and individuals while celebrating our shared humanity.
That being so, instead of beginning locally and expanding outwards, the S1 arc of Sense8 begins globally and steadily focuses inwards, the personal journeys of the protagonists prioritised above the science fictional reveal of how they’re connected and why it puts them at risk. Which isn’t to say the latter element is neglected: narratively, it’s always present, with clues being drip-fed across each episode—some of them clearly of long-game significance, others more immediately relevant. But as the sensates are so far apart, the threads connecting them initially both strange and tenuous, the usual team-building trajectory of a (geographically) close group of people first uniting, then striking out at their enemies, is inverted. Instead, the senates draw inwards, steadily recognising their connection, before uniting to fight a defensive, rather than offensive, action, with the emotional catharsis of the finale centering on personal as much as external conflict.
In this respect, Sense8 is representative, not just of a new wave of storytelling, but of exactly what can be achieved when creators are given license to move beyond the deeply entrenched biases—both narrative and cultural—that too often dictate the formats and formulas of visual media. In terms of its long-game structure and high level of background detail, in fact—qualities that reward both binge- and rewatching—I’d argue that Sense8 is both emblematic and a deliberate product of the changes being wrought on television by the new digital age. There is, after all, a reason why so many of the most impressive, popular and talked-about shows of recent years have been produced, not by traditional mainstream outlets, but by cable networks and streaming services. Above and beyond the greater creative freedom afforded to the writers of such shows, unaffected as they are by advertising pressures or content-limiting watersheds—to say nothing of having a direct, competitive need to make something that free TV doesn’t—there’s a much more practical reason for the difference: technology.
Prior to the advent of the internet, Tivo and DVD box sets, there was no real way for anyone who’d missed the first episode or season of a TV show to get up to date before leaping in, and as such, there was an onus on writers to make each installment potentially accessible to new or casual viewers. This is why so many older shows, especially procedurals and sitcoms, are deeply formulaic, with static characters and short narrative arcs: their structure was established at a time when the audience really was watching just one episode a week—or one a day, at absolute most—which made it much harder to write a long-game plot. Unless you recorded it yourself, manually, on VHS, or until it was released on tape (which not every show was), rewatching and binging your favourite show weren’t viable options, and with potentially half a year or more between when the first and last episodes would air, there was every likelihood that viewers would forget any clues or details dropped over such a long period of time.
But now, shows are streamed constantly: even when they’re free to air, we can usually go back and watch them online, legally, at our leisure, along with any previous installments. Season box sets are readily available and frequently cheap, so that even if a show is in its fifth season, new viewers can start at the beginning before picking up the story, obviating the need for writers to hold their hand. And even if a show does air on a weekly basis, many viewers simply wait for the season to end and watch it in a single go, the better to cut out cliffhangers and remember details—a radically different experience to watching the same story with gaps between installments. And thus the importance of digital and cable sources: producers in these mediums are used to the idea that their audience can watch on demand—and can therefore handle a higher level of sophistication and detail, being able to go back and rewatch—instead of being stuck in an older, week to week mindset.
As such, it’s important not to judge Sense8, with its slow build, big cast, subtle background clues, and long-game premise, by the standards of anachronistic televisual defaults it was never trying to imitate, but is, in fact, actively subverting. By design, it’s meant to be binge-watched, rewatched, GIFfed, and analysed, because the writers were able to count on not only the willingness, but the ability of the audience to go back and look for clues they missed the first time: to engage with the material actively, repeatedly, rather than passively, briefly. And whereas shows like Game of Thrones and True Blood are literary adaptations, expressly taking advantage of the longer run-time of a TV series to tell an existing story that’s too big for the big screen, Sense8 is an original narrative structured to test the outdated boundaries of TV as a medium. This makes it risky, but also wonderful, and wholly unlike anything I’ve seen before.
As, for that matter, does the unprecedented primacy given in the narrative, not just to the kinds of queer relationships seldom depicted on TV—which is to say, queer relationships whose participants aren’t exclusively white and cisgendered—but to queer narratives, friendships, culture, and solidarity (to say nothing of being that absolute rarest of unicorns, a show written and directed by a trans woman, starring a trans character, played by a trans actress, which expressly acknowledges both transphobia and transmisogyny, even in the queer community). This inclusivity goes a long way towards explaining why, as a queer viewer, I am ready and willing to die on a battlefield for Sense8, and without wanting to imply that this is a universal reaction, speaking personally, while I’ve seen plenty of straight people express ambivalence about the show, or confusion, or hostility, especially given the unapologetic focus on Pride in the first two episodes, I’m yet to see a queer viewer who wasn’t ecstatic at seeing themselves so powerfully and positively represented, regardless of what other criticisms they might have. Sense8 is a show for everyone, but it’s also a queer show: the straight relationships we see on screen are either sexually casual or romantically tentative and slow-burning, but the queer relationships—Nomi and Amanita, Lito and Hernando—are passionate, loving, complex and irrefutable.
Nor is it irrelevant that, for all their differences, each of the eight protagonists is shown to struggle with various axes of oppression, such as gender, class, ability and sexuality. In the first episode, Riley’s DJing is described as being good “for a girl,” an opinion which is instantly called out by a secondary character, Nyx, who says that “she’s good, period.” Both Wolfgang and Capheus—whose criminal attachments are yet another parallel, given that they’re both good men caught up in the violence of others by, respectively, heritage and circumstance—exist in situations rife with toxic masculinity, where men are dehumanised and mocked by being compared to women. Nomi is fiercely defended from the transmisogyny of others by her girlfriend, Amanita, while Lito is continually forced to present as straight, the heteronormative assumptions of others a constant psychological burden. Will is impacted by negative stigmas about mental health, consistently being told to keep quiet about his experiences and feelings, lest he be written off as “crazy.” Kala, engaged to a man she likes but doesn’t love, is forced to navigate the class differences between his family and her own, as well as enduring judgment about her faith. Sun experiences both institutional and familial sexism, relegated to the sidelines in her father’s business, finding equality only when she fights. In ways both overt and subtle, Sense8 is consistent in its commitment to discussing intersectionality, and while it doesn’t always succeed, it nonetheless manages an extremely compelling discourse.
Fascinatingly, given the films the Wachowskis are most famous for making, this emphasis on queerness, oppression, and the purposeful rejection of heteronormativity is also used to expressly debunk the overwhelming straight-white-cismaleness of traditional action movies. Capheus is a die-hard fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme; Lito stars as an action hero in various films and telenovellas; Will is a good-guy cop, the archetypal hero of many such films; and Wolfgang and his best friend, Felix, have a childhood love of Conan the Barbarian. It is therefore significant that when Capheus has to fight for his life, it’s Sun, rather than Will or Wolfgang—which is to say, a woman of colour, rather than a white man—who lends him the skills to do so; just as it’s significant that we’re deliberately invited to contrast Lito’s gratuitous, glamorous action sequences with, on the one hand, his own lack of fighting prowess in real life, and, on the other, Will’s undignified scramble to chase a fugitive child into gang territory.
Making Lito a queer action hero is, by itself, a deliberately subversive act, given the type of straight, hypermasculine characters he portrays; but so too is the decision to have both him and Will, who actually is such a character, consistently share the physical experiences of women. Not only does this give us the comically brilliant moment of Lito feeling Sun’s menstrual cramps without knowing what they are (and worrying that he’s got a tumour), but it also means we get Will using his skills and strength, not in gratuitous displays of violence, but to help Nomi and Riley escape abusive, oppressive situations, before being helped by them in turn—just as Wolfgang, a career criminal, uses Lito’s expertise to survive a fight with his cousin. It’s a fascinating juxtaposition: Wolfgang can fight, but he can’t lie; whereas Lito can lie, but he can’t fight, and in their respective confrontations, the two men draw on each other. Similarly, when Wolfgang is pinned down in a firefight in a kitchen, it’s Kala—his love interest, a woman of colour, and a professional chemist—who comes to his rescue, showing him how to construct a bomb from household cleaning products. Over and over again, we’re presented with instances where an otherwise traditional action hero moment hinges on the egalitarian provision of help either to or from someone not nominally associated with action heroism—which is to say, someone who isn’t straight, white, cisgendered and/or male—and in such a way that, even when a character like Will is helping someone like Nomi or Riley, it’s never as blandly clear-cut as White Knight Rescues Damsel.
And here’s where we reach the limits of what I feel I can say without entering major spoiler territory: because try as I might, there’s no way to discuss one of the single most important aspects of the show without sharing a little of what happens—or what’s revealed, rather—at the finale; which is to say, the narrative arc of Riley Blue.
The first time I watched Sense8—and I’ve watched it twice now, the second viewing even more enjoyable than the first—I remember thinking that Riley seemed like a simple, familiar character: a pretty, waif-like white girl falling sweetly in love with Will, a handsome, white, good-guy cop. And, to an extent, that’s true; but it’s nowhere near the whole truth, and as such, the difference between watching their relationship develop on my first viewing, when I didn’t know where it was headed, and again on the second, when I understood everything, was staggering.
From the start of the very first episode, we’re inclined to see Riley as something of a lost soul: a kind, quiet woman with an asshole boyfriend seeking refuge in drugs. We know she’s attempted suicide in the past, though it’s easy, at first blush, to disregard exactly how significant this is to the plot, as we’re shown her scarred wrists only in flashes, usually as she tries to cover them, and when another character finally asks her about it, she doesn’t answer. We see her surrounded by criminals and dissolute friends, and without knowing the source of her sadness, it’s easy to mistake her—as her friends mistake her—for someone who, like them, is merely disaffected. It’s easy, too, to miss the significance of Riley’s music to her fellow sensates: the scenes where Sun shares her fighting skills with Capheus, for instance, are a much more traditional way of demonstrating the possibilities of the sensates’ connection, the extraordinary things they can do by sharing minds and memories, than eight people worldwide singing along to What’s Up by 4 Non Blondes because Riley elects to play it.
But in the end, that’s precisely the point: we dismiss Riley because, like her dissolute friends, we assume we know her, and because we don’t know what she’s wrestling with. Narratively, we’re so used to characters like Riley being superficially constructed—and, what’s more, constructed for the ultimate benefit of guys like Will—that it’s not until the last few episodes that we understand the magnitude of what she’s experienced; the truth of what she’s lost. Once upon a time, Riley was young and married and pregnant, and as her husband drove her through a storm to give birth at the hospital, their car crashed in the mountains. He died on impact, leaving Riley to have their daughter in the wreck, beside his body, before finally stumbling out into the snow, where her newborn child died of exposure before anyone came to rescue them.
The flashbacks where we see this happening constitute about a third of the final episode, paralleling Riley’s capture by the sinister organisation that’s been tracking the sensates. It’s not just that Riley’s loss happened in Iceland, where the organisation has now imprisoned her, or that the climactic rescue scene involves Will trying to drive her through the same mountains where she lost everything: the point is that Riley, whether we initially recognised it or not, has spent the entire season wanting to die, to lie down in the cold with her husband and daughter, and even though it’s Will who rides in to free her, ultimately, what saves the entire cluster of sensates is Riley’s decision to live. Riley’s backstory is emotionally harrowing to watch: a visceral, raw inverse of the endless narratives about men whose revenge arcs are predicated on the loss of a wife and child. All at once, we understand the significance of her music to the cluster: at a time when she’s been isolated from everyone around her, the music she’s shared with the sensates has been a point of joy and connection, anchoring her to a world she otherwise wants to leave.
And thus its importance to the show as a whole: because S1 of Sense8 is about what happens when we choose to live; and why, though this isn’t always an easy choice, it’s ultimately the right one.
While this sentiment is most apparent in Riley’s arc, it’s also echoed in the actions and dilemmas of the other protagonists; is, indeed, foreshadowed from the start of the very first episode, when the woman who births their cluster, Angelica, eats her gun to keep them safe. Having spent the season warring with his violent criminal family, Wolfgang spends the finale in a bloody shootout with his uncle and his men. Resigned to his death, he visits Kala one last time to say goodbye—but Kala refuses to let him go, wielding love and expertise in equal parts to help him live. The same is also true of Capheus, who, having been caught up in the criminal dealings of strangers, calls on the other sensates when he fears he’s about to die. But with the help of Sun and Will, he lives, saving the life of a father and daughter in the process.
And so it goes with Lito, too, the closeted actor who spends the season wrestling with the necessity of keeping his beloved boyfriend, Hernando, a secret. At his lowest ebb, when Hernando leaves him, Lito drunkenly contemplates suicide—even putting a gun in his mouth; like Angelica first and Riley later, the visual similarity a deliberate evocation of the parallel—but is thwarted when it turns out to be a fake. Lito’s decision to live means making things right with Hernando, finding the courage—through an impossibly powerful conversation with Nomi, a trans woman—to lose his fear of being outed. For very different reasons, Riley and Wolfgang, Capheus and Lito all have moments where they accept their own deaths, however briefly—but when they do, Will and Kala, Sun and Nomi are there to talk them back again. Both singly and collectively, in the face of overwhelming grief and daily oppression, the violence of family and violence endured for the sake of family, the sensates choose to live; because Sense8 is a story about choosing life.
There’s so much more to the show than this—to the characterisation, the settings, the narrative and context—but even if I spent ten thousand words explaining it all, I couldn’t do it justice. Sense8 is an amazing, game-changing show, one whose many complexities defy easy categorisation. Which is why, to paraphrase another iconic Wachowski creation, no one can really be told what Sense8 is.
You have to see it for yourself.
Foz Meadows is a bipedal mammal with delusions of immortality. As well as being the author of Solace and Grief and The Key to Starveldt, she reviews for A Dribble Of Ink and Strange Horizons, and is a contributing writer for The Huffington Post and Black Gate; her writing has also appeared at The Mary Sue and The Book Smugglers, and in 2013, she was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer. She like cheese, geekery, writing, webcomics and general weirdness. Dislikes include Hollywood rom-coms, liquorice and waking up.
I enjoyed this show. Lots of pretty shots, pretty people in various states of undress, decent acting (some outstanding) and a really BAD soundtrack. I mean when the pivotal sing a long starts and its 4Non Blondes?? Really, of all the songs in all the world… That moment was worse then when the Colonial Fleet started with All Along the Watchtower. My wife still hasn’t stopped complaining about the music in this show.
On the flip side, though, the Icelandic dad singing an acoustic Baba O’Reily was pretty cool.
Great article — I love this show, too!
FYI — “cisgendered” is not a word. Instead, the word should be “cisgender.” The words “cisgender” and “transgender” are adjectives not verbs, and so they should never have “ed” added to them.
I’ve bookmarked this article to read after I finish watching the series. I’m currently on episode 8. All I can say, based on these 8 episodes, is that this is utterly brilliant TV. I may have used the phrase “new golden age of television” when rhapsodizing about it to my wife.
Great article. Well written and cogent.
I watched the first 3 episodes trying to get into it and could not, so maybe I will try again someday, but I just can’t enjoy it when it’s so easy to click to the many other things on Netflix I’d rather watch. Still, I will try it again next time I am bored.
Oh this show is fantastic, and led me down the “Just one more episode” trap over an entire weekend. With this, and Daredevil, Netflix is showing a really strong presence.
I somewhat disagree with the OP on the representation of Riley. To me, she comes of as much of a damsel, and I hope that there is some more depth given to her in the future. I also desperately hope that this show has a future, because man is it amazing.
Hi. I had high hopes for this show to be an telepathic type show but it turns out to be a soft core porn. I’d keep watching it with the hope if it showing Daryl Hannah naked. i’m not a pervert but I’ve loved her seance Splash. Other then showing ( soft core) porn wont make a good si-fi show. Were are the people when they change bodies? If they imagine there are some were else how do they walk and move objects where they think they are/. What are there bodies doing were they really are?
Sorry but two girls have sex and then throwing a sloppy,,hairy dill-do on the floor just turns me off on the si-fi part that’s suppose to be there. I say this show wont even air all the episodes that have been made. I’m disappoint in Daryl.
@7 Uh, hate to disappoint you but the show is on Netflix so all 12 episodes have “aired” so to speak. Also, a Season 2 announcement is likely coming soon. I agree that the dildo scene was a little much to show so quickly in the show but it’s not a sci-fi show. I feel like the trailer for season 1 was wildly misleading. I went into it expecting these people using their connection to do cool action-y stuff every episode but what it is at its heart is a show about how we relate to each other and the world around us.
I have never binge watched a show like I did Sense8. It pulled me in. I understand if some of the more sex-oriented parts of the show turn people off. It’s everyone’s prerogative to not like something. I just chose to look at those as small part of a larger whole that had some great statements to make about humanity.
Sense 8 is just ok. None of the stories are all that interesting, there’s a lot of redundancy, and it seems like it’s written to be overly PC and inclusive rather than focusing on moving the story forward. I’m five or six episodes in, and I don’t care at all about any of the characters. I’ll still watch it if I’m bored… maybe… but if they don’t do a second season I won’t be the least bit sad.
Why must you use the word queer many times? I feel this is disrespectful !! Why not just use gay? And I LOVED every minute of it!! And I am straight!! Brian J. Smith is WONDERFUL!!!
The strongest impression the series left me was that each of the eight had some overarching skill that the others needed. All eight had situations where they were inadequate. If the eight are a sample of humanity, perhaps the series is suggesting we learn from each other, across national boundaries.
Riley has always felt like the weakest character to me. Nomi is the team hacker, Wolfgang and Sun can fight, and so forth; Riley is the one who has always been the rescuee rather than the rescuer, and the one whose skill I wouldn’t necessarily spend points on in a RPG. But if her big contribution in later seasons turns out to be that she’s the glue that gets the whole cluster working together, that’s bigger than it seems. And I can totally see her becoming the next Angelica.
Sheryl: if you have to ask “why not just use gay,” you haven’t paid attention to the series.
I <3 this show so much.
I love Amanita, I love Sun, I love Capheus, I love seeing a representation of an African city that is not Cairo or Cape Town or Lagos. I love seeing genuinely sexual relationships that don’t pander to the male gaze, I like the characters and their complexity, the struggles shown therein.
Bring on S2.
Please.
Eh, it’s an okay show. Some warnings for those who haven’t seen it:
* It’s marketed as SciFi, but it’s really, really not. The only “scifi” thing about it is the tiny bit of telepathy used. I would place this squarely in “drama”
* It definitely has a lot of gratuitous sex scenes. The aforementioned dildo one is the worst offender, but there’s also an orgy scene that goes on way, way too long and is 100% unnecessary, among the handful of other sex scenes that just aren’t needed. I’m not a prude, honestly–these scenes are just so incongruous with everything else going on, they just come across as awkward and/or gross.
* The pacing is sloooooow and there’s really a lot of huge plot holes and question marks if you bother to think too hard about it. As for the slowness, I get it, 8 characters, it’s going to be difficult–but there’s so many times where they could easily share info with each other to advance the plot but DON’T, that it gets a little frustrating. Also when you consider how easily all these characters just accept the telepathy, don’t really question any of it and honestly don’t seem very curious as to why they have it or how it can be used (this is why I say it’s not scifi). The only character who does ANY investigating about the ability is Will, our cop, and even he makes so little process because he gets Distracted By The Sexy.
Also, I don’t really agree with the author in that I find Riley to be the weakest character by far and gets way too much screen time for how utterly boring she is. Her backstory was a huge fail moment for me as it only proved that she fit squarely in the Broken Bird trope and has no depth to her at all. Not to mention that losing her baby was so incredibly shoe-horned in, nothing about that car ride and crash made any sense. In one scene as they’re driving you can see town lights in the background not far from the road. Literally the next scene they crash and are now somehow a million miles up in the mountains? Makes no sense. Also, why did she even leave her car? I would think enclosed space (warmth) + supplies + visible car against snow = chance of rescue. Certainly better odds than wandering out in the snowy mountains, after having just given birth, with no clue where you’re going. They also never answer the question of how the hell Riley even survived all of that after leaving her baby up there.
UGH, sorry for the rant. This is why I don’t give the show 5 stars. It barely squeaks in at 3. It’s interesting enough in its uniqueness, and I am honestly interested in the main plot of who the heck the bad guys are and what they want, but I have little hope of that going anywhere.
@Sheryl: I’ve used the word queer so many times because, a) the show contains queer people, which sort of merits a mention and b) I am actually queer. Which, you know, I mentioned in the article? I fail to see how it’s disrespectful to use a word with which I personally identify.
Hi Foz, my compliments to you on your excellent review of Sense8, it is a remarkable bit of work by the Wachowskis which deserves more attention. I only wish you had held off the dead baby spoiler as I’m only at epi8. (-;
And to those of you lacking an understanding of the science part of this sci-fi work: Sense8 is literally about the evolution of the human race into a new species, or at least, into a new, higher plane of existence.
Bravo to Netflix for producing this. Shows like Sense8, Orange, and Cards will keep me subscribing while I wait for the disc release of each season of Thrones.
I really like this show, despite its flaws (particularly its pacing — toward the middle it really drags before becoming far more action-focused in the last few episodes), sometimes even because of its flaws, as little sense as that makes. And I’d say it’s definitely science fiction — it’s about eight interconnected empath/telepaths being stalked by a megapowerful corporation run by a guy named Mr. Whispers for godsakes — but it’s the sort of thing critics say science fiction “can’t” be, focusing on the characters’ emotional lives and connections with their different groups and with each other.
I also like how even though Will and Wolfgang can fight any single opponent and come out on top, Sun is the AK-47 of the group — she’s the one they always call on when you absolutely, positively got to kill every mother****er in the room. Accept no substitutes.
Foz, thanks for this review. I’m looking forward to my second run through.
I just wanted to add that this might be the most beautifully shot TV show I’ve ever watched. I had to constantly remind myself that I was watching at home and not in a theater. It definitely has one of the most glorious credit intros EVER!
And nice to see J. Michael Straczynski’s work again. Babylon 5 suffered from lack of money, but little else. He works wonders with character and story. I hope that he and the Wachowskis are given the time (and money) to develop this story.
Excellent article, thanks!
Sense8 is the best show I have seen this year. I absolutely loved the slow build-up that gave us a chance to get to know each of the sensates. I was very happy to see all of them contribute some skill to the last episode, especially Kala, which I was starting to wonder if and how she would, after not doing much through the previous episodes.
I agree with others that some of the sex scenes are a bit too much… but without the psychic orgy scene, we would not have had the hilarious scene between Will and Lido in the last episode!
Fingers crossed that they will get a second series.
You brought this together brilliantly! I love the diversity of the characters, and I especially love the way they explore non-binary gender and sexuality. Someone earlier said the sex scenes were too much. I disagree. I think they have been an honest display of how people have sex. Yes, we have to have some to titillate and for some people any sex will be too much. I thought the dildo scene was a little over the top, but then again, not really. Same with the hot tub scene.
Having said all that, I spent most of the show building up to the last episode wondering what Riley’s story was. I knew it had to be powerful, and it was. She isn’t shallow, as someone above mentioned, she is wounded soul deep. I lost my husband 9 months ago, so I get just how deep that wound is. I can’t imagine adding the loss of my child to that grief.
I’ve decided to go back and watch it again. I want to see what I missed. And for those who said they hadn’t made it past episode 3, that’s the point at which it begins to make sense. If you get through the first three episodes, you’ll be hooked, too.
I binge-watched this show this weekend. I loved every single minute of it and got nothing else accomplished until I was done. There is some magnificent storytelling in this series. I hope it gets renewed and we get all 5 planned years of it!
Turns out I don’t have a lot to add to your review, Foz. For me, you nailed it. Thanks for the passion.
One of the worst abortions of a show I have ever seen. I continuously got the impression that they just wrote as many sub-cultures and needless gratuitous sex scenes as they could into it. I guess they were working under the assumption that if they threw one of everyone, needlessly, into the show, that “everyone” will like it. They could have cut it down to two hours, fit only the useful plot into that time, and had a MUCH better show. There is a reason shows like this are released in one day by online companies like Netflix and are not picked up by major networks. (Powers… Ugh…) Not everything can emulate Orange is the New Black. While having a wide cross-section of society and sex scenes ,OitNB actually has a coherent story line and fleshed out characters you can care about.
Sense8 was easily the worst TV series I’ve seen in a long time. Each new Wachowski release simply reinforces my belief that The Matrix was a fluke and they have nothing interesting or worthwhile to say.
This is a show that was so boring they had to throw in gratuitous sex which served no purpose. We really didn’t need to see a close-up of a used strap-on to get an idea of what was happening. Worst of all, the sex somehow made it MORE boring. At some point, someone needs to say “No!” to these people.
How anyone can like this show is beyond me. We’ve seen this exact scenario done before and done better. More money doesn’t mean more better.
Love this show, including the music. The “What’s Up” segment was electrifying to me. Different strokes, eh? I’m glad to see others appreciate it, too. The hate is inevitable. This is the best thing the Wachowskis have done in years.
I loved sense8, even despite how it lags a bit in the middle and despite how uncomfortable some of the sex scenes made me feel, but on some introspection, I realized some of the uncomfortability was because they were not pandering to me, a cis straight male, and that some, along with a lot of other moments were challenging me to see things differently… which is the exact premise of the whole series.
I also give it major points because it showed the NICE Mexico (‘m Mexican, btw). Not the sepia-colored dusty streets with mud buildings and the Colonial-era church in the background, but the modern, middle/upper class Mexico City, using white-skinned Mexicans (we do exist) and the high culture like the Diego Rivera Museum.
But what I most loved about the show was that sense of connectivity, that glimmer of hope that humanity CAN be something more, and it just requires empathy for people who lead lives vastly different from ours.
The two most emotional moments of connection are music-led, and thus driven by Riley… first it’s everyone singing to 4 Non-Blondes, the second is Riley’s dad’s concert and their memories of birth and childhoold, and both showed both the power and vulnerability of that connection.
I loved Sun’s frustration and barely-contained-and-then-exploding RAGE, Capheus’ unflagging optimism,morality and sense of wonder, Kala showing the positive aspects of faith (I’m an atheist myself)…
I will be all over a 2nd season :)
Thank you so much for this article, Foz. I was desperatly seeking to read more about Sense8 after I finished binge watching it (I mean, other then the “I can’t explain how mind-boggling and incredible it is” sort of comment I’ve been hearing and saying myself), and this was exactly what I needed.
Especially the part about Riley’s arc and how it connects the story over choosing life! I hadn’t realized this incredible thread before you pointed it out. And I do think that is one of the reasons so many people related to it, and not only all the diversity and healthy sexual commentary (which was over the top, yes, but real and not gratuitous in my opinion). We all, as human beings, have had to make that choice. And I don’t really mean comit suicide or not, but choose to grow and evolve, or stay where I am and kill my dreams.
I think it’s normal for some people to hate it (isn’t everything like that?) But I hope it continues on for many seasons, because we need it, and more shows like it! I don’t think it’s a show about queer people or diversity (though I’m glad to see both), but rather a show about people and how we can relate to one another despite our differences.
Great rundown. I loved this show, binge-watched it, and recced it to everyone who will listen.
Like many viewers, I was a bit startled by the rainbow-dildo moment, but having watched a handful of direct-to-netflix stuff before, I attribute that to a bit of Hollywood elation on the part of the showrunners. They are allowed their, “Woohoo! Netflix time is pants-off-o’clock!” moments.
And yes, the sexy scenes are *supposed* to be uncomfortable. There’s a deep, deep theme of intimacy threaded through the series, in both the relationships of the sensates and their individual stories/families. Surface-level intimacy is what we’ve grown accustomed to showing, seeing, and reading about. The kind of deep intimacy that goes on in these awkwardly graphic sex scenes digs deeper, shows the vulnerabilities of the characters as only they would know in their own minds. That right there shows another level of just how deep their connections to each other are. They are sharing a brain, in each other’s skin, and that means during the discomforting times, too. In the greater theme, it reinforces the whole, “We are all one” idea put forth. We need each other to survive and thrive and to be whole. It’s a beautiful sentiment.
Yes, it does seem slow, and the first few episodes make you work for it. But it’s a refreshing change from 19-minute CGI fight scenes that are 20 minutes too long, and two and a half hour movies with maybe 20 minutes of real character development spread out over five characters.
Loved the show, the characters, the music, the scifi, the inclusiveness, the sex scenes…everything. Hope it gets many more seasons.
Excellent analysis, thank you, Foz. I’ve just watched it a second time and agree – once I knew what was happening and could stop holding my breath, the layers of interaction became even more meaningful. But I hadn’t seen Riley in that sense, so thanks.
For a show about people who are meant to be, in a way, beyond human/post-human it is profoundly human, and therefore profoundly intersectional. And also very funny, moving, romantic, queer (yes, actually queer is the most appropriate term), and adventurous in all senses of the world.
Like most sci-fi books and shows, it’s about people, not science/tech. And like many previous sci-fi works it’s exploring the boundaries of narrative.
I hope that the story gets a chance to continue.
Thank you for a beautiful summary of Riley’s arc. She’s dismissed even by some fans as a helpless, useless character, but she’s the quiet heart of the group. Every one of the characters has a powerful story and they balance back and forth with none of the main characters subordinate to any other.
You’re right, the detail is endless. Every scene is connected thematically to others even when the sensates aren’t sharing right then. (I’m most delighted by the application of Lito’s director’s final instructions to Wolfgang’s last shootout, which on first viewing seems stupid and tacky. But nothing in this show is stupid!)
Thanks so much for a great article, both enthusiastic and insightful. I’m in the middle of my first re-watch and loving it even more as I notice more things. This is the first TV show to capture me heart and soul in years and I desperately hope for an announcement greenlighting season 2!
I realize this comment is so late that no one will likely ever read it but I’m a bit of an emotional wreck right now having just finished a binge watch and need to get a few things down in text.
1. Don’t give up on it if the first few episodes bore you. I nearly did. The first two just had nothing really happening at all. Fortunately for me the premise was just barely interesting enough to get me to the end of the third where I finally started to care about some of these people. It’s a classic slow burn but it does pay off.
2. I’m not a homophobe but at first all the prolonged and seemingly gratuitous gay sex was starting to bug me. Then a funny thing happened, the scene with a heartbroken Lito in the art museum. That hooked me hard. I really enjoyed how beautiful and romantic Lito and Fernando’s relationship became after that. Now we just have to get Lito to open up to Fernando about his abilities the way Naomi and Amanita have. Now I’m torn on whether or not the sex is gratuitous. I mean it doesn’t need to be as present as it is but then, sex is a MAJOR part of these people’s lives. How can you not bring sex into an equation that has eight young, healthy people sharing minds?
3. Bit of a personal bias coming but Wolfgang is horrendously underused! How can I say that when he does so much badassery in the last couple of episodes? Well I have recently taken up lock picking as a hobby so that’s my bias. Wolfgang is not just a thief but also a locksmith and safe cracker. You have a story full of people being held captive, you already have a fighter (my money’s on the skinny bitch) and yet Wolfgang is just used as another muscle. Season two had better have Wolfgang pick some locks for his fellow cluster friends or I will be bitterly disappointed.
4. Music. Good and bad. The bad: could we please eradicate 4 non blondes from the universe? God I hate that effing song. The good: IT’S THE EMPEROR CONCERTO! Not just once or twice but a constantly repeating theme throughout the series. Bask in the glory that is Beethoven:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh8q6CfhjtI
5. I loved the resolution to Capheus’ plot line. It was boring me at first as it seemed to be a standard good kid falls in with the wrong crowd kinda thing but they turned it around nicely. Also all the actors in the Nairobi storyline were brilliant.
6. Riley. Oh god Riley. I’ll be over in a corner crying until season two is out. I have high hopes for her future despite such a horrible past.
Yes, the music is brilliant. I love how they used a couple of Sigur Ros tracks, one in an early episode and one during the final scene of the final episode. This series just blew me away – and that final episode was some of the best TV I’ve seen in ages.
(And Foz wrote a wonderful summation of some of the reasons why this show is so very special. I may have used the phrase “golden age of television” when trying to describe it, much less articulately, to a friend.)
The first thing I want to say is “THIS IS SCIENCE FICTION!” For those of you not conversant with Science Fiction’s past – please poick up and read “More than Human” by Theodore Sturgeon. It is not a long book – written in 1953 or so. It is a cornerstone of the SF genre that has none changing shapes or even fighting. It is simply about a group of people coming together to form the next phase of humanity that Sturgeon called “Homo Gestalt” . He couldn’t put in sex at the time – otherwise there probably would be, but I know that J. Michal Straczynski loves the roots of SF so my guess is he wanted to update that novel and put it into today’s world. I think Sturgeon would be proud.
Furthermore, I am in agreement with the whole article. There are sex scenes – yes – but in so many “telepathy” stories the sex was never mentioned. And since sex is one of the most powerful urges in humanity it better be involved or all you have are unreal characters.
Second, I love the queer aspect of the show a lot, but I also love the straight aspect of the show. It shows these two aspects of life living and working together as a single unit – not even caring about any sexual orientation (beyond each person’s coming to deal with the sense8 situation itself). And, I notice that anyone who complained about the sex did not complain about the major violence in the show. I think that is more telling than anything about our culture. Don’t get me wrong – the violence is as necessary as the sex because that is another powerful urge in humanity – anger, hatred, killing. So it was just as necessary as the sex – but no one mentions that.
Plus, each character represents a character trait(s) that are needed to make a single “gestalt” human. Sense8 is only boring and slow if you don’t care about the characters. If all you are looking for is plot and action then you will be bored by much of it. However if you love to see human beings daring to become more than what they are – fumbling and failing but trying – then this is the show for you.
I have just begun, only a few days ago, to enter the world of Sense8, & yet already I am profoundly moved –one of the few pieces I can liken it to is Rent, which is also among my favourites & portrays similarly malcomprehended people in a true & lovely wholeness. For here, here too we have a programme viewed by millions about this world that depicts those of us who are relegated to & past the edges of society, & not as mere spectacles, but as we are, & shows too without flinching what it is to hold our struggles, joys, oppression & agony, talents, insights, unique perspectives, & lamentation, as such in such a world as this often indeed is.
As a multi-deviomorphic genetic mutant myself –a ‘v.h.i.q. omnibus’ prodigy with physical infantilism, a ‘true/complete’ hermaphrodite, a chemical romantic & predependant on Morphine, & an epileptic, among other peculiar things, who has been with a great deal of sorrow in this world on account of simply being me, I am used to not being represented positively, if at all, in the stories our culture tells itself, especially today. Yet, here, in this very wonderful & brave story, not only do we have depicted clearly for all to see the image of the one born far from his species of origin, who has what can be marvellously fun powers that are instead often exploited & pathologied, & he is with no justice persecuted / exploited / violated for having them, but also, most remarkably in certain ways of all, we have positive, empathic, truthful, portraits not only of drug use –including casual use of all manner of both accepted & stigmatized substances by a number of people–, but of a druggie like me : Riley! Riley is a beautiful person, who has positive experiences with drugs [Nicotine, Opium, & Hash, among others], but negative experiences with the drug war via the corrupt underworld networks one is forced to run in order to be with one chemical loves. I cannot tell you how profoundly moved I was to see her & her treatment by the directors, the gentle manner of her person, so familiar to me & my friends, & her personal strength & strong moral foundation, her bohemian style & ‘on the scene’ fashion & even physical affect, her courage, her very real [& normal!] love of the people in her life as well as her chemical companions without compromise of either, & manner in which the delicate, respectful, euphoria she shares with her drugs is approached with as much affirmation, notice of harmony, recognition of orgiastic [for so biochemically is a high] passion, positive & non-judgemental regard, intensity, sensitivity, & mind-open wonder, as the scenes of euphoria being shared between people, which themselves were already remarkable for the splendidly accurate portraits of a number straight & queer relations, & only made yet more illuminated at least for this viewer by the inclusion amongst them of a properly done chemical romance.
Thank you Sense8, for being you, for being us!
-PhiPhi