Sense8 Season 1

Sense8 has always been a combination of something very original and intriguing, and something poorly written and over pretentious. This was my sentiment even before the July 4th weekend where I binge watched all 12 episodes of the first season. This has been my and many other people's sentiment of the Wachowskis for many of their projects in the past. 

The directors of The Matrix and it's lesser sequels, the Wachowskis have had a long career spanning multiple movies, two gender transitions, and a wide range of critical reception. Looking at their IMDB page, I realize that their careers were defined early by the expansive universe of the Matrix. These two were involved with The Matrix for so long and not just in the movies but in the video games, and animated pictures that went along with it. I can understand that they would want to transition to something different. And to be honest, they haven't had as nearly as toxic a career as someone like M. Night. Shyamalan or Michael Bay. V for Vendetta is a great movie and the Wachowskis were involved with writing the screenplay. I've written two posts on Cloud Atlas and it continues to be a movie I like to re-watch, not necessarily because it's a phenomenal movie but because the ideas ad way it's portrayed is so interesting. There is of course Jupiter Ascending... I'm gonna be honest, there's not a lot I can do to explain that dumpster fire but one bad movie doesn't necessarily destroy a director's career, maybe Sense8 is something different. 

Sense8 is a TV series on Netflix. It follows the stories of 8 individuals from different parts of the

world who, after a tragic death by a mysterious woman, start to realize that they are connected telepathically. They can communicate with one another from miles away and they can even call upon the skills and expertise of one another to help out each other in time of need. The story mainly centers on the personal struggles these two are going through, all with an underlying plot concerning a deeper conspiracy to capture Sensates by a mysterious man (played by Terrence Mann).

All these characters are different and have their own struggles they go through in their own part of the world. You've got Will (played by Brian J Smith) who plays a cop from Chicago. Then there's Nomi (played by Jamie Clayton) a transgender hacker and blogger. Sun (played by Doona Bae) a Korean business woman with a family in the midst of corporate crimes. Lito (played by Miguel Silvestre) a Mexican actor who is still in the closet about his sexuality despite having a romantic relationship with another man. Wolfgang (played by Max Riemelt) a safe cracker trying to score big with his friend in the criminal life of Germany. Riley (played by Tuppence Middleton) a DJ from Iceland dealing with a shady and tragic past. Capheus (played by Amel Ameen) a taxi driver from Nairobi trying to help his mother who is dying of AIDs. And Kala (played by Tina Desai) a pharmacist from India who is going into a marriage to a man who she does not love.

If it sounds like those are a lot of characters with a lot of plot lines that really don't connect to a larger sci fi plot, you wouldn't be wrong. Good sci fi is never fully about the science fiction plot, it takes in the characters, their problems and trials, and ties it into a larger goal or conflict. An example of when this is done right is Stranger Things. The main story was the disappearance of Will Byers and while the entire show was trying to find him and uncover the mystery of his disappearance and the upside down, the show still took some time to develop the characters outside of the supernatural and sci fi elements of the story. Sense8 takes that time... and then some and at a certain point you kind of forget what the overarching plot is while you're watching these people live their lives.

And that wouldn't bother me so much... if not for a couple of reasons.

1. The science fiction plot is actually kind of intriguing. The opening scene focuses on Daryl Hannah's mysterious character as well as Naveen Andrews. It's obvious there's something supernatural happening and as the scene ends, you know that there is something bigger going on. But while most sci fi shows would continue to remind you of the over arching science fiction plot that a lot of people, like myself, came to watch this show for, Sense8 really puts that on the back burner and because of it, I'm still not totally sure what Naveen Andrew's whole deal is, what Terrence Mann is doing in this show, and how it all connects these 8 people. All I know is the individual stories of these 8 people. And I'll be fair, the actors in this show are pretty good and I did start to care about these characters because of the acting. But each one of these people could be the focus of their own Netflix drama. I would watch a 10 episode series on Capheus, a poor guy from Nairobi who gets caught up in some dangerous people to get his mother AIDs medication. The list goes on. But for some reason the Wachowskis thought that it was necessary to have all these random people on this show for what reason? There's supposed to be some big message about empathy and the interconnectedness of humanity. And I get it, but it's a really thin moral to tag onto this very original sci fi and cast of very good actors.

2. The script is not very good. I'm just going to put it out there. And a lot of it is because of this heavy handed message the Wachowskis are trying to get across throughout 12 episodes that they really only needed one for.

A lot of people who praise this show on the internet make mention that they love how diverse the cast is and how it's such a multicultural cast. And don't get me wrong, I think having multicultural casts is a good thing. But I don't think they should create this multicultural cast only for the sake of having a multicultural cast. Having diversity doesn't necessarily make good stories. And again, we're getting beaten over the head with their message for 12 episodes when one episode was really enough. The thing is I think I know why the Wachowskis do this, because it's not just Sense8 that does this. Heavy handed messages happened in V for Vendetta, Cloud Atlas, and Jupiter Ascending. For some reason the Wachowskis really want to push for some big philosophical message because that's where they've seen their biggest success.

The Wachowskis have had a pretty successful career all things considered. Yes there is Jupiter Ascending (and I honestly don't know if Speed Racer was good) but overall, I can't say I've hated more than half of their movies, which is a lot more than you can say for a lot of directors. In every movie where they have had to write dialogue, it has been bloated with philosophical exposition and beats the audience over the head with really heavy handed messages. It was definitely the case with

the Matrix with long winded speeches from characters who are obviously religious allusions, and philosophical rants that sound really smart but in reality aren't. In V for Vendetta, this worked for the advantage of the movie because that was an overly political movie and the philosophical dialogue about the follies of a government that takes too much power actually worked towards the revolutionary themes and atmosphere. But the Wachowskis really started to hedge their bets with Cloud Atlas where there were long winded philosophical speeches that felt unhinged and out of place. It's very much like Shyamalan where something is clearly an allusion to some kind of religious figure or philosophical belief that the Wachowskis obviously believe in but it's almost like we got hit in the head with that philosophy and the Wachowskis are in the background yelling, "ASK ME WHAT IT MEANS!!!!!"

I think because the Matrix blew up in such a huge way where there were philosophy books written about the universe the Wachowskis built, they believed that success is defined by large universe building and philosophical impact instead of cohesive and comprehensive story telling. They started to take a downturn with Cloud Atlas, they really missed the mark with Jupiter Ascending, and they went full bananas with Sense8.

So going back to the script. This show is written really, really horribly. Almost every single episode is so preachy with some kind of reference back to how we're all connected and we need to find the beauty and connection in life. And this is a shame because the characters are well written. I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but the characters are created so that you do care about them. That is difficult as you have 8 very unique characters and yet they are able to create stories that made me care about these people and how they were going to deal with their problems.

How they deal with their problems is another story.

First off, these characters start seeing each other in very awkward and strange places. Instead of freaking out that there's a naked German guy in front of her, Kala immediately falls in love with this guy but yet continues to string along this really nice Indian guy who just wants to take care of her.

And that was the thing that confused me the most was you had these characters seeing the supernatural, seeing things that in reality aren't there, and just kind of shrugging it off.

And here's the thing. If the Wachowskis just wanted to do a show about people dealing with their problems and having a sci fi element to it, I think that would have been okay. This should would have done okay just having these people go about their business and eventually call on one another in their struggles.

But then you've got this overarching plot line with Naveen Andrews and Terrence Mann.

I like both these actors. I loved Andrews in Lost. He's probably one of my favorite characters in the show.

Terrence Mann doesn't have much of a filmography but that's because he's more of a theater actor. He's been the Beast in Beauty and the Beast and he's been Javert in Les Miserable. If anything, he has a really great singing voice. And while that isn't really relevant to his performance in Sense8, it did make me interested in his contribution to the show.

Unfortunately, these two really take a back seat to a Korean lady getting her period and a Mexican actor feeling it. And I'm saying that that's not an interesting concept, but from the beginning I was promised some kind of big conspiracy that started with these two and even at the end of the first season you're still not totally sure what Terrence Mann's deal is or what else is to come. Instead I am shown an orgy scene with basically the whole cast. Not kidding, there's an orgy scene in this show. On a side note, that scene really came out of no where and it happened with a bunch of characters who hadn't really met one another yet. In reality, things should have been SUPER awkward after, like so much that these people would probably never want to sensate with one another again, and that happened in the 3rd of 4th episode so it would have made this series a lot shorter.

Did I hate Sense8? No. For a show with a lot of exposition and long winded speeches, I did have a couple of moments throughout the series where I was genuinely entertained.

With the exception of Wolfgang and Kala which I thought was just a really pointless relationship with no foundation whatsoever, I actually thought the relationships were pretty genuine. I'm not just talking about the sexual ones, there were a lot of genuine moments between the characters and you can see a connection starting to form between them in the first season. There are heterosexual relationships in this show but there are also homosexual relationships, and trans relationships, and I do have to agree with some of the reviews I've read where they do portray all types of relationships pretty equally. Lito, the Mexican actor who is gay has a female friend who he had been using as a girlfriend to hide his relationship with his boyfriend Hernando. Not only is his relationship with Hernando genuine, but the relationship he and Hernando develop with this woman when she figures out Lito is gay. Erendira Ibarra by the way is absolutely gorgeous. And that's another thing, maybe this is just a hollywood thing but everyone in this show is really gorgeous people. Some may criticize the Wachowskis for doing that, I personally think it's a trick of the trade and you really can't get too worked up about that.

The action is pretty good in the show. I was actually surprised how violent and gory this show actually is. If you're squeamish around blood or don't like a lot of violent action, you may want to skip Sense8. This does however create a little bit of a problem because you've got these characters who don't know how to fight and they find themselves in situations where they need to fight. And this actually happens a lot in the show. So because they're all connected, they can call upon the skills of one of the other sensates to help them out. Now the problem comes with the fact that Sun is very proficient with martial arts. Because of this, I felt multiple moments where I was just yelling at the screen saying, just call on the Korean lady! And this happens a lot! Sure, near the end they start showing some of the other skills from the other characters, but in all actuality, this probably could have been a show with the cop, the korean lady, and the hacker.

The other thing I will praise the show on is the cinematography. This show is very well shot. The Wachowskis are a lot of things, but I would never say they're bad at shooting a scene. That being said, the opening credits to this show are probably the worst opening credits I have ever seen. They do not tell you at all about the show, they're just random clips from different parts of the world. Sure it looks pretty and with the music you are looking for some kind of hidden meaning... but there is none. It's absolutely pointless. I honestly couldn't stand these opening credits. Just watch them and tell me how they're related to anything that happens in the show.

I am not going to continue watching Sense8. The main reason I wanted to check out the show was because it recently got cancelled. This caused a huge uproar from a fan base I didn't know existed. I knew a couple of people that posted on Facebook that they loved Sense8, but they were very few and far between. But the uproar when the show got cancelled was so big that Netflix decided to give the fans a two hour film conclusion to the show that may have been left on a cliffhanger at the end of season 2? Regardless, I wanted to binge watch the show and see what all the fuss was about and the truth is, it didn't hook me.

The main reason I made it through all 12 episodes was because I wanted to write something about this show and usually if I make it past the 3rd episode, I get a little irate if I don't know the conclusion to something. So that says something about the show.

But the main praises I've heard of this show is that it has a multicultural cast, it's very inclusive, and the message is powerful. In essence, everyone who loves this show loves it because it is social justice theater. It has transgender actors in it so it must be good right? It has a diverse cast so it must be good right? It portrays heterosexual and homosexual relationships equally so it must be good right? Wrong. The best parts of this show is when its genuine, not when it's trying to be grandiose or super meaningful.

There's a scene late in the season where Lito is talking about the first time he met his boyfriend and Nomi talks about an incident when she was a young boy in school. The scene takes place in two stories of the two remembering these particular experiences. Lito's story full of exposition and almost poetic descriptions of his experience, while Nomi's story is simple and pretty much to the point. While both are annoying in that they're monologues that freshmen in college are going to be doing in their acting classes for years, Lito's story really bored me while I actually felt the emotion and heart break in Nomi's story. One was genuine and one was not and it's very obvious in this show when something is being explained for the sake of having that philosophical higher meaning to it, and when actual storytelling is happening.

I'll give the credit to the Wachowskis for being able to pull it off some times, but the amount of times where they're just loving the smell of their own farts is just too much for me. And if you identify with this show, that's fine, to each his own. But I personally thought the show as pretentious and more focused on the fluff rather than the substance.

But that's what I thought of Sense8. What about you? Did you enjoy the show? Are you sad about it being cancelled? Am I missing out by not going and watching the 2nd season? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for movies and TV shows I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog as well as occasional live tweets from movies and shows I'm watching.

I'll leave you with this. Totally different note, did you know that Rick and Morty Season 3 is starting up later this month!!! I'M SO PUMPED! Enjoy!