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It shouldn’t be surprising that a series about the next step in human evolution should wholeheartedly embrace the newest format to reach its audience. Sense8, a series from filmmakers Andy and Lana Wachowski and screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski, could only have worked on a service like Netflix, where binge-watchers can set their own pace with the ambitious project. Its combination of sprawling storylines and exposition-heavy philosophical ruminations is bound to leave some people scratching their heads at its appeal, but if it can get you on its wavelength, it will reward you with some beautiful visuals and a surprisingly poignant perspective on human connectedness.
Sense8 opens with perfect weirdness: Daryl Hannah in an abandoned church, shaking and mumbling to a not-really-there Naveen Andrews about waking “them” up before being confronted by a very scary Terrence Mann and finally committing suicide. With that we’re off and running with the eight newly enhanced “sensates,” Chicago cop Will (Brian J. Smith), Icelandic DJ Riley (Tuppence Middleton), San Franciscan transgender hacker Nomi (Jamie Clayton), Korean banker/mixed martial artist Sun (Doona Bae), closeted Mexican telenovela star Lito (Miguel Ángel Silvestre), Mumbai pharmacist Kala (Tina Desai), German safecracker Wolfgang (Max Riemelt), and Nairobi bus driver Capheus (Ami Ameen), who slowly develop and discover a psychic link that bonds them together.
I list them all because much of this first season feels like eight separate miniseries that have been spliced together with occasional crossovers. It can be distracting at first, especially as some of the storylines take longer than others to start picking up steam. There’s plenty of character building going on, along with a heavy dose of exposition and deep philosophical rambling, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a large number of viewers check out after two or three episodes of this odd mosaic.
The sensates first appear to each other in quick flashes, but as their connections strengthen, they begin to have longer conversations and experience the world through each other’s eyes. They also discover that they can share skills, a useful thing if you happen to find yourself surrounded by an angry gang and you’re a lousy fighter—but you’ve got a trained MMA butt-kicker on psychic speed-dial. The various episode directors—The Wachowskis, along with Tom Tykwer, James McTeigue, and Dan Glass—find increasingly fun and novel ways for the characters to slip in and out of each other’s lives and storylines. Skillful editing combined with some gorgeous location filming around the world makes Sense8 a visual treat when it puts its mind to it.
All that work—the meandering storylines and technical bravado—starts to change somewhere around the mid-season, not coincidentally around the same time that the characters begin to accept their new circumstance and the strangers who keep phasing in and out of their lives. There’s a constant undercurrent in the series of longing to connect, and Sense8 is at its very best when it indulges that sentiment.
I wish I could say that this series is going to work for everybody, but I suspect that it’s going to enjoy a very devoted following from a very niche audience. Initial episodes can be tough going, but every episode contains at least one moment that justifies the investment. Like one of its mind-linked strangers, Sense8 takes some time to find out if you’re simpatico, but if you are it could be the start of something great.
