In Africa, a son struggles to find the medicine to keep his mother alive. In Chicago, a cop rushes to save a young boy’s life. In San Francisco, a lesbian couple brace for a life-altering brain surgery. And at some unknown time, a woman commits suicide in some god-forsaken drug den. What do they all have in common? They all – or rather, some of them for now – see the image of the same dead woman in white. They are the “Sensates” who see into all of each other’s lives. The makers of The Matrix seem to think that eight heads are better than one and in Netflix’s Sense8, they could be.
The haunted, confusing brain-child of Babylon 5‘s Michael J. Straczynski and the Wachowski brothers, it’s hard to describe Sense8 in any way that makes, well, SENSE – at least, at a glance. The conglomeration of eight characters all living eight very different lives across the globe, Sense8 is seemingly about the fantastic amidst the mundanity of the human experience. From Africa to Asia to America, the series’ character snapshots seem to tell us we’re all looking for something or someone. If it all seems that heady, it’s probably meant to be – and somehow, it’s simply fascinating.
There’s Riley, an Icelandic drug-lovin’ DJ chill’in in London; Will, a beat cop working the mean streets of Chicago; there’s Sun, a Korean banker (I think) who works in Seoul and some sort of martial arts fighter; a young Kenyan man named Capheus who drives a Jean Claude Van Damme-themed bus; and Wolfgang, a ridiculously good German safecracker. Then there’s Nomi, a transgender lesbian living in San Francisco and ex-hacker; Lito, a closeted gay action-star in Mexico; and Kala, an Indian pharmacist betrothed to her boss. And finally, there’s our illusive woman in white, played by a very sad Daryl Hannah and whatever creep Naveen Andrews (or Lost‘s Sayid to most of you) is supposed to be.
That’s about all the first three episodes encompass really, all of them alluding to much more. What that is I’m not really sure yet, but what I am sure of is that I really like…whatever this is series is.
For the duration of its pilot and following episodes, watching Sense8 feels more like a watching eight pilots all neatly sewn into the same narrative fabric picture of eight people living their lives in search of something more. For a story that begins with the sickening sound of a gunshot, Sense8′s surprisingly willing to lay down its starting pistol and getting to know the people it’s inevitably sending into hell. It’s all like reading eight of your friends’ diaries – shocking, tantalizing, and revealing.
That’s exactly what the vast majority of these first three episodes pull off in laying the basic groundwork for ethereal forces behind these eight characters as much as each of their own choices. These people can somehow swap minds – more or less – is the only thing we know in the first few moments of Limbic Resonance and just some of I am Also a We maybe that’s the only thing we need to know, at least for now. In spite of the potential of Sense8‘s powerful premise as this first season progresses, Sense8 is just as entertaining if not more so when it’s not being a sci-fi show. Whether it’s Capheus and his “Damme” van or Sun kicking some literal ass, the show’s cast is a joy to watch doing what they do, like the wistful poignancy of Boyhood meeting the philosophical sensibilities of Cloud Atlas.
It’s not hard to flashback to the cryptic pseudo-science of The Matrix either where Sense8‘s concerned. You have your Not-Morpheus talking in riddles and the “we’re all connected” message all thrown into a “wake up and smell reality” conspiracy more refreshingly understated than is typical of the genre. The show makers are all-too aware of the 12-episode sketchbook they have to doodle on and Sense8‘s keen on taking full advantage of the format it’s been given. In the vein of all things Straczynski/Wachowski, the series plays coy at leaving the viewer to overturn every stone for themselves and for better or worse, Sense8‘s a series made for binge-watchers. Its loose story-structure each episode feel more fragmented than the last, but nonetheless entrancing for the eagle-eyed viewers (What’s the deal with these number 8’s?). It’s enough that we get the ideas and fill in the “why” later.
It’s not often that you see a Mexican soap-opera and a Bollywood dance number sharing a bed with a cop-drama all interwoven around a sci-fi subplot and it speaks to the show’s bigger vision. Some of the characters here inevitably fall into clichés – Will and Wolfgang are mostly just “the dudes” and Kala’s the blushing bride-to-be caught in the ‘ole “will they or won’t they?” storyline. Yet Sense8‘s of the mindset that there’s room for everyone at the table, including a few more atypical ones for TV. My favorite characters have to include the always adorable Nomi and her partner, Amanita, along with Capheus, whose fight against a street gang more than earns him the title of the new “muscles from Brussels.” Go in with an open mind and you’ll find a lot here to like – Nomi’s speech especially. There are no red pills or virtual AI (that we know of…) and all the lives here are valid.
It’s rather stunning just how much Sense8 manages to stuff in its suitcase of narrative goodies and jump on top of it just to keep it all in. At times characters can’t help but fall by the wayside of plot devices – Sun’s martial arts unwittingly bail out Capheus at exactly the right moment in The Smart Money is on the Skinny B*tch (it really is) and Nomi’s hacking skills just scream “useful for later episodes.” Nevertheless, few of the cast ever seem to be compromised for the sake of anyone else, though I wonder what Riley’s skill will be besides making some sic beats – wait, that’s totally cool already.
Of course, we’re already guaranteed that some progress is cut short. The Wachowskis have already said our characters won’t meet face to face until a hopeful season two, but man, the prospects for group sex is crazy, as are any root canals. Ouch.
A sexy, entrancing mess, Sense8‘s one of the strangest Netflix originals to come out in recent years that I can’t stop watching and one I don’t want to stop piecing together. A stellar cast and an intriguing premise are more than engaging enough to navigate the maze of exposition Michael J. Straczynski and the Wachowski Brothers have built here. After only three episodes, I’m more than invested in these characters and want to see where they go next. Sense8 feels like The Matrix and Cloud Atlas that could only be made for Netflix and wherever it goes, I’m betting on its payoff being a sight to see for better or worse.