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Sense8

Understanding why these 8 individuals across the globe are linked, is the first challenge from The Wachowskis.

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The idea of a television series from The Wachowskis (The Matrix, Bound, V or Vendetta, Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas) is cause for much anticipation.

After a string of profile cinematic releases, their first small screen venture is Sense8, co-created with J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5) for Netflix.

Sense8 is a rather urban sci-fi that takes place in a number of cities across the globe including Chicago, San Francisco, London, Berlin, Seoul, Nairobi and Mumbai (Australia misses out, alas!). The perplexing premise centres around 8 individuals who find themselves linked inextricably with visions and assorted apparitions.

In a dishevelled church Angel (Daryl Hannah) is clinging to life, whilst talking to positive and negative life forces ahead of a tragic outcome. But it won’t be the last we see of this ‘mother’ when she appears to other ensemble characters scattered across the globe.

Sense8 has much to set up in its first episode, with disparate characters seemingly unrelated. Just as Tim Kring’s Heroes created clusters of characters on an international landscape, so too does Sense8, but devoid of superheroes.

There’s the Chicago cop (Brian J. Smith), the Spanish actor (Miguel Ángel Silvestre), the Berlin safecracker (Max Riemelt) and the San Franciscan transgender (Jamie Clayton) in a relationship with a woman played by Freema Agyeman.

In Mumbai a young woman (Tina Desai) prays to Ganesh about a marriage to a man she does not love. In Nairobi a bus driver (Aml Ameen) worries he isn’t making enough money.

The structure of the first episode is an overload trying to work out how this ensemble is related, though there are nice links involving anything from visions to sound to a prop that ‘jumps’ from one scenario to another (cue the chicken). Headaches and migraines seem to be common amongst these individuals, who are yet to grasp the unreality of their unique skills.

“People see their birth their death and they tell the truth,” we learn. Deep.

Daryl Hannah’s Angel, resplendent in yellow, also manages to appear from Nairobi to Chicago adding to the mystery of this tale. Her positive and negative life-forces, played by Naveen Andrews and Terence Mann, will also return in a tug of war that suggests souls or something akin are at stake here.

The series uses driving music and hand-held cameras to create its indie-feel.

But trying to make sense of it all is frustrating, and there is risk of emerging from it all with no sympathy for key characters. What’s a hospital that tries to turn away an injured child got to do with a girl singing on a TV talent show or the man pissing on the grave of his father (the latter already done by House of Cards last season, anyway)? This is where The Wachowskis are smarter than you, mere viewer, or perhaps just selective in their storytelling.

Sense8 is certainly ambitious with its array of locations and the sum of the parts may yet hold a promising, shadowy conspiracy. At the moment its labyrinthine entry is an assault on the senses.

Sense8 premieres Friday on Netflix.

7 Responses

  1. I don’t know why but this website always logs me off even when I tick the automatic login box. I’m using Firefox on a Macbook Pro 2010. Gets kinda frustrating when I want to comment on articles and share my opinion with others. Maybe it’s a problem with my cookies.

    Anyway. This looks like an interesting enough premise but I probably won’t be watching. I’ve found Netflix originals very hit and miss. Daredevil was fantastic and House of Cards season one and two were good, but season 3 was awful and between this and Between there seems to be a fair amount of duds. Good review David.

    Ill also add, the Wachowski brothers were also behind the abomination that was Jupiter Ascending. One of the worst films I’ve ever seen and a massive flop.

  2. I’m gonna check out the first ep, I loved heroes and brian j smith in stargate universe, so sounds good just hope it’s not too dark which going by the trailer it will be, why can’t it be like daredevil eg dark but not twisted and not glorifying it

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