It’s hard to know what to make of Sense8 – and I think that’s the point. Netflix’s latest offering comes courtesy of the Wachowski siblings and J. Michael Straczynski (Thor), and as such it’s appropriately loony. I won’t lie, though, I approach this with some degree of caution; the Wachowskis’ star has fallen since the Matrix trilogy, the latter two of which are rightfully derided (although Reloaded has a hall of fame car chase, and you could probably cut the second two movies into one badass 120 minute sequel). Then there was Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas, and Jupiter Ascending, none of which set the world on fire. But it seems as though they haven’t quite lost their touch: Sense8 has a hell of a premise, and “Limbic Resonance” is intriguing enough that I want to know more.
Sense8 is still playing things pretty close to the vest. The first episode is largely about character introduction, which is important when you have eight main characters; it also means that some of those characters are going to get short shrift. The ambition of Sense8 will be its downfall, if anything will be. I like the world that the show is establishing (even if it is a tad reminiscent of the first season of Heroes). Ambiguity is what will save the show, and keep viewers like me coming back.
The cold open is appropriately WTF: in a warehouse somewhere, Angelica (subtle) wrestles with thoughts of suicide; her savior is Jonas (Lost‘s Naveen Andrews) and her devil is a mysterious man with a close-cropped beard. She kills herself, but not before doing…something. Look, I don’t know yet, okay? Either way, eight people across the globe all have visions of her, and from then on their lives are linked. Like I said, it’s a hell of a premise, and affords the series plenty of time to change locations (while also ensuring the occasional bout of narrative whiplash).
The people who saw her are Will, a cop in Chicago; Nomi, a transgendered woman living in San Francisco; Sun, a businesswoman in Seoul; Riley, a DJ in London; Capheus, a bus driver in Nairobi; Lito, an actor in Mexico City; Wolfgang, a criminal in Berlin; and Kala, a pharmacist in Mumbai. As you can probably guess, it’s impossible to establish all of these characters in an hour, even with commercial breaks. “Limbic Resonance” focuses most heavily on Riley and Will, who cross paths in an interesting way.
That’s what Sense8 does best – show how these characters’ lives intersect. Capheus is given a chicken as payment; seconds later Sun sees it on her desk. At a small party, Riley hears not only the sirens from Will’s police car, but the click of tumblers in the lock of a safe that Wolfgang is attempting to crack. Sense8 not only sounds great, it looks great too; the Wachowskis, who directed this episode, have lost none of their visual panache.
It’s hard to recommend the show unreservedly though, mostly because, like I said earlier, I have no idea what’s going on. And that’s okay; we need to meet the characters before we can be expected to give a shit what’s going on. But one wonders if the Wachowskis and Straczynski haven’t bitten off more than they can chew. Eight main characters is a tall order; even Game of Thrones, five seasons in, struggles with its character load. But the premise is there. The cast, from what I’ve seen, is game and capable. Sense8 could be amazing television – or a flat-out disaster. There doesn’t seem to be much room for middle ground.
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