Sensory Overload: A Review of Sense8 episodes 1-3

Sense8

Created, written and directed by The Wachowskis and JM Straczynski

Netflix

When The Matrix came out back in 1999, The Wachowskis were rightly hailed as sci fi visionaries. However, its two follow-ups Reloaded and Revolutions were increasingly indulgent, bloated and poorly executed. Since then, we’ve had a series of projects filled with ideas but ideas that the pair haven’t known how to turn from high concept to workable entertainment. Jupiter Ascending, their last film, was like Star Wars directed by Liberace and so expectations for Sense8, a Netflix TV series that they’ve co-created with J Michael Straczynski, weren’t exactly high. Sense8 deals with eight people scattered around the world, who have been ‘rebirthed’ by Angel (Daryl Hannah) and are now connected by a common lineage. However, all of them are in danger from someone who sees them as a threat. There is a major problem with Sense8: the idea here is an intriguing one but it collapses under the weight of its own ambition. It also suffers from the same New Age, ravey bullshit that made the second and third Matrix films so problematic. Three episodes in and viewers are mostly none the wiser about what is actually going on. In their attempt to reflect the whole world (we have a character in San Francisco, one in London, another in Spain, one in Chicago and so on), they have created a scenario that is just too ambitious to work creatively. There are some nice visual moments: the kickboxing match in South Korea with Sung Bak (Doona Bae) looks amazing and the Bollywood dance routine in episode two is well-orchestrated. But as with seemingly all of their work, there’s just too much going on. Not even the contribution of JMS as its co-creator seems to be able to help them rein their more extravagant sensibilities in. It is possible that it may find its feet as a series and get some much-needed focus as it progresses but many of its viewers would have switched off by this point. If a series can’t really hone in on what it’s about by its third episode, then creatively it is very flawed indeed.

Netflix