The Wachowskis films are visual delights, often airy and delicious as pastries and coffee. Nothing too substantial once the body is done with the sugar, that's not a jab either; the Wachowskis make pop-corn munchers with flair.
Bound, their thriller debut, The Matrix, and Cloud Atlas are their strongest directorial work, some argue V, and many argue CA is a bit hokey at times because the actors donned prosthetics and wigs, and played multiple characters, often switching genders or ethnicity. I liked that about CA, a touch of old school Hollywood, but at places it felt forced and lacked grace. I digress, regardless of their work, at heart of the Wachowskis is the power of transformation.
Together with Babylon 5 creator and writer, J Michael Stracynski, the Wachowskis deliver unto Netflix Sense8, a sci-fi drama that focuses on the heart, the emotional center of its characters.
Sense8, their new Netflix show (Tom Tykwer's fingerprints are all over Sense8 ...the co-collaborator for CA, and the director of some great German thrillers...notably Run Lola Run) concerns eight individuals born on 8/8/88 who have the ability to share their consciousness with each other. Born in clusters, the individuals telepathic and empathetic powers manifest in their 28th year. Guided by Jonas (Lost's Naveen Andrews--suave and cool), a "terrorist" who has made visually contact with two members of the cluster, the individuals begin to learn that they can share, not only one's experiences and feelings, but skill-sets and abilities. This makes for great fun when the characters are on the run from government bad-guys led by Whispers (Think Agent Smith with a Euro-accent, who BTW is also a sense8--though from a different cluster). Jonas claims Whispers wants to lobotomize the sense8s and use them for zombie-like shells that Whispers can control telepathically. Whispers isn't a threat unless he makes visual contact, thus chase scenes. Because once visual contact is made the sense8 can share and visit with another sense8, accessing knowledge, feelings, and emotions.
The government conspiracy chase sequences are great fun, but that's not what the series focuses upon. The series instead is a long character study, a soap opera, about the eight individuals trying not to go crazy as their inner life and inner world become invaded by other people's inner worlds. Through this plot device the Wachowskis and Straczynski explore gender, sexual, political, and socio-ethno identity. Set in Iceland, London, Korea, Kenya, Germany, India, Mexico City, and the United States the characters become immersed in each other's lives. There's sex, child-birth, humor, and of course gunplay, car chases, and martial arts.
Sense8 is provocative, like all great sci-fi. It's pretty, but the beauty is in our own diverse Earth not some far away galaxy.
It's not perfect. Sense8 could use some trimming.
It starts slow, but with so many "main" characters it must. Be patient and enjoy the scenery. It takes several episodes before the myth wheels start to chug. It's foreshadowed in the credits, which are
an homage to Koyaanisqatsi, and Baraka, non-linear non-narrative films.
There's a enough action in the beginning to keep fans coming back, but the series focus is on people, world culture, and emotional intimacy.
The characters are great, and so are the performances, anchored by Brian Smith's Will Gorksi (the cop, the hero, the leader), Ami Ameen's Capheus (the good natured and buoyant bus driver), Miguel Silvestre's Lito (the closeted action movie star) Jamie Clayton's Nomi (the MTF transgender hacktivist), Tuppence Middleton's Riley (the damaged DJ), Bae Doona's Sun (the bad-ass emotionally neglected martial arts expert), Max Reimelt's Wolfgang (a safe cracking gangster with a heart of gold), and Tina Desai's Kala (the hesitant bride to be). However, the performances would be so much better the drama could have been trimmed, or at least toned down. At times emotional scenes are drawn out like a big Hollywood action sequence. Examples: Kala's on again/off again wedding grew tiresome. Nomi, who survived her controlling family, almost going to jail, and transitioning... cries a little too much for someone who should be more bad-ass confident. Lito's break-up episode with Hernando featured about ten minutes too much of emotional torture. At times the audience is hammered with meaning and importance. Consider the birthing sequence. Riley is in Iceland watching her father perform with the symphony and re-experiences her birth. And of course, the sense8s all revisit their birth, and the birth leaves nothing to the imagination. Babies slipping out of vaginas, mothers crying, mothers dying, characters tearing up. Brave, yes, especially for sci-fi, but too much--almost to the point of self-parody.
Half-way through the formula for the plot becomes evident: the writers must concoct a conflict that involves crazy driving, hacking, martial arts, gunplay, deception, music, and chemistry/medicine for all of the sense8s to participate. Not that all of the sense8s have to participate in the action, but obviously how to get them all involved in the conflict can trump clearer, more direct storytelling. If Netflix green lights a second season, it will be very interesting to see how the myth evolves.
What Sense8 does right: gorgeous cinematography, bright colors, interesting LGBTQ characters, scene stealing anti-heroes, and a great sci-fi concept. Addiction, traditional faith based religion, the a fore-mentioned sexuality & gender identity, ethnocentric politics, poverty, and family are given equal staging in this provocative, science fiction soap opera.
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