Sense8 2.1-2: The Mental, the Digital, and the Palpable

I caught the first two episodes - Christmas special - of Sense8, Season 2, on Netflix last night. Thoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking - just like the first season.

Among the best scenes, as in the first season, are the all-eight events, including in the two new episodes, a birthday celebration (all eight in the cluster have the same birthdate), a Christmas celebration, and an eight-person orgy.   All were moving - especially the Christmas celebration, topped off with a beautiful rendition of the recently late Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah".  Christmas scenes are difficult to do in an original way, but Sense8 did this quite memorably (that is, in an un-trite and emotionally powerful way).

The fight scenes were also good, as also in the first season.  These scenes, in which members of the cluster with martial arts skills take over the fight of someone else in the cluster who doesn't quite have them, are a fresh perspective to martial arts gambits and are always welcome to see.

The science in the story was furthered, too, with Jonas helpfully explaining that, for sense8s, memories are transmitted along with genetic material to offspring.   This gives sense8s a valuable cognitive connection to the past, in addition to members of their cluster.

The main threat remains Mr. Whispers, who now has an in with Bill.  Fortunately, Whispers, though despicably powerful, is not without some flaws, which Bill, aided by Riley and the others, may be able to exploit.  Riley and Will are now the most interesting couple in the group, because, as they both say as they physically hug each other, they're now able to hold in their arms what they previously had held only in the minds.

That, in effect, captures the essence of the series - the intersections of the mental (throw in digital, too) and the palpable physical, and I'm looking forward to more in May.

See also Sense8: Vibrant, Profound, Dangerous


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