TV Review: Sense8 S01E01 — S01E04
The modest goal of the latest Netflix Original Sense8 (created by the impressive teaming of the Wachowski’s an J. Michael Straczynski) was to reinvent the television series. So if nothing else this show is shooting for the moon and while the landing isn’t smooth, but I think they at least made orbit.
The high concept of Sense8 isn’t radically different to other genre bending shows. Basically you’ve got a group of 8 individuals who are going about their lives when they are somehow gifted with the power to sense each other, talk to each other and utilize each other’s skills. There’s also an evil (I’m assuming) group lead by a sensate who are hunting down other sensates .
I’m four episodes in and that’s about all I can tell you regarding the metaplot for this 12 episode season. Which leads me to perhaps the biggest criticism of the show.
Sloooooow
The pacing of Sense8 is at times glacial. A lot of time is spent not just on people talking and getting on with their daily lives, but sometimes just walking or sitting or staring. There is a reason for this mind you, it’s not just being arty for the sake of it.
The story is trying to submerge you in the lives of these characters just as they find themselves gradually enmeshed in each others lives. And so we experience not only their confusion as they see an experience strange things, but also their relationships and their normal experiences too. Having watched four episodes I’d say that I think this approach is going to pay off, but it does make the early episodes a slog.
The producers are aware of the issue and sensibly front load the show with some scenes that not only feature the most familiar names in the series, but also that set up that meta-plot thus giving the viewers a feeling that there will eventually be a payoff. But after that it’s down to introducing the characters. And it’s such a large cast (8 central characters each with their own supporting cast) and it’s so disperse (each in a different location around the world) that the time it takes to establish all the people eats up most of two episodes.
Not TV, Not HBO
When I reviewed Daredevil I said that it was a show that was taking advantage of the fact it was free of a weekly release schedule. Sense8 pushes the limits of its freedom as hard as it can.
The episodes run 55 to 60 minutes in length and you have to make a minimum of a 2 hour commitment even to get an idea of where the show is going. Really it wasn’t until I’d finished episode 4 that I started to feel I had a good grip on what it was trying to do. That’s four hours of time, which even on a service that encourages binge watching is a pretty major commitment if you’re not sure about a show. My guess is that a lot of people will never get past episode one.
That’s a shame because pacing aside there’s a lot to like here. Not least of which is the incredibly diverse characters. We have multiple races, genders and sexualities on display here and the show makes a serious effort to avoid a US focus. I’m far from an expert on some of the cultures portrayed but they at least feel authentic.
The attitude towards sex is a bit less prurient than you generally see in HBO or Showtime shows too. The human body is certainly very present and a healthy variety of couplings are on display, but the portrayal is of another aspect of these people’s relationships rather than something titillating. Which is important, because Sense8 is all about relationships.
Relationship’s First, Action Second
The traditional network tv format (which has been stretched by cable, but never really broken) has regular bursts of action to keep the viewers attention. Sense8 can do action and there are some really strong scenes, like the one where kickboxer Sun Bak briefly inhabits the body of Nairobi van driver Capheus Van Damme and helps him to fight off his attackers, but action is clearly not the point of the show and it happens infrequently.
We spend far more time learning about Van Damme’s mother who has AIDs and his desperate attempts to get the drugs she needs. Or about the relationship between Nomi the trans-woman activist and her girlfriend Amanita (who I didn’t recognize as Freema Ageyman until episode 2) which is then contrasted the relationship with her estranged family and makes the scenes where she is essentially kidnapped so that she can be “fixed” far more emotionally powerful.
And thats why I think this show is worth the initial investment. Because the connections you as the viewer make with these characters by exploring their lives will pay of with a much stronger emotional reaction when the pivotal plot points occur.
Sense8 is using SF not as a metaphor for what is happening today, but instead using it to shine a spotlight on the characters who are already living in today’s world and let us see what they are really like.
The big question for me is how they are going to pull all of these separate stories together. It’s clear that they are going to somehow, but the individual plot lines are separated not only physically but tonally. I really hope they can pull it off.
