Sense8 Review: What’s Going On (Season 1 Episode 4)

Another week, another fantastic episode of Sense8!

Now that we’re a third of the way through the season, I think I can make some preliminary judgments on the series without getting reamed with shouts of “give it time!” or “just wait and see!”

As far as thematic resonance and character driven story goes, Sense8 walks away with top marks! In just four episodes, we’ve established a deeply rooted understanding of almost every character – Riley might be the exception, but I feel like her journey is about to turn a corner – as well as the story as a whole.

Each episode is engaging on a different level, and each week we tackle a new conversation about what it really means to be human.

More importantly, every character is sympathetic and likable, while still creating enough conflict to be interesting. There is not one member of the cluster whose plot makes me groan in annoyance when the story turns towards them. That’s impressive.

On the other hand, there is a serious lack of direction and purpose going on in Sense8.

We know there is a creepy government organization out to get our precious sensates, but why? To what end? We haven’t seen a single glance of these villains since the pilot.

And then there’s the hazy mythology. How are sensates created? Or are they born? Or both? We know Angelica was this cluster’s “mother” but we’ve seen flashbacks of Will developing the ability in childhood. What the hell was that all about?

It seems like this show plans to keep most of the story’s key ingredients on a need-to-know basis until a twist worthy moment presents itself. That’s fine, but it comes with a price; the character-building outstrips the world-building, which is not a great way to establish a science fiction universe.

World-building is important when you’re bending the rules of everyday life.

At least this week, we get some clarification on sensate powers from Jonas.

Jonas: Angel called it ‘visiting.’ Members of a cluster do it instinctively and others, like us, outside the cluster, can visit if they’ve made visual contact, eye-to-eye.

Jonas seems to be the walking mouthpiece for sensate mythology, which is both appreciated and annoying. Exposition is a painful reality of storytelling, but when it’s spoon fed to you straight from the lips of one of your characters? Even more so.

I have faith that once our characters understand their abilities more, the exposition will tone itself down, but for now, we’ve got to suffer through Jonas’ wordy explanations. We should definitely write this stuff down though because it will without a doubt play an important part in later sensate development. Visiting, sharing, eye-contact, cluster… got it!

On a more positive note, Nomi is finally free!

It’s still not clear why the hospital kept her captive or what they really intended to do to her with that surgery, but she’s safe with Amanita now, which is a plus.

The best scene of the night has to go to the spontaneous rendition of “What’s Up” by our eight sensates.

It was a beautiful unification of all eight personalities under the banner of one song. Riley’s hopeless despair, Capheus’ never ending optimism, Will’s quiet determination, Nomi’s terrified confusion; they all fit together as eight different people hum the lyrics to the same song.

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Sense8 is currently available for streaming on Netflix.