Sense8 Episode 1: Limbic Resonance

I’ll level with you guys, I am not looking forward to writing the next Deep Space Nine article. After so many articles, I’m a little Star Trekked out, and since the next episode on the countdown promises to be a long one with a lot of detailed material to be covered, I need a buffer. So, I figure, what better time than now to get a jump-start on a new project I’ve been meaning to work on. My friends, welcome to the first part of our ongoing look at the recent Netflix series, Sense8.

So, what is Sense8 exactly? Well, the basic idea is that of eight individuals, all from different walks of life and parts of the world, suddenly gaining the ability to telepathically experience one another’s lives. But before we get into the show itself, let’s take a moment to discuss the three individuals who made this series possible, the first two being the Wachowskis. Now, I want to go on record as saying that I have a great deal of respect for Lana and Lily Wachowski, both as filmmakers and as icons in the LGBT community, but I’ll be the first to say that their names on a project is not a guaranteed stamp of Quality. On one hand, V for Vendetta, despite deviating greatly from the source material was an enjoyable action film and The Matrix could be considered one of the definitive science fiction works of the modern era. On the other hand, Speed Racer was a seizure inducing mess and I’m convinced that the only reason the Wachowskis made Jupiter Ascending was because they lost a bet. That having been said, for better or for worse, if there’s one quality that the Wachowskis have in abundance, it’s creativity. However, creativity without a skilled writer to point it in the write direction can result in something like the aforementioned Jupiter ascending, so in order for this idea to work, such a writer was required. Enter J. Michael Straczynski, known simply to his fans as JMS, creator of TV’s Babylon 5 and long time writer for both Marvel and DC comics, including a run on Amazing Spider-Man that includes my single favorite comic book issue of all time. As a writer, JMS is not only one of the personal roles models of yours truly, but he is also a man who is really good at making his characters feel alive, like real people you’d actually meet as opposed to unrealistic fictional constructs. With the skillful writing of JMS and the boundless creativity of the Wachowskis, Sense8 looks to be in good hands, and what resulted quickly became one of my new favorite shows. Our introductory episode begins with a woman alone in what appears to be an abandoned church. She’s clearly in pain, but the audience isn’t sure why. She’s soon visited by a man named Jonas, played by the always incredible and charismatic Naveen Andrews. Jonas tells the woman, clearly his lover, that “only you can give them a fighting chance” as the woman continues to writhe in pain, she suddenly sits up and says “I see them.” It is in this moment that we are introduced to our main characters, but not enough is shown to really get a sense of who they are yet. Just enough to know that these people are connected in a way we do not yet understand. All that they seem to have in common for now is that they all seem to be able to see this mysterious woman, regardless of where they happen to be. We see a man reaching for a gun as he enters a church, a young woman on a roof lighting up a cigarette, an Asian woman practicing martial arts, a shirtless man dancing in a nightclub, a police car slowing down to get a closer look at something, a woman working in what appears to be a chemistry lab, a bus driver in Kenya, and finally, a woman about to get in the tub with her girlfriend. The scene is quick, but really nice and leads the audience to ask all the right questions, namely, what’s going on and who are these eight people.

Exhausted, the woman, who we later learn is named Angelica, collapses in Jonas’s arms, making him promise to protect them. They’re soon joined by a white haired man that Jonas is unable to see. The mysterious man tries to get in Angelica’s head, particularly so he can find the others she just “gave birth to” as he puts it. What’s interesting s the fact that every now and then, it shows that Angelica is actually alone in that church, meaning the others are only in her head. Angelica goes for a gun with the intent to take her own life, but the man taunts her, believing it to be an empty threat. However, Angelica, in one final act of defiance, goes through with it, much to the man’s irritation.

We open properly with Will, a Chicago cop, having a nightmare in which he finds Angelica’s body. Will’s rudely awakened by his neighbor’s loud music, but is shocked to find that there’s no one living in the apartment next door.

The music is actually coming from a performance center in London where Riley, an Icelandic DJ is performing her set. Her friends inquire about the vision she claims to have had, but riley dismisses it as a hallucination due to the drugs she’s taken.

Meanwhile, in a church in Mexico, a man armed with a gun has entered with intent to murder the priest, despite the protests of the nun who has apparently fallen in love with him. However, when the gunman tells the Padre that he’s come to “blow his f*cking brains out” the priest acts confused and asks if we’re going off script, prompting the director to yell cut. The “gunman” is Lito, a famous actor in Mexico known for playing the type of roles you'd usually see filled by someone like Antonio Banderas. When the director chews him out for flubbing the line, Lito says he’s not feeling himself. The director tells him, that he doesn’t need him to be himself, he needs him to be his character. This line actually carries a lot of weight for Lito’s character as we’ll later see, but we’ll get into that later in the series.

In Korea, we meet Sun, a business woman who clearly does her best, but is resentful of her brother who treats her like little more than a secretary.

In India, we meet Kala, a scientist. Kala is looking for an umbrella, despite her father’s protests that the sun is shining. However, the conversation soon turns to the subject of her upcoming marriage, which both of them appear to have mixed feeling about.

The rain Kala was feeling most likely came from Germany, where the next member of our group, Wolfgang, is disinterestedly attending his grandfather's funeral. However, during the procession, Wolfgang is hassled by some shady characters, revealing that Wolfgang is involved in some criminal activity.

In Nairobi, we meet my favorite character, Capheus, who is presently caring for dying mother. Capheus drives a Matutu, or privately owned mini-bus, that’s been painted in tribute to his idol, Jean-Claude Van Damme. That’s right, much like myself, Capheus is a huge Van Damme geek and the lessons he’s learned from Jean-Claude’s movies have helped to shape who he is as a person.

In San Francisco we meet my other favorite character, Nomi, a transgendered blogger and ex-hacker currently making love to her girlfriend, Amanita, or Neets for short. Neets is played by Freema Agyeman, whom the Doctor Who fans amongst my readers will recognize as Martha Jones. Freema is a welcome addition to the cast, though I will say, her American accent needs work. It’s not bad, but it’s not great either. I would compare it to wearing a skin-tight leotard, kitty ears and face paint to a Halloween party. It’s fine for what you need it for, but you’re not going to convince anyone that you’re actually a cat. Still, Freema Agyeman's a fine actress and I'm glad she's here. Anywho, the two kiss and start making their plans to attend pride later that day.

Back in Mexico with Lito, he’s wondering where the “Blow you’re f*cking brains out” line came from. If I may just take a moment to praise the performance here, I absolutely love Lito’s acting warm ups. They remind me a lot of the opening scenes of Anchorman in which Ron Burgundy preparing his voice to read the news, and the actor has the comedic chops to make something like that work. At one point, he even looks to be practicing a make out scene by dry humping a wall, hilarious. He’s visited by his co-star, Daniela who wants to make sure he’s okay but really just wants to flirt with him. Lito gets rid of her by revealing that his heart belongs to another.

Back with Wolfgang, many are offering condolences on the death of his grandfather and his Uncle encourages him to visit his father’s grave while they're here in the cemetery. Wolfgang does visit his father’s grave, but only because he really needs to take a piss. To say Wolfgang and his father had issues is a bit like saying The Incredible Hulk is somewhat irritable.

In Nairobi, we learn that Capheus’s Matutu business is struggling to stay afloat and is losing customers to a Matutu painted to resemble Batman. Capheus and his best friend take a moment to express their mutual love of Jean Claude Van Damme to help keep their spirits up, but it’s not easy when they only have three customers and one of them tried to pay them with a live chicken.

In Korea, Sun is momentarily terrified and confused as to why there is a live chicken on her desk, but it soon disappears and she gets back to work.

Back in London with Riley, she’s once again hallucinating images of Angelica, and while her friends try to calm her down, she soon finds herself in San Francisco right in the middle of pride.

She’s experiencing this through Nomi, who is reminiscing about her first pride with Amanita. Apparently, one of Amanita’s friends started attacking Nomi for her political views, misgendering her in the process, and Neets responds by offering her a sandwich of the knuckled variety. Nomi bursts into tears, but not because of what the girl said, bit because no one’s ever defended her before. It was this moment when she knew that Neets was the love of her life.

Back in India, Kala goes to the temple of Ganesha to ask for guidance. I actually really like the way Kala talks to Ganesha. It’s less like she’s praying, and more like she’s asking a friend for a favor. I can’t put my finger on why I like that, but I do. Anywho, Kala spells out her worries over her upcoming arranged marriage, which happens to be to the son of the owner of the pharmaceutical company that she works for. She has nothing against the guy and thinks he’d make a fine husband, but she does not love him.

In Chicago, Will and tells his partner, Diego about his dream as they go out on patrol. His partner thinks it was just a dream, but will isn’t so sure.

In Germany, Wolfgang and his best friend Felix are in the middle of a heist and tension is high, especially when he starts hearing the siren on Will’s police car after he and Diego received a 911 call.

In her apartment, Riley is also able to hear the Sirens, and the scene quickly transitions back to Will, currently in pursuit of a gangbanger. He finds a little kid who’s been shot and while the kid doesn’t trust the cops, he doesn’t want to die and begs for their help. Diego thinks Will is crazy for helping a gangbanger, little kid or no little kid, but Will doesn’t listen.

In the middle of the heist, Wolfgang suddenly decides to take a break and watch some Germany’s got Talent, much to his partner’s irritation. I like Wolfgang, but it’s usually this sort of thing that lands you a spot on one of those internet shows that make fun of the dumbest news stories of the week. However, this is primarily to prompt a flashback of him being to afraid to sing in a school concert, causing his father to laugh at him. However, despite Wolfgang’s cavalier attitude, the heist is successful, despite having to evade some thugs on their way out, the same thugs who were at the funeral mind you.

Back with Will, he’s keeping the kid awake by telling his backstory. Turns out when he was a kid, he used to be a bit of a delinquent, annoying his cop father to no end. Will brings the kid into the hospital, but they refuse to take him, claiming that a criminal like him isn’t worth treating. However, will pleads with nurse, and the kid is brought into surgery in time to save his life.

Back with Riley, she and her friends are doing drugs together, but Riley is clearly uncomfortable, especially when one of them starts making unwanted advances towards her. Riley finally takes a hit off the crack pipe, and blacks out, finding herself in Chicago experiencing things through Will. Will himself catches a brief glimpse of Riley’s reflection in his window. She also gets a vision of when she was a little girl in Iceland hearing a mysterious voice in a seaside cave. Back with Will, he and Diego drive by the church where Angelica killed herself, and Will in overcome with a need to explore the place. He shows his partner that he knows things about the place that he shouldn’t, freaking his partner out to no end. However, since there’s no evidence of a crime or a suicide, Diego leaves. But Will’s not alone for long as he soon spots Riley in the Church as well. Will wants to know where Riley came from and how she too seems to know about Angelica, but Riley is just as confused as he is, especially when she learns that she’s now magically in America. However, the meetup soon turns violent, as in London, Riley’s friend is being robbed at gunpoint causing her to break her link with Will. Riley tries to run, but the thieves (also her friends) intimidate her into becoming part of the robbery. However, after a brief gunfight, all the men in the apartment are dead leaving Riley with all the money and ending the episode.

The first episode of Sense8 has a lot going for it. While we’re still not quite sure as to the extent of what’s going on, but that will come soon enough. For now, we’re given a great intro to our main characters. While Riley, Will and Wolfgang get a couple more scenes than the others, each character gets enough scenes for the audience to get a feel for who they are as characters. Sun sadly gets the short end of the stick in that regard, but there’s only so much that you can cram into a single hour and with eight lead characters, each with their own distinct stories, stuff like that is bound to happen. Their telepathic abilities are hinted at, but they have yet to be fully realized. All together, a phenomenal first outing for the show.