Sense8

[mallorys_camera]

Finished watching Sense8. Series has its flaws, but those flaws are outnumbered by flashes of genuine brilliance and originality, and a kind of – for lack of a better term – archetypal resonance. Deeply, deeply informed by the Wachowskis’ work on Cloud Atlas. Cloud Atlas didn’t work as a movie – although I suspect if I saw it now, I’d like it better than I liked it then – but it would have made a killer 12-episode video-on-demand binge.

Sense8’s story is a hoary sci fi trope – strangers find themselves in sudden telepathic communication. Eight of them. Duh!

Except the Wachowskis do a very brilliant thing here. Instead of making telepathy a kind of internal radio station, voices in the back of their heads, the characters actually appear to one another when they’re “connected”, which gives rise to some startling visuals and an almost James Joyce-like layering of subtext. It’s pretty wild.

Off to Knickerbocker country today to hang out with Ichabod Crane’s ghost and play bowls with Rip Van Winkle.

Comments

[petrona.livejournal.com]

I'm on episode 5. I sloughed through 1. Perked up at 2. Loved 3. Looking forward to the rest now.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

It picks up in a b-i-i-i-i-i-g way in Episode 6. :-)

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

I have 2 episodes left and I'm loving it.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Yes, I loved it too, although it had a very slow start.