After 18 long months of waiting, I got a Sense8 teaser for Christmas!
I love love loved Sense8 Season 1, which I first watched in June of 2015 and subsequently watched several more times (each time coming through with a better/deeper understanding of what I was watching). The show was renewed 2 months later, but Season 2 won’t be available until June of 2017. OH, the waiting! The waiting!
The Christmas special was a surprise move. Given how Season 1 ended — and I won’t say in case you haven’t watched — I felt like Season 2 would need to get off the ground running and I couldn’t imagine how a bonus in-between episode would work. It’s not like Doctor Who, which is very episodic even if it does have season arc. The 12 episodes of season 1 were just the epitome of what binge watching allows TV to do that it could never do before — show a 12-hour movie piecemeal. 🙂
And truth be told, I was not at all wowed by the Christmas special. To the extent that I enjoyed it at all, it was a nostalgic revisit to the world and characters I had grown to love. The cinematography remained impressive, the work that went into creating scenes and situations that swept the globe was still evident and fantastic, but at this point I’m familiar with it. I’ve seen it before. So I needed more.
The big challenge in watching this episode was the treatment of the characters I had grown to love and who, by the end of season 1, had learned who and what they were and had accepted one another’s presence in their lives. After coming together in a big way at the end of season 1, I expected season 2 to begin right away with the threat hovering above all of them. And maybe it will. I really, really hope it will. But this Christmas special showed 8 people mostly getting on with their own individual lives. One even said that she was letting Will worry about the BBG (big bad guy) in a “not my problem” sort of way. That bugged me a lot.
So if everyone but Will (who has no choice) is ignoring the big bad, what are they doing? Why, moving on with their individual lives and pushing forward the threads of their separate stories. Or at least poking them forward. Sun has some trouble in prison. Capheus (played by a new actor — they had some fun with that) is fixing up his Van Damme. Nomi is still in hiding and ducking the FBI. Kala goes through with her marriage and struggles with sex (there being a well hung German in her head). Wolfgang’s actions destabilized Berlin and he had to deal with the consequences. The pictures of Lito did go public and he struggled with the public outcry. Will and Riley are hiding together.
The passage of time was difficult to follow. The high points took place on their birthday, which is August 8. Then tings just sort of slid through Thanksgiving to Christmas and the New Year.
The special did establish a new normal for the Sense8. There was a lot of sentimentalism in their acceptance of one another, and they openly considered themselves family more than once. They enjoyed celebrating high moments such as birthdays and holidays together, making those panoramic scenes a bit sappy but we understand the tone — they’re a true Sense8 now.
A couple of key moments did require the group to work together to save one of their own. It was nice to see that happening fluidly now.
But ultimately, this was exposition — not story. “Here’s what’s been happening while you were away.”
I still have every hope that season 2 will be awesome, and with the exposition out of the way, I have high expectations that early episodes in the season will take off running. There is room for this show to disappoint me or impress me yet. 🙂