Netflix Picks to Binge Watch Next: Netflix Original "Sense8" Review

Sometimes I come across something that makes me think, “Oh man, that was just....right on every level.” As a writer, I feel inferior in a way, a little jealous even. I could never create something so profound or so intense or so sad or so freaking sexy. Then I think, ya know what? That’s okay. I don’t have to create something like this. I can just sit back and enjoy it in all its perfection.

That’s how I felt as I binge-watched the entire season of Netflix’s Sense8 over the course of one night. I knew it was going to happen the second the pilot ended. The intelligent side of me told me to stop, to not watch that next episode because then I wouldn’t be able to turn away, but the inspired side won out. “Fuck it. Let’s do this.”

And so at nearly eight o’clock the following morning I finally closed my laptop and went to bed still feeling all the adrenaline and the hope, the sadness and the laughter, the happy moments that made me cry and the terrible moments that made me utterly afraid, and all the other emotions that a single human being can possibly dredge up from the depths of their psyche, all because of a series that isn’t afraid to explore any aspect of human nature.

Eight very different people from different corners of the world, all clustered into their appropriate classes of religion, gender, identity, orientation, and professional expectations. Their bonds start in snippets, little flashes of what someone else is seeing or experiencing. For instance, if two characters are looking in a mirror at the same time, they may see one another’s faces for a moment, or if both are having the same thought at the same time, they may find themselves suddenly standing in the other’s city watching events play out from the other person’s eyes. Naturally, this is confusing and terrifying at first, but over time their bonds with one another grow exponentially. Not only do they learn to accept each other as a family of sorts, but they also dive into each other’s worlds to help each other. That’s all without ever actually meeting one another in person. 

By having each of these vastly different, yet somehow similar individuals become familiar with each other through their emotions, actions, fears, failures, and accomplishments, it is almost as if the viewer gets to become a ninth sensate. We find ourselves crying when the characters share tears across the globe, laughing out loud and literally grinning like idiots when the characters are giddy, shouting words of encouragement at them when they’re fighting for each other's lives. Lord knows even I, an asexual, felt something a little unholy during the steamy moments that are impossibly shared among the members of the cluster. Episode 6, guys. Trust me, it will blow your mind.

The sun was out as I happily stamped Sense8 with that coveted five star rating, and dreamt that one day maybe I could create something as emotionally charged as this series. Lord knows it deserves my respect and my jealousy.