review of Sense8 Season 1 

Sense8 from 2015 the past few nights.  I started watching the December 2016 special, but seeing as how the first season is a remarkable narrative in itself, I thought I\'d review it now, and come back with a review of the 2nd season preview in a few days.

Remarkable - and welcome - Sense8 was.   Telepathic connections used to be a big theme in science fiction through the 1950s, but for some reason hasn\'t made much of an appearance in the past 50 years.   Sense8 does a great job of this, and presents a story that not only needed to be told on screen rather than page, but over 12 episodes rather than a few-hour movie.

The story - of eight people around the world, in their 20s, who suddenly discover they are telepathically connected, and then find that elements of the rest of humanity are hunting and trying to exterminate them - has roots in the late lamented Heroes.   But that series had many heroes with many different powers, and, given the limitations of traditional network television (NBC), we saw very little of the world on those screens.

Netflix has liberated all kinds of storytelling, and the world panorama it affords Sense8 provides a literally vivid and pulsating environment for the story, which takes place not only in the United States, but Iceland, India, Africa, South Korea, London, and Germany.  And not only do we get a vibrantly rainbow mix of nationalities and cultures in Sense8, but a portrayal of just about every mutually consenting sexual activity, presented with sensitivity, style, and humor.

The different talents of the eight sense8s become the basis of the action sequences, with each of the eight characters being available to contribute her or his talents - martial arts, medical knowledge, computer savvy, etc - via telepathic input when another is in danger or dire need.   These rescuing visitations, even though we come to expect them, remain surprising and satisfying through the ending.   And there\'s much more than fight scenes in Sense8 - one of the most memorable, indeed in all of television, is a scene in which one of the sense8s is singing, and the others are hearing and joining in in their own ways around the world.   To describe this almost seems corny; to see it is beautiful and breathtaking.

The deeper metaphysics or science fictional premises of the story are plausible and well handled well. We are correctly told, at a crucial point in the story, that just as only a fraction of our DNA separates humans from chimps, so a fraction could engender the difference between sense8s and the rest of us humans.

Sense8 is a creation of  J. Michael Straczynski and the Wachowskis (Lana and Lilly), and their best work in years.  Highly recommended for a different, bright and colorful and profound and dangerous, kind of science fiction.

Labels: Heroes, J. Michael Straczynski, Netflix, Sense8, television, Wachowskis

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Paul Levinson, PhD, is Professor of Communication & Media Studies at Fordham University in New York City.  His 8 nonfiction books, including The Soft Edge (1997), Digital McLuhan (1999), Realspace (2003),  Cellphone (2004), and New New Media (2009, 2nd edition 2012), have been the subject of major articles in the New York Times, Wired, the Christian Science Monitor, and have been translated into 12 languages. His science fiction novels include The Silk Code (1999, ebook 2012), Borrowed Tides (2001), TheConsciousness Plague (2002, 2013), The Pixel Eye (2003), The Plot To SaveSocrates (2006, ebook 2012), and Unburning Alexandria (2013).  His short stories have been nominated for Nebula, Hugo, Edgar, and Sturgeon Awards.  Paul Levinson appears on "The O'Reilly Factor" (Fox News), "The CBS Evening News,"  “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” (PBS),  “Nightline” (ABC), NPR, and numerous national and international TV and radio programs. His 1972 album, Twice Upon a Rhyme, was re-issued in 2009 (CD) and 2010 (remastered vinyl). He reviews the best of television in his InfiniteRegress.tv blog, and was listed in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Top 10 Academic Twitterers” in 2009.

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Dear Paul, I just dreamed of airships flying between raindrops. I just returned from 2042 CE, where I sold my hardcover copy of The Plot to Save Socrates for seventy million Neo-Euros, because it had your response to this e-mail from way back in 2007 scotch-taped onto the inside of the cover. A Paul Levinson collector paid top Neo-Euro, because of the authentic archaic e-mail printout from you. It turns out that not many of your e-mails from before your tenure as CEO of HBO/Cinemax and terms as United Nations Secretary General will survive that far into the future. So, please respond to this e-mail, to help found my great-grandchildren\'s fortune. My Will will stipulate that they must share with your great grandchidren. Thanks! Tom

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