L8 to the Party: Why I Probably Won’t Be Watching Sense8 Season Two
It was phenomenal. Groundbreaking. The first season of Netflix’s Sense8 blew me away. The story, most of all, grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. Eight people, from different countries and different walks of life, experiencing a connection that defies science and logic. They can experience life through each others’ eyes, to the point of being able to take over each others’ bodies when the going gets tough and use their personal knowledge and skillsets to help each other out. Okay, so there were a few racy scenes–really racy scenes–but it was a solid, complex, plot-driven show.
Then I got around to watching the Christmas special. (Yeah, I know; I’m behind.)
Seriously? The show about this amazing connection between eight individuals has turned into The Orgy Hour, with snippets of actual plot thrown in to keep you watching. Except those snippets aren’t enough, and I’m just about done.
I can’t believe the minds of J. Michael Straczynski, Lana Wachowski, and Lilly Wachowski can’t come up with anything more than polyamorous sex to foster an audience. Did they use up all their plots in season one? All three creators are known for epic and thought-provoking movies and TV series. Why, oh why, did they sink to what has essentially become orgy porn?
Now, I consider myself to be a fairly open-minded individual. I didn’t care that there was a transgender lesbian character, or a gay actor, or any of that kind of thing in the show. With as diverse a group as the sensates (the name given to the people with this connection) was, of course there would be LGBT characters and themes. If you’re going to pluck people from all walks of life, you need to include all walks of life. The more I see of the Christmas special, though, the more it seems that the sex and sensationalism is the focus, not the characters. They have their own adventures, sure, and there’s still that connection, but it plays off as secondary to the sexual nature of the episode. Sex features more than Christmas in this so-called Christmas special. It isn’t until well more than an hour and a half in that Christmas even came around. Everything got all lovey-dovey and sappy, then sad things happen. By that time, though, I’d given up on the special. I was done.
Season two of Sense8 starts May 5, 2017, but I doubt I’ll be tuning in.