Sense8: Death Doesn't Let You Say Goodbye

"It's fake. Like everything in my life."

A lot happened in the closing minutes of the last episode and the fallout from those fateful events are felt in mostly quiet moments between the Sensates in this episode.

Sense8: We Will All Be Judged by the Courage of Our Hearts

Nomi: “Cop guy, where are you? Someone help me.”

Things seem to be ramping up, especially on the conspiracy side of things. With Whispers actively hunting down Nomi after her fateful encounter with Dr. Metzger.

Sense8: WWN Double-D?

"Hey, look, if you guys are startin' some crimefightin' super-team Charlie's Angels shit, you count me in."

This was primarily a Nomi/Amanita episode with everyone else secondary, although everyone had something major happen.

Sense8: Demons

Episodes five and six feel like one story. While five was about connection and choice, episode six is about the repercussions of those choices.

Sense8: Art is Like Religion

“Impossibility is a kiss away from reality.”

While the last episode dealt with reveals and some answers, this episode went right back to questions as each member of the cluster started to realize their little hallucinations are a lot more complicated.

Sense8: What’s Going On?

“So I cry sometimes when I'm lying in bed. Just to get it all out, what's in my head. And I, I am feeling a little peculiar.”

Every so often an episode of a new series defines that show. Sometimes it is a character, sometimes it is a scene or a phrase of dialogue. Here it is all three, plus a perfectly chosen song that captures a moment and brings together our eight protagonists in a way that feels revelatory.

Sense8: Smart Money’s on the Skinny Bitch

(Samantha is filling in our missing Sense8 season one reviews. Thank you so much, Samantha!)

“We are the Superpower, we take the f**k we want!”

This episode is the first time we get a real peek at the show’s central conceit and core idea, and it is also a turning point in understanding what the hell is going on, even though nothing is really explained.

Sense8: Amor Vincit Omnia

“For all the differences between us and all the forces that try to divide us, they will never exceed the power of love to unite us.”

“Amor Vincit Omnia” had the impossible task of bringing Sense8 to a satisfying conclusion after the show’s abrupt cancellation last year. Did it do its job? Yes. While it was overstuffed, with lots of world building and mythology crammed into two and a half hours, the finale did right by the characters, wrapped the story with triumph and love, and honored the fans.

Sense8: I Am Also a We

"I'm losing my mind."
"No, it's just expanding."

Whoever said it takes Sense8 four episodes to become good was wrong. And that was me, two years ago.

Sense8: Limbic Resonance

"You're so beautiful. I don't just mean in a physical way. The warmth pouring out of your heart, even though you work hard to hide it."

When the first trailer for Sense8 came out, I was hooked. The premise was so original and interesting, the show a creation of the Wachowski siblings and  J. Michael Straczynski (how can you go wrong with that trio?) and the trailer looked great. All things considered, though, the first episode failed to impress me. But was "Limbic Resonance" a lesser series premiere or was my enjoyment of it hampered by misleading expectations?

Lamounier's 2017 In Review

Hello, Doux readers!

2017 was another year with many great TV shows and not enough time to watch them. Will the number keep growing endlessly? It's hard to keep up with all that's new (and all that's ongoing or classic, and also great), but I'm glad with the shows I ended up watching. Let's talk a little bit about them now, shall we?

Sense8 Season Two

“Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others.”

The quote above is not from Sense8, it’s from Cloud Atlas, which in many ways is Sense8’s parent movie. In her revelation, Somni, the quiet hero of Cloud Atlas, delivers a message of human connection that would become the essence of Sense8.

That theme was even stronger in the show’s sophomore season, which tightened the connection of the eight main characters and expanded the scope of the story by introducing sensates from other clusters. We visited new countries, were presented with breathtaking views and, like in season one, were given some beautiful moments. But did it all make a winning season?

Sense8: You Want a War?

Here comes a van to hit you with
one million cliffhangers

“Sometimes it’s terrifying. And sometimes it’s incredibly exciting. It’s been maddening, enlightening, confusing and always unpredictable.”

This season finale can be split into two parts. The first one is the big showdown between Sun and her brother. The second part is itself divided into two sections: the calm before the storm scenes, which feature nice character moments, and the actual storm, consisting of a fifteen-minute ride of pure oh-my-god, oh-no, what-just-happened, wow-twist, holy-hell-what-is-going-on, that-cliffhanger-damn-you-writers. Let’s dive into it, shall we?

Sense8: If All the World's a Stage, Identity Is Nothing But a Costume

“Just drive the bus.”

[Note: Sense8 will get a two-hour finale to wrap up the story. I talk a little bit about it here.]

How badly do you ship Kala and Wolfgang? I’m not much of a shipper of any fictional couple, but I ship them a lot. There was something instantly magical when they sang “What’s Up” to one another, and my desire to see them together has grown bigger ever since.

Sense8: What Family Actually Means

“I’m a subject my parents prefer to avoid.”

This episode is the perfect example of how Sense8 doesn’t care about the more conventional episodic structure of a TV series. Sense8 is a show that fully embraces the Netflix idea of constructing a season as one big movie. That strategy has its advantages – it gives the story some room to breathe and the characters more time to be fleshed out – and downsides – the story can become a little stale –, and “What Family Actually Means” is a prime example of that.

Sense8: All I Want Right Now Is One More Bullet

“I didn’t think I could be any more confused by you, but congratulations, you found a way.”

I liked this one. The gang war in Berlin was pretty underdeveloped until this episode twisted it into a...

Sense8: I Have No Room In My Heart For Hate

“We cannot escape hope. The only hope we have of making this country a better place is if we do it ourselves.”

This was a different episode for me because (1) it was the first one I watched after the cancellation news and (2) I watched with a friend, which was a fun experience. I also thought it was the funniest episode of the series thus far, it made me laugh out loud several times.

Sense8: The Cancellation (and Brief Renewal)

[I originally wrote this feature when Sense8 got cancelled. Then I added an extra section below after the finale special was announced.]

"In its day, this painting was ridiculed, called 'a mess', 'the work of an amateur'. The painting was so unappreciated that when they moved from one hall to another, they decided it was too big, so they just slashed chunks off the bottom and the side."

How about that for a meta-monologue turned prophetic? Let's talk about the cancellation, shall we?

Sense8: Isolated Above, Connected Below

“Pretending isn’t a life.”

This was a big episode for romance and mythology.

Sense8: Fear Never Fixed Anything

“You can’t win a fight protecting yourself.”

The theme of this episode is: the best offense is not defense.