First Details On Sense8 From The Wachowskis And J. Michael Straczynski
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It seems like forever ago that we first heard about Sense8. We’re intrigued by the idea of Netflix’s dump-an-entire-season-into-your-lap-at-once strategy, which facilitates our fondness and propensity for watching shows in marathon form. The strategy has served the freshly minted content creator well, with shows like Orange is the New Black and House of Cards winning critical acclaim. On its own, we’d be interested enough to see what they can do in the sci-fi realm, but when you consider the creative force behind the new show, we start clapping and gibbering like spastic idiots. With Matrix creators Andy and Lana Wachowki in the driver’s seat, you already have our full attention. Invite Babylon 5’s J. Michael Straczynski to the party as showrunner, and you have the makings of a full on epic genre rager. Up to this point details about Sense8 have been on the sparse side, but the situation has changed a great deal, as we’ve found out a decent number of plot details.
According to TV Line, Sense8, which Netflix initially green lit almost a year ago, centers on a group of eight people, scattered all across the globe. In a move that calls to mind the Wachowski’s 2012 epic Cloud Atlas, these people, otherwise living their own isolated lives, are connected by a collective vision of violence. We don’t yet know what they see in this shared vision, but that’s a promising start. Each episode will follow one character’s story as “one entity tries to bring the octet together and tries to kill them.”
None of the Sense8 cast is in place, but now we have descriptions of the key characters. Among others, we’ll get to know “a closeted Mexican telenovela hunk, an Icelandic party girl, a German safe-cracker, a Korean businesswoman, an African bus driver, and a transgender American blogger.” That’s definitely an eclectic bunch, but that’s not all. There’s also a man named Jonas, described as a: “magic African-American,” as well is a guy named Mr. Whispers, who is his evil counterpart. Mr. Whispers will also be the name of a slew of cats that belong to nerds.
It’s no big deal that no one has been cast in Sense8 yet, since shooting isn’t scheduled to begin until June. We likely won’t be hearing much any time soon. Still, when production does kick off, they plan to fill all over the world, including American cities like San Francisco and Chicago, as well as the UK, Mexico City, Seoul, Mumbai, Berlin, and Nairobi.
Sense8 has a weird collection of characters, a constantly changing international setting, and a ton of creative talent behind the series. We’re not sure if this will be an ongoing show or a one-off, but right now that doesn’t really matter, because this sounds like it has a ton of potential.
