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Why Sense8 Deserves Another Season

By Cynthia Vinney

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Netflix’s (very) original sci-fi drama, Sense8 is ending, but there’s still so much story to tell that what it really deserves is another season.

Sense8—about a cluster of 8 empaths called “sensates” who can experience the world through each other’s eyes—will take its final bow on Friday, June 8. That’s when a  finale movie meant to wrap-up its many plots hit the streamer. But fans are still hoping for another season, and it’s easy to understand why.

There’s nothing else like Sense8 on TV. The show featured a diverse international cast, explicit depictions of sex and violence, and an inclusive message. Its storylines could bounce from inspiringly lyrical to maddeningly esoteric, from profound to ridiculous.

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The show earned a passionate, devoted fan base. After the second season ended on a cliffhanger and Netflix canceled the series, the fan outcry convinced the streaming service to bring the show back for a finale movie.

The feature-length conclusion is some consolation to fans. But it’s hard to imagine the deliberately paced show wrapping up all its loose ends in a satisfying way in just two hours.

Like other projects from the Wachowski sisters, who created the series with J. Michael Straczynski, Sense8 was about connection. The show championed the value of accepting others, no matter how different they are — and the pain and fear caused when that acceptance is withheld.

It’s a relevant and important message in this day and age when we are increasingly divided by everything that makes us different, from politics to race to class to gender to sexuality.

In Sense8  each person in the central cluster was able to hear one another’s thoughts, share experiences, and take on each other’s traits and skills. In other words, these eight characters really got to know each other. And they came to accept each other for who they were as individuals.

Under normal circumstances, these people probably wouldn’t look at one another twice. But their psychic connection opened them up to each other, despite vast differences in race, gender, nationality, and sexual preference

Even better for audiences, each main character had their own storyline. This provided viewers with a choice of characters to identify with and made the show a genre mash-up that kept things interesting.

The show’s complex story could be a challenge, and sometimes it reduced characters to one defining trait. But by getting to know the struggles of each individual, even superficially, the sensates learned and evolved—and the audience went on that journey with them. Fans shared their triumphs, sorrows, and struggles to define who they were.

In the end, Sense8 ‘s central cluster demonstrated how people are better together. That if we get out of our bubbles and get to know and understand people from all walks of life, our differences don’t have to divide us. Instead, they can be our strengths. It’s a bit of cliché, but Sense8‘s uninhibited embrace of the message was often moving.

Our current crop of sci-fi series is widely seen as a reflection of the cynicism we’re experiencing in the real world. Shows like The Handmaid’s Tale, Westworld, and Netflix’s own Altered Carbon depict bleak, depressing dystopias. Sense8 stood as a counterpoint to that.

It celebrated the joys of diversity and inclusion and the beauty of acceptance and love. That made it inspiring and aspirational.

Next: 6 must watch Netflix shows premiering in June

It was positive that sci-fi showed us what the world could be. It’s a shame that after the conclusion movie is released, we won’t get to see more of this mind-expanding series.

Take a look at the Sense8 series finale trailer below.

Do you think Sense8 deserves another season? Let us know in the comments.

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