All episodes of the first season ofSense8 were written by the Wachowskis and Straczynski; in the second season, Lilly Wachowski took a break from the show, and the episodes were written by just Lana Wachowski and Straczynski, with the exception of theseries finale which was written by Lana,David Mitchell, andAleksandar Hemon. Most episodes were directed by the Wachowskis (or just Lana in the second season), with the remainder being divided between theirfrequent collaboratorsJames McTeigue,Tom Tykwer, and Dan Glass.Sense8 was filmed almost entirelyon location in a multitude of cities around the world.
The second season began with a two-hourChristmas special in December 2016, with the remaining 10 episodes released in May 2017. However, the following month Netflix announced that they had cancelled the series, which had ended with acliffhanger in expectation of a third season, then under negotiation. In response to criticism of the cancellation, especially with an unresolved story, Netflix produced a two-and-a-half-hour series finale that was released on June 8, 2018. The season was overall met with positive critical reception and received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination forOutstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (One Hour), and two nominations by the GLAAD Media Awards for Outstanding Drama Series andOutstanding TV Movie or Limited Series for the season proper and series finale, respectively.
The story ofSense8 begins when the psychic connection of eight strangers of a variety of walks of life from different parts of the world is "birthed" by a woman called Angelica, who kills herself to avoid capture by a man called "Whispers". The eight discover that they form a cluster of "sensates": human beings who arementally and emotionally linked, can sense and communicate with one another, and can share their knowledge, languages, and skills.
In the first season, the eight—Capheus, Sun, Nomi, Kala, Riley, Wolfgang, Lito, and Will—are shown trying to both live their everyday lives and figure out how and why they are connected. Meanwhile, a sensate named Jonas, who was involved with Angelica, comes to their aid, while the sinister Biologic Preservation Organization (BPO) and Whispers, a high-ranking sensate inside BPO, attempt to hunt them down.
In the second season, the eight have grown accustomed to their connection and help one another daily. They learn more about sensates and how to use (and temporarily suspend) their powers as well as the history and goals of BPO and Angelica's involvement with it. They also meet other sensates, not all of whom are friendly. At the same time, Jonas attempts to both aid them and look after himself after being captured by Whispers, who is now involved in acat-and-mouse game with Will, each trying to outsmart the other.
In the series finale, the cluster and the people closest to them meet up in person to save Wolfgang who has been captured by BPO. To that end, the cluster has kidnapped Whispers and Jonas to use them as a bargaining chip and source of information, respectively. The heroes discover the personal motivations of the two men and Angelica, meet potential allies (both sensates and normal humans), and deal with the Chairman of BPO, who launches a global attack against sensates and their allies.
Freema Agyeman as Amanita "Neets" Caplan, Nomi's girlfriend, who later becomes an ally for the new sensates.[17]
Terrence Mann as Milton Bailey "Whispers" Brandt,[a] a sensate who turned against his own kind and who is a high-ranking member of an organization determined to neutralize sensates, known as the Biologic Preservation Organization (BPO).[5]
Anupam Kher as Sanyam Dandekar, Kala's loving father, a chef and restaurant owner.[20]
Naveen Andrews as Jonas Maliki, a sensate from a different cluster who wants to help the newly born cluster of sensates.[5][21]
Daryl Hannah as Angelica "Angel" Turing, a sensate from the same cluster as Jonas, who becomes the "mother" of the new sensates' cluster as she activates their psychic connection.[22]
According to the Wachowskis, the origins ofSense8 date back several years before the announcement of the show to "a late-night conversation about the ways technology simultaneously unites and divides us".[27] When deciding to create a television series, Lana chose to brainstorm ideas with Straczynski because of hisextensive experience working with the format, by inviting him to her house in San Francisco.[28][29] After several days of discussion, they decided on creating a show that would explore the relationship betweenempathy andevolution in the human race, necessitating filmingon location in several countries over the world.[28][30] The title of the show was thought up by Lana on their second day of brainstorming, as aplay on the wordsensate and the notion of eight main characters.[31][32]
On October 2, 2012,Variety first reported the existence of the show. The Wachowskis and Straczynski had written three hour-longspec scripts, and were attempting to shop them around.[33] Their first meeting with potential buyers was with Netflix. The Wachowskis and Straczynski talked to them about subjects such asgender,identity,secrecy, andprivacy.[34] Netflix announced that they had ordered a 10-episode first season for the series on March 27, 2013,[27] which during filming was extended to 12.[35][29] Straczynski and the Wachowskis mapped out five seasons worth of stories for the series from the beginning,[29] including the series' final episode.[36] Lilly Wachowski, after completingher gender transition, decided to take some time off and did not return as writer or director for the second season,[30] although she remained active as co-creator.[37]
Producer Roberto Malerba has disclosed that the first season had an average budget of about $4.5 million per episode, and the second season $9 million per episode.[38][39]
Initial writing for the first season was split between the Wachowskis and Straczynski.[40] The show was transformed when they decided to limit the storytelling, with the exception of the opening scene of the first episode, to the perspective of the eight characters.[41] Lana Wachowski, a trans woman, has written her firsttransgender character in her career in the series: Nomi Marks. For that she partly used her own experiences.[42] Jamie Clayton, who plays Nomi, has provided the example of a scene where a young Nomi isbullied by boys in a gym shower, as a scene that was based on experiences from Lana's life.[43] Freema Agyeman, who plays Nomi's girlfriend Amanita, has shared that her character was based heavily on Lana's wife, Karin Winslow.[44]
Unlike the first season, where the Wachowskis and Straczynski split the number of scripts in half and worked remotely from each other,[28] writing for the second season was performed by Lana and Straczynski by collaborating inside a shared writers' room.[41]David Mitchell andAleksandar Hemon worked as additional writers on the second season and were credited as "consultants".[45][46][47] They spent a week in September 2015 with Lana, Straczynski, and script supervisor Julie Brown, proposing to them situations to be further developed by Lana and Straczynski.[45] Later, once filming began, Lana did a lot of rewrites on a daily basis as she got inspired by the locations, actors, and so on, even on the set.[48][49][50] When theseries finale special was announced, Lana, Mitchell, and Hemon returned as writers.[45]
On June 20, 2014,Deadline Hollywood announced the cast of the eight lead characters, along with Freema Agyeman, Naveen Andrews, Daryl Hannah, Alfonso Herrera, Eréndira Ibarra, and Terence Mann.[51] For the roles of those characters living outside of America, the filmmakers wanted to assemble a cast of international actors that matched the nationality of their respective characters, if possible. For example, Doona Bae, Tina Desai, and Max Riemelt are from Seoul, Mumbai, and Berlin like their respective characters.[52] Jamie Clayton is a trans woman like the character she plays.[11] In November,Deadline Hollywood wrote thatChristian Oliver had joined the cast as a recurring villain.[53]
On April 26, 2016,Deadline Hollywood reported that Aml Ameen abruptly left production a couple of episodes into filming of the second season over a conflict with Lana Wachowski that started during thetable read for the season and progressively got worse.[7] Subsequent to Ameen's departure, the role of Capheus was recast to Toby Onwumere after a seven-day auditioning process.[54] Earlier in April,Kick Gurry revealed he had been cast in the second season.[55] In May,Deadline Hollywood reported Ben Cole had been cast as Todd, a sensate who would rather be "normal".[56] In September,Sylvester McCoy reportedly revealed he filmed three or four episodes of the second season.[57]
To properly tell the international aspects of the story, filming forSense8 took place almost entirely on location around the globe. In the first season, filming took place in nine cities located in eight countries:Berlin,Chicago,London,Mexico City,Mumbai,Nairobi,Reykjavík,San Francisco, andSeoul.[58] Production began on June 18, 2014, in San Francisco.[59] The writers wanted to feature an event in each city.[60] They were able to schedule thePride[61] scenes with itsDykes on Bikes on theDyke March[62][63] in San Francisco, theFourth of July fireworks celebration in Chicago, and theGanesha Chaturthi Hindu festival in Mumbai.[64] Filming wrapped in Iceland on January 21, 2015.[65] By the end of the shooting, the filmmakers had completed 100,000 miles (160,000 km) of flight time, or four times around the globe.[58]
For the second season, production credited 16 cities located in 11 countries for having been part of the filming.[66] The major locations they filmed in include all of the first season's except Reykjavík, and the following new ones:Amsterdam,Argyll,Chippenham,Los Angeles,Malta,Positano,Redwoods, andSão Paulo.[47] Production start for the main unit of the second season was given an expected date of March 2016,[67] but a separate shoot involving the principal actors began on December 30, 2015, in Berlin, to capture footage during theChristmas holidays.[68][69][70] Main unit filming resumed in Berlin in the middle of March 2016.[71] In São Paulo, they filmed unrehearsed in front of a crowd of millions in its20th Gay Pride Parade.[72] In Amsterdam, they were the first production to film in theRijksmuseum.[73] On September 19, 2016, with the completion of the Malta shoot, filming for the second season came to an end.[74][75] Overall, the cast and crew flew in excess of 250,000 miles (400,000 km) to complete the season.[76] Filming for the series finale took place in Berlin,Brussels,Naples, andParis.[77] Production began in Berlin on October 2, 2017.[78][79] In Paris, they filmed a four-minutefireworks show near theEiffel Tower.[80] Filming wrapped in Berlin on November 12, 2017.[81][82]
Netflix required the production to shoot with4K resolution cameras to make the look of the show future-proof.[67] During the first season, cinematographer John Toll, once again collaborating with the Wachowskis afterCloud Atlas andJupiter Ascending,[83] personally handled the cinematography in San Francisco, Chicago, London, Iceland, and Seoul.[84] In the second season he handled the majority of the locations.[85] Additional cinematographers worked with the rest of the directors in the remaining locations.[67] James McTeigue worked with Danny Ruhlman,[60] and Tom Tykwer worked withFrank Griebe and Christian Almesberger.[86][87] Toll returned as cinematographer for the series finale, teaming up again with Lana.[88]
The show's directors were attached to locations instead of episodes[89] and with several countries appearing in every episode, in reality none of them has a singular director.[90] During the first season, the Wachowskis were responsible for directorial duties in scenes shot in Chicago,[91] San Francisco,[92] London, and Iceland.[93] McTeigue worked on the Mexico City and Mumbai parts[60] along with some in Reykjavík,[90] and Tykwer helmed Berlin[94][95] and Nairobi.[96] Dan Glass made his directorial debut in the Seoul part of the story.[97] In total, the Wachowskis were credited for directing seven episodes, McTeigue and Tykwer two each, and Glass one.[98]
In the second season, Lana Wachowski took over many of the filmmaking aspects of the show.[30]Production sound mixer Stevie Haywood recounted Lana's directing style was to use two cameras as the default setup, and develop the shot over "enormouslylong takes" which could last up to fifteen to twenty minutes.[99] McTeigue returned as director for Mexico City,[100] and Tykwer for the Nairobi parts.[101] According to Glass, in the second season he directed thesecond unit in Seoul, and he also did some directing in Berlin.[102] Overall, six episodes of the second season, including the Christmas special and series finale,[88] credit Lana as director, three credit McTeigue, and Tykwer and Glass get credited each in one.
Seoul unit director Dan Glass and Jim Mitchell were thevisual effects supervisors of the first season. The season had a totalVFX shot count of about 1200.[103][104] An in-house VFX team was established in Chicago which completed over 700 shots. The major external VFX vendors were Locktix VFX (160–180 shots),Technicolor VFX (over 100 shots),[105] andEncore VFX.[97] Because of the series' tight budget and timeline the production made the decision to do most of the effects, including the telepathy scenes,in-camera and only enhance them digitally where appropriate.[64] Technicolor provideddailies and worked with cinematographer John Toll and the Wachowskis tocolor grade the show. Technicolor finished the show in 4K and delivered both2K and 4K masters.[105][106]
In the second season, the visual effects supervisors were Dan Glass and Ryan Urban.[47] Technicolor were again responsible for managing dailies and color grading the show, while their VFX department delivered over 600 shots for the first 11 episodes, and an additional 109 for the series finale.[107][108]Sense8 wasedited in the Wachowskis' headquarters in Chicago,[105][106][109]Kinowerks,[110] by Joe Hobeck and Joseph Jett Sally in the first season and by Sally and Fiona Colbeck in the second.[111][47]
The score ofSense8 was composed byJohnny Klimek and Tom Tykwer, with additional contributions by Gabriel Isaac Mounsey,[112] and recorded by theMDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra.[113][114] Each season's score was written up to a year and a half before filming began,[113] enabling the production to play it back to the actors before shooting a scene.[115] Asoundtrack album for the first season was released digitally byWaterTower Music on May 5, 2017. It includes 10 tracks by Klimek and Tykwer.[113] For the second season, Klimek and Tykwer provided the editorial team with about 10 "mother" themes, each with a length of over five minutes, before filming began.[113] In the Christmas special episode "Happy F*cking New Year", a cover ofLeonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" is featured, which wasarranged by Gary Fry and recorded by the Apollo Chorus of Chicago, with thelead vocalist beingDaniel Martin Moore. The episode also featured a Matstubs remix of "I'd Love To Change The World".[116][117]
Thetheme music ofSense8 was picked by the Wachowskis from the two hours of original music Tykwer and Klimek had written.[118] The show received a nomination forOutstanding Original Main Title Theme Music during the68th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.[119] For the series almost two-minute longtitle sequence, Karin Winslow rented a car and with the help of acamera assistant traveled in the eight featured countries of the first season and captured over a hundred shots. "My directive from Lana was to go out and describe each country by what you see; find the nuances, find the food, find what people are doing, get a feel for the place," said Winslow.[120] For the second season, and again for the finale, some of the footage was replaced by new shots.[47][112]
On June 1, 2017, Netflix announced they had cancelled the series after two seasons.[121][122] Later that month, Chief Content Officer of NetflixTed Sarandos during his talk onProduced By Conference, commented that the show was cancelled because its audience, despite being very passionate, was not large enough to support the high production costs.[123] As a response to the cancellation, fans createdonline petitions, called Netflix, and tweeted #RenewSense8 and otherhashtags, in an attempt to bring back the show. On June 29, 2017, the official social media accounts of the show posted a letter by Lana Wachowski which announced the release of a two-hour special for 2018.[124] The special was released on June 8, 2018.[125][126]
Netflix billed the second special in their announcement as the series finale, but Lana left open the future ofSense8 past the special's release.[127] On August 5, 2017, during aFacebook Live with Lana and the cast about the show's revival, Lana joked that because she believed that the fans of the show would go and create more fans, she was writing the entire third season.[128][129] A few days later, Brian J. Smith said during an interview that he believed if "a truly eyebrow-raising amount of people" watched the special, they would make more.[130] Conversely, shortly after the special's release,executive producerGrant Hill said that they followed Netflix's directive to design it as the series finale,[131] and that there have not been any talks about the possibility of another revival.[132]
Straczynski and Hemon have shared some hints about the character trajectories that were planned for the third season and beyond.[133][134][135]
Critical reception of the first season ofSense8 has been generally favorable.Rotten Tomatoes, areview aggregator website, reported a 71% critical approval rating with an average rating of 6.25/10 based on 62 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Some of the scenarios border on illogical, but the diverse characters and the creative intersections between their stories keep the Wachowskis'Sense8 compelling."[136] OnMetacritic, which uses aweighted average, the season is assigned a score of 64 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[137]
Sense8 continued to be positively received in its second season. Rotten Tomatoes indexed 15 reviews for the early released Christmas special, and reported an 87% critical approval rating for it, with an average rating of 6.88/10. The website assigned the following consensus to the special: "Sense8 serves up a heaping helping of yuletide queerness and sci-fi slyness in this narratively messy but richly felt special."[138] Based on 28 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes assigned the 10 episodes that followed the special a critical approval rating of 93%, with an average rating of 7.57/10. The critical consensus reads, "Sense8 maintains its stunning visuals, Wachowski wackiness, and great heart — though its individual characters deserve more development."[139] On Metacritic, the season was assigned a score of 73 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[140] Rotten Tomatoes also collected 28 reviews for the series finale, and calculated a 93% critical approval rating, and an average rating of 7.15/10. The finale's critical consensus reads, "A hard fought coda to a beloved series,Sense8's epilogue exemplifies its strange, sensual, somewhat silly delights."[141]
In a report released by Netflix, it was discovered that at least 70% of the viewers that watched up to the third episode ended up watching the entire first season,[142] and Straczynski was told there are people that watch it "straight through – three, four, six times."[143] In another report released by Netflix,Sense8 was listed among the shows whose viewers tend to heavily binge-watch their first seasons, rather than savoring their episodes by watching them at a slower pace.[144] Netflix's Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos praised the success ofSense8 in the up-and-coming French and German markets[145] but also globally.[146] Vice president of international series for Netflix Erik Barmack has namedSense8 one of the most popular Netflix series in the Brazilian market.[147] Less than three days after the premiere of the first season,Variety reported that it had beenpirated more than half a million times, regardless of the series' digital distribution.[148] Netflix also placed the second season ofSense8 at fifth place on their list for the year 2017 about couples where one of the two cannot resist the urge to watch, and ends up watching episodes ahead of their significant other.[149]
FormerColombian President and2016 Nobel Peace Prize recipientJuan Manuel Santos heavily referencedSense8 in a speech he made in April 2019 during the graduation ceremony of students of theUniversity of Los Andes who participated in the Ser Pilo Paga program. Santos recited the basic premise of the show about the fictional speciesHomo sensorium who can feel empathy for one another, and expressed his wish and belief that one day humanity will be the same, "united in diversity and tolerance".[150]
Thered carpetpremiere ofSense8 took place on May 27, 2015, in San Francisco'sAMCMetreon,[176][177] where the first three episodes were previewed.[178] Starting in the middle of July 2015, Netflix Brazil released a series of documentaryshorts calledSense8: Decoded. Inspired bySense8 and directed by João Wainer, the shorts briefly touch upon subjects such aspsychiatry,feminism,being transgender andBuddhism.[179][180][181][182] Later in the month, Netflix released a music track titledBrainwave Symphony onSpotify.[183] To produce it they subjected eight strangers to a series of various stimuli and they recorded their individual brainwaves usingEEG sensors. After extracting a melody from each of them they arranged them in a way to produce a track which mirrors the escalating action of the season.[184][185] In early August 2015, Netflix made availableSense8: Creating the World, a half-hour streaming television documentary, shot around the world, about themaking of the first season of the series.[64][186]
On May 3, 2016,publicity stills of the ongoing production of the second season were posted online, accompanied by a short message by Lana Wachowski introducing the #Road2Sense8 hashtag under which new pictures would be posted.[187][188][189] On December 3, 2016, the Christmas special episode was screened at São Paulo'sComic Con Experience, in advance of its Netflix premiere on December 23.[190] The second episode of the second season was screened out of competition during theSeries Mania festival in Paris, on April 18, 2017.[191][192] On April 23, a screening of the second and third episodes took place in Chicago'sMusic Box Theatre, in abenefit for theAmerican Civil Liberties Union, followed by Lana Wachowski taking questions from the audience,[193][194] and again on April 26, in the red carpet premiere of the second season, at New York City's AMCLincoln Square.[195][48]
Several screenings of the series finale took place prior to its release on Netflix, on June 8, 2018. The first screening took place in The Music Box Theatre in Chicago, on May 25, as a benefit forEMILY's List, followed by a Q&A session with Lana and select cast members.[196] The second screening took place in theLatin America Memorial in São Paulo, on June 1, with several cast members attending.[197] The red carpet premiere followed inArcLight Hollywood, in Los Angeles, on June 7.[198]Linda Perry made a guest appearance to perform "What's Up?".[199] Netflix organized an event for the fans on the day of the special's release, June 8, inPosillipo, in Naples, where a big portion of the special was filmed. Among other things, fans could try a slice of a special "Sense8"pizza that was created by famous pizza maker Gino Sorbillo with the help of the cast.[200]
^Brandt is also known as "the cannibal", a reference to the fact that he killed his own cluster.[18] He also uses many fake names, such as Dr. Matheson or Gibbons.[19]
^The episode was originally announced and released as "A Christmas Special",[23][24] but it was later renamed to "Happy Fucking New Year."[25]
^Popular reordering of an excerpt fromVirgil'sEclogue X,line 69, which the show translates to "Love conquers all things".[26]
^The actual title of the nominated episode—and series finale—is "Amor Vincit Omnia", for which Netflix used the "Together Until The End"tagline to promote it.[171]
^Max Riemelt; Daryl Hannah; Grant Hill (June 16, 2015)."Sense8: ein Interview".serieslyAWESOME (Interview) (in German).Archived from the original on June 12, 2016. RetrievedJune 12, 2016.
^Carol Moreira (December 22, 2016).SENSE8 | Entrevista com Tina Desai, Miguel Ángel Silvestre e Brian J. Smith. Event occurs at 01:17.Archived from the original on November 7, 2021. RetrievedJuly 7, 2017 – viaYouTube.Carol Moreira: And they rewrite a lot, on set, right? That must be crazy. /Miguel Ángel Silvestre: Constantly. /Brian J. Smith: This year, especially. This year there [were] a lot of rewrites. It sort of felt like the scripts we got in the beginning were like scaffolds, and then Lana was filling in the brick and the mortar and the furniture and the windows, as we shot. You know what I mean? /Miguel Ángel Silvestre: Yeah, totally. /Tina Desai: There [were] city rewrites, there were weekly rewrites, there were daily rewrites. It was great fun. Trying to keep up with everything.
^Poppy-Jay Palmer. "Sense8 - Sex And Drugs And Heart And Soul".SciFiNow. No. 131. Kelsey Media. pp. 55–56.Throughout the production of Season Two, [Brian J. Smith] tells us, the writer/director had developed a tendency to show up on set just before a scene was about to shoot with a set of completely new script pages and edits... The method in question is the fact that inspiration can strike at any moment. "Lana gets inspiration from everywhere and she can sometimes be spontaneous," explains Doona Bae, who plays kickboxer Sun. "Whenever she gets to set, everything can change. You need to be really flexible. It's good training for all of us. [You have to be able to] adjust to any situation."
^Jim Hemphill (May 22, 2017)."Sense8 / John Toll, ASC, Episode #79".American Cinematographer (Podcast).American Society of Cinematographers. Event occurs at 32:51. RetrievedDecember 14, 2017.John Toll: So season 2, we started in Berlin, and actually, one interesting aspect of season 2 [is] that the first two episodes of season 2 were actually shot in the winter. So we had a seasonal change. So we went to Berlin on New Years Eve [2015], shot in Berlin on New Years Eve, that was another big crowd event we sort of integrated ourselves into.
^Jim Hemphill (May 22, 2017)."Sense8 / John Toll, ASC, Episode #79".American Cinematographer (Podcast).American Society of Cinematographers. Event occurs at 35:45. RetrievedDecember 14, 2017.John Toll: So [what we shot first] was the New Years Eve Berlin [parts of the] show. We took a break, then we came back in March, and then we started the full season 2 in March. We started in Mumbai, my unit with Lana... we went to Positano, Italy, then to San Francisco, in LA, ...São Paulo..., ...Chicago...
^Brian J. Smith (August 10, 2017)."Interview with Brian J Smith".TV Series Hub (Interview). Interviewed by Kate McCrea.Archived from the original on November 23, 2017. RetrievedNovember 23, 2017.
