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Sense8’s core premise centers around eight very different people who are psychically connected to one another. They are ‘sensates’—humans with a specific genetic mutation that allows them to be mentally and emotionally linked.

Having eight characters and telling each of their individual stories is not a simple task. Season one had really strong character development that was gripping and fun to watch.  I don’t feel like that was the case this season. Capheus (played by Toby Onwumere this season) spent most of this time struggling with his decision to run for office. He wants to get rid of the corrupt politicians and better his community in the process. It’s a noble goal, but I was not as emotionally invested in his success as compared to the first season, where he was desperately trying to find access to HIV/AIDS medicine to nurse his sick mother back to health.

The same sentiment applies to Kala’s story. Played by Tina Desai, she spends most of the season struggling with whether or not she should pursue a relationship with Wolfgang (Max Riemelt) a fellow sensate, or stay true to her marriage.  This is the same internal character conflict we saw last season.  Seeing it again this time feels like a rehash of old ideas and immediately lowers my excitement for her character going forward.

Some characters this season may not have resonated with me, or were just spinning their wheels in the sand, but none were as outlandish and absurd as Nomi’s character.

Played by Jamie Clayton, we spend most of season one learning about Nomi’s unbelievably good hacking skills and how it got her into hot water with the law—specifically, she is wanted by the FBI and on a variety of local and state level watch lists—so much so that she had to vacate her apartment and go on the run.  This season, all that back story is magically hand waved away.  In what may be the most insulting scene I’ve watched this year—Nomi meets in a dark movie theatre with a guy in a black hoodie wearing a Guy Fawkes mask.  Meant to refer to Anonymous, the infamous hacking group, he hands over an acrylic ‘key” with a skull sticker slapped on it.  Moments later Nomi plugs this into her computer and TA-DA! She’s no longer wanted by anyone anymore.

My eyes rolled so hard, I sprained a muscle.  That scene was probably meant to be funny, but I took it as extremely lazy writing.

Perhaps the one saving grace this season is Sun’s story. Played by Bae Doona, Sun has the strongest narrative arc here, but thats not really saying much. It opens with her in prison trying to get revenge for what her brother did to their family last season.  She has a clear purpose and singular goal that’s stated multiple times throughout this ten-episode run: seek revenge on her brother, even if it means killing him. But even that falls flat in the season finale.  After all the buildup, all the planning and the help from her fellow sensates, her chance of realizing her goal slips away due to the exact same reasoning and thinking that got her in prison in the first place—a flashback with her mother telling him to protect her brother.  At first glance, it’s a reasonable request, as blood is thicker than water, and family comes first especially in eastern societies. But this is after her brother sent multiple death squads and assassins to murder her.  They literally went to her jail cell in the middle of the night to lure her into a back room and hang her by the neck! To add insult to injury, she specifically states that she regrets not killing him mere moments after sparing him.  Seriously?!

There is a lot of movement in story, but no one seems to stray very far from where they were before.  And that’s a shame, as the rest of the plot is paper thin and feels rushed.

The main baddie is BPO, a secret organization tasked with finding and killing our sensates. Mr. Whispers (Terrance Mann) is the main antagonist associated with BPO, and he’s hunting our cast down by connecting to a sensate, seeing what they see and sending a team of hazmat equipped boogeymen to their location.  It is fascinating to watch Whispers and the cast going back and forth, trying to outwit and outplay each other. Sadly, these scenes are few and far between, much to the series’ detriment.

I can’t stress enough that I genuinely love these actors. I’ve been following them for years; Brian J. Smith was great in Stargate: Universe, Freema Agyeman makes an amazing companion to David Tennant’s Doctor Who, and there aren’t enough compliments in the world to describe Bae Doona’s acting career. I tried really hard to get into this, but not even the greatest actors in the world can make up for bad script and direction.

Sense8 has a great cast but they aren’t given much to work with. The cinematography and action sequences are stunning, but you’ll have to wade through weak plot and cringe-inducing dialogue to get to it.  By the end, questions are still abundant, answers are sparse, and it’ll be another two-year wait until we get Season 3. Probably.

Both seasons are available to stream on Netflix.

Photo Credit: Murray Close / Netflix