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I Am Also a We

Experience Sense 8

By Matthew FratiPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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The sensates of Netflix's Sense 8.

Have you ever met someone and right off the bat felt such an immediate and deep connection to them as if you'd known them your entire life, as if you were sharing the same thoughts, the same feelings? Could it be that you knew the person in a past life or could it be that you're both tapping into the collective unconscious, famed Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung's concept of a universal unconsciousness shared by all humans? He posited that beneath our individualistic unconscious, there exists a universal unconsciousness based on shared human concepts. Might this explain how people from different corners of the world and walks of life can experience a collective longing for the same things at the same time?

In the Netflix original series Sense 8, co-created by the Wachowski Brothers (now the Wachowski sisters), the visionary duo behind the Matrix, and comic book writer J. Michael Straczynski, the concept of the the collective unconscious is taken to a radical extreme in the form of eight strangers from around the world who discover that they share a telepathic link to each other, one allowing them to experience each other's thoughts, feelings and separate realities. After they share what seems to be a very vivid dream, these eight previous strangers begin finding themselves randomly jumping in and out of each other's lives, seeing and feeling what the others are seeing and feeling. At first, each believe they're losing their minds and hallucinating these strangers who suddenly appear right in front of them, but they soon learn that they belong to a cluster of sensates, beings who essentially share one consciousness.

One of the shows many highlights is the wonderfully diverse cast of characters who make up this cluster of sensates. There's Sun, a Korean woman living in Seoul; Capheus, an African man in Nairobi who drives a van to earn money to pay for his mother's AIDS medication; Riley, an Icelandic DJ living in London; Will, a Chicago cop; Kala, an Indian woman living in Mumbai who's trained as a pharmacist; Nomi, a trans woman and hacker living with her girlfriend in San Francisco; Lito, an Hispanic actor living in Mexico City and finally Wolfgang, a German safe-cracker and thief living in Berlin. The show takes us through the lives of these intertwined individuals as they struggle with their own troubled pasts while learning of their shared consciousness.

As they learn more about what they are and what they're capable of, they discover that they are being hunted by a shadowy scientific organization which considers them to be dangerous. After learning more about their connection, the eight begin to use their individual strengths to help each other deal with the troubles of their own lives despite being scattered across the globe. The show jumps back and forth between all eight, showing them mentally interacting with each other and experiencing each other's feelings. This makes for some of the funniest and most intriguing scenes, particularly when one of them is experiencing heightened pain or pleasure. The show features several group sex scenes involving all eight together, experiencing the same pleasure, even though only one of them might actually be having sex.

Given the involvement of the Wachowskis, the show has loads of visually satisfying action and Sci-Fi drama, but the show's heart lies with these eight individuals who have their own strengths and weaknesses, but when together are so much greater than the sum of their parts. In a show featuring eight main characters, it might be easy to just lump all of them together, but despite their connection, each sensate manages to remain uniquely themselves while being a part of a larger whole. At its core, Sense 8 is a stirring comment on our shared humanity and our collective desire to be whatever we are, free from ignorant judgments or restrictive labels. Sadly, the show was cancelled after its second season, but thanks to the collective protests of the show's devoted fan base, Netflix decided to revive it in 2018 with a two hour finale to send the beloved show out in style. It's a testament to the power of people and the love they bear for a show which, in these savagely harsh and hateful times, doesn't shy away from controversial and uncomfortable subjects in order to remind us that beneath all these divisive labels, we're all part of the same cluster of humanity.

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About the Creator

Matthew Frati

Primarily a poet, but I also write prose. I've self published three books of poetry and a novel. I love and write about all kinds of music, art, literature, films, television and comic books.

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