thedeadparrot

I have been having a long, rough week at work, mostly because of annual reviews and past work angst on top of regular annual review angst.

So Sense 8 has been a breath of fresh air. I wasn't sure what to expect of it. The AV Club mentioned that it is visually gorgeous and kind of stupid, and it kind of is? But I think that's selling what it does do well short. I'm on episode 7, and it's great.

The beautiful thing about this show is its reckless optimism and gentle humanism. It's a show that loves its characters and will let them breathe and exist and just be. Not everything they do has to be about their powers or the overarching mystery. The characters and their foibles drive the drama and not the other way around. And there's something beautiful about the way the main 8 characters connect with each other, across the spaces that separate them, both physical and cultural. The show revels in those connections, that ability to connect with other human beings who are not us and not like us.

It does all this with an awareness, an understanding that the world can be ugly. It's not all butterflies and rainbows and naivete. But it believes in people's abilities to band together to overcome that ugliness. It's so earnest about this it's hard to hate it.

Caveats:
- the dialogue can be stilted and not-good
- some of the storylines are boring/cliche
- exposition is clunky
- overarching plotline moves very slowly
- I still don't know how I feel about everyone speaking in English. eh.

I'm just really in love with this show, you guys. It's just the right sort of heartwarming I wanted/needed this week.