Can You Hear The Music?
Another Christmas gone.
Our Christmas was pretty much like we’ve done for several years now–I make my mince pies on Christmas Eve, then make dinner on Christmas Day, and then flop somewhere and snooze. That’s pretty much how I like it and, so they tell me, it’s how everyone else here likes it too.
The only thing different is this year I didn’t watch the Dr Who Christmas edition when it was broadcast (I was snoozing) and, so far, still haven’t watched it. I’ll get around to it sooner or later.
However I did watch the Sense8 Christmas Special on 23rd December and have watched it again twice since. I’ll probably watch it some more times too. You will gather from my watching it three times already that I enjoyed it, and that it was a joy for me to reconnect with the characters. The special served to move the stories of the characters forward and also to set up some themes for season 2, which appears on Netflix May 5th (Will experiencing some of Angelica’s memories and Jonas’s explanation quietly did that).
If you’ve seen my three previous posts about Sense8 you’ll know that I love this show for many reasons, and I enjoyed the Christmas Special for those same reasons. The core reason is the way the hand-wavy science-y stuff about being senseate and psycellium and shit does its heavy lifting in the outworking of the core metaphor via the interplay of the characters, rather than being front and centre as techno-babble. This alone makes Sense8 more interesting than 99% of so-called sci-fi on TV (or in the cinema, for that matter). The other core reasons are the commitment to “show don’t tell” and the emotional engagement I have with the characters.
The Christmas show wasn’t perfect: I think it suffered a little from being a stand-alone episode, particularly in some of the early pacing. Also, to these British ears some of the dialogue seemed over-written. But these are niggles rather than substantive criticisms. As ever the show brought big smiles to my face and, once or twice, some pressure behind my eyes (often involving Sun Bak, but also, surprisingly, Bug).
Anyway: this is how senseates celebrate their birthday–no napping on the couch for them.
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