Netflix/Murray Close(LOS ANGELES) — Gather your cluster and turn up 4 Non Blondes: Sense8 has returned. Almost two years after it originally debuted, the second season of the Netflix sci-fi drama, created by Lana and Lilly Wachowski, premieres today.
Sense8 follows a group of eight telepathically linked characters, known as “sensates,” as they discover their power and avoid the clutches of the villainous Whispers, played by Terrence Mann.
They’re assisted by another sensate Jonas, played by Naveen Andrews, and the ghost of Darryl Hannah’s Angelica, who “gave birth” to the sensates when she killed herself in the season one premiere.
Speaking with ABC Radio, Mann says season two will explore the “humanity” of his, Andrews’ and Hannah’s characters.
“You find out where we’ve come from,” he says. “At some point we were all trying to do the right thing for the right reasons, and then somehow along the way, as it always happens, [the] good/evil, power/love struggle all starts to change things.”
Because they’re telepathic, the sensates can have conversations with each other across the globe, so Sense8 films on location everywhere, from Chicago and Amsterdam to Seoul and Narobi.
“Lana has a really strong belief that these cities have a soul, and that that can really communicate on film,” says Hannah. “…It wouldn’t be the same if we just built a set and said, ‘Well O.K., we’re in Amsterdam.'”
Hannah also feels that the themes of Sense8 are “more relevant than ever,” given the current political climate.
“I’ve always loved the themes of interconnectedness and empathy and compassion that the show highlights,” she says. “But now more than ever, it’s necessary to understand that it’s the things that we have common that we should be focusing on, and not the things that separate us.”
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