Despite being critically drubbed, the first television series from Lana and Andy Wachowski, Sense8, has been renewed for a second season on Netflix. The announcement came via the Netflix Twitter feed with an announcement from the cast. The news dropped on August 8th which also just so happens to be the birthdate of the eight connected characters on the show. Get it? August is the eighth month of the year? And they were born on the 8th? Get it? My brain hurts.
Here's the announcement video.
As much as I liked SPEED RACER, CLOUD ATLAS, and even JUPITER ASCENDING, I just could not get into Sense8. The series felt jumbled, disjointed, and poorly acted. Yes, I made my way through the entire first season and still felt as let down as I did by the first half. Sense8 represents the first failure by Netflix in regards to their original programming projects. This makes me wonder if they did not want to admit defeat after a string of buzzworthy hits or if the viewership numbers really lived up to their expectations.
It is unknown in what capacity the Wachowskis will return for the second season. The siblings co-wrote all twelve of the first season episodes with J. Michael Straczynski. They directed seven of the first season episodes with CLOUD ATLAS co-director Tom Tykwer, Dan Glass, and V FOR VENDETTA helmer James McTeigue directing the other five. If that will hold true for the next run of episodes remains to be seen. If anything, they need to get another writer involved to help punch up these stories a bit.
There is no premiere date for the second season, but expect Sense8 to return in 2016.