The Wachowskis are an incredibly accomplished duo – you don’t make films as great as Bound and, of course, The Matrix without some amazing, innate talent. But they’ve spent the past decade in a struggle to re-capture the alchemy present in their early triumphs, with films like Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas and Jupiter Ascending. All of these movies have their merits and all of them have notable issues.

Seeing them make the leap to television with the new Netflix series Sense8 was an exciting prospect though. What would these highly imaginative siblings do with a long-form narrative and more time to world build? The fact that they teamed with J. Michael Straczynski for the series was also highly promising, given his strong background in both TV (Babylon 5) and comic books (Thor).

Sense8 Photo Gallery: Sense8 Photos 30 IMAGES

Loading

The end result though is, unfortunately, a missed opportunity for the Wachowskis. On its surface, Sense8 has a similar vibe to what Heroes felt like at its start – a story about people from around the world all discovering special abilities that bring them together. In this case, rather than individual super powers, our eight main characters all have the ability to directly connect to each other – to see one another right next to them, speaking with them. And, notably, to essentially channel each other, allowing one person to basically take control of another’s actions, when a certain skill set is needed.There’s a lot of potential in that concept. But the problem is, the Wachowskis and Straczynski don’t actually seem to be all that interested in exploring it to its full potential. What the show really is, for much of its 12-episode season, is eight different character storylines, in eight different parts of the world, with eight different vibes to them.Which, hey, could be a good show in and of itself. But there’s some issues here. One is that these storylines are okay, in general, but some of them are very basic – such as the Mumbai-based Kala (Tina Desai), who’s marrying a man for the wrong reasons; Will (Brian J. Smith), a Chicago cop trying to do the right thing in a tough world; London-based DJ Riley (Tuppence Middleton), who's fled a traumatic event in her past; or Wolfgang (Max Riemelt), a German criminal with a semi-heart of gold.The cast are all solid, yet most of these characters are fairly bland and one-note. The kind-hearted Matatu bus driver Capheus (Aml Ameen) has a funny fascination with Jean-Claude Van Damme that is essentially his defining characteristic for most of the show. Seoul businesswoman Sun (Bae Doona) is caught up in an embezzlement scandal with her family, but barely registers as having a personality. On a show about getting to know people beyond what’s on the surface, the portrayal of these characters is often very surface level.There's also some strange choices made, given the international approach of the characters. In an era when The Americans can have huge chunks of the show in Russian with subtitles, it's somewhat strange to have a show so notably about people from across the world (and on a platform that can allow for more risks than a network series) still have them all speaking English, with the implicit understanding that we are just hearing them in English - that they would actually be speaking their own language in "reality." But then comes a scene where Wolfgang and Kala have one of their first encounters, and suddenly they are actually speaking in their native language, with subtitles - but only in that one scene!As for the sci-fi element that is the show’s hook, wow is this a slow burn. Too slow. Many have spoken about how the Netflix model of releasing the entire season at once, with the intention of it being binged, has producers treating a TV season like one extended movie. Which can work great – and has worked great for several Netflix series. But Sense 8 takes this “it’s one long movie” tactic too far. The first few episodes feel like the first half hour of a movie stretched out for several hours – making the “set up”/”getting to know the characters before the crazy s*** happens” portion of the story one that is way longer than needed. It’s not until the end of the third hour that we begin to see some truly interesting developments in terms of these abilities these people are discovering, with the fourth episode then delving more into what this could mean and what they could do……Except then there’s more backtracking and stalling. And a rather ludicrous amount of non-amazement on the part of pretty much every single character when it comes to what’s happening to them, after some initial confusion. It would be one thing if one or two characters were Zen about this experience, but everyone just quickly seems to go, “Oh, okay, I am speaking to, seeing and able to physically interact (as far as the sensation goes) with people from across the world.” No one freaks out. No one is astounded. No one immediately begins looking up information on the other people, much less goes to see anyone else. And while some of the interactions (including a couple of potential love stories) happens frequently and plays into their stories in bigger ways, for other characters, this ability is an infrequent blip that pops up now and again in the middle of their own ongoing drama. It’s an odd and frustrating approach, taking all energy and momentum from the series.Sense8 is a notably progressive in terms of its characters and their relationships. A somewhat cliché story about Lito (Miguel Ángel Silvestre), a famous, heartthrob Mexican movie star who’s keeping his homosexuality a secret to protect his career, takes an interesting turn when someone finds out his secret – leading to a whole new relationship dynamic for Lito and his lover. And one of the show’s strongest characters, Nomi (Jamie Clayton), is a trans woman in a lesbian relationship with Amanita (Doctor Who’s Freema Agyeman). It’s not hard to assume Lana Wachowski, herself a trans woman, had a lot of personal identification with Nomi’s story, which could account for why it feels more impactful and fully realized than some of the others in the show.There’s also a lot of attention-getting sex scenes in Sense8 (the freedom Netflix allows is certainly used here), including an amusing one where several of the characters use their ability to feel each other across the world in a specific, sensual manner. Besides the sex scenes, some of the more visceral thrills are also provided by a few action sequences that pop up more as the season continues – an arena the Wachowskis are obviously skilled at. Occasionally, we get scenes where one character’s skills at fighting are used by another in need and in those moments, Sense8 provides energy and excitement it’s often lacking through its running time.Naveen Andrews (Lost) pops in and out as Jonas, a figure who, while not one of the eight, is also able to appear to them, with cryptic bits of information about what’s going on. Daryl Hannah meanwhile has a bafflingly strong credit on every episode (“And Daryl Hannah”) despite barely appearing over the course of the series, after an intriguing opening scene between her and Andrews.And yes, there are bad guys here – creepy evil scientist types who have nasty plans for the eight… and who are barely defined and whose threat seems really weak when they become more prominent in the final episodes, given how little investment we have in them or their goals.Sense8 is a notably big show in scope. In what feels like a reflection of Netflix’s ever-increasing reach, the Wachowskis (who co-wrote and directed many of the episodes) were actually able to film the series across the world, in Chicago, San Francisco, London, Berlin, Seoul, Reykjavík, Mexico City, Nairobi and Mumbai and they get the most out of these impressive locations. The season finale in particular has some absolutely gorgeous visuals. The music by Johnny Klimek and Tom Tykwer adds some edginess to the proceedings -- though they do get very close to repeating some of their own Run Lola Run cues here and there -- including in the show's terrific opening credit sequence.