When Sense8 premiered on Netflix in summer 2015, one of the streaming platform’s first genre originals (even predating Stranger Things), it felt incredibly exciting. While Netflix was known for pushing boundaries aside and experimenting with form, even queer-friendly series like Orange is the New Black had earned rightful criticism for making the more diverse members of its large cast suffer more than others did (and everyone suffered on Orange is the New Black, to be fair). While the Sense8 characters definitely did not have a good time all the time, its largely queer cast of core characters seemed to experience joy around their identities more often than sorrow.
Sense8 was also the reunion of trans sisters The Wachowskis and queer-friendly storyteller J. Michael Straczynski, giving them freedom of expression quite unlike anything they’d experienced before.Sense8 had a short life, though, and Netflix isn’t likely to repeat this glorious experiment any time soon.
Even though the total cost of the show was probably well under some of their recent original films, Sense8 lacked big names and required complicated production logistics. Season 2 producer Roberto Malerba claimed the budget per episode by season 2 was around $9 million an episode; it also had to be a show with a difficult buy-in for some of Netflix’s global markets; while it had an international cast, the point of the show was the joy of love, in all its forms — including queer love. Considering Disney has .
