Netflix announced today that its sci fi series Sense8 will not be continuing to a third season. VP of original content Cindy Holland stated that “after 23 episodes, 16 cities and 13 countries, the story of the Sense8 cluster is coming to an end”. The news does not come has a huge surprise as it took almost two years for the second season to arrive (it debuted in May) and there were rumors in the interim that the show would be cancelled. Sense8 had a big budget because it was shot in locations around the world and it also required a fair amount of production time. But it never quite achieved the viewership levels of the more popular genre entries on the streaming service like Stranger Things, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and the Defenders shows. The actors were contracted for third year, but apparently Netflix decided instead to wrap the show up after its second season (which I have not watched yet, so I do not know if it ended on a cliffhanger). Sense8 did have a small but loyal following that was fighting for a third season, and they may try to lobby other networks to pick the show up. But since Netflix has solid numbers on the show’s viewership (that they won’t share with us) instead of the sampling of live and delayed viewing that Nielsen provides for the broadcast networks and cable channels, I’m thinking this one will be a hard sell.
Sense8 follows eight people across the world who find themselves telepathically linked and also in danger from a group who sees them as a threat. It was created by the Wachowski’s and J. Michael Straczynski and stars Brian J. Smith, Tuppence Middleton, Aml Ameen, and Bae Doona. The show produced 23 episodes across its two seasosn including a Christmas Special that was released between seasons, and the full series will remain available for streaming.
You can see a rundown of this season’s cancellations and renewals so far at this link. And be sure to stay tuned to this site and the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for updates and breaking news.
Season 2 ended on a pretty big cliffhanger. Sounded like: “watch season 3, we’re gonna ramp it up”. Too late; they should have done it earlier. I never hated the series, was never bored, and the premise, even though it was generic esoteric fantasy, was nice enough, but it was full of naiveté, not necessarily with offending, but offensive undertones of social justice and gender equality, but again, told with such a blatant naiveté, so simple-minded and laughable that I often wondered, especially during season 2, whether this weird egomaniacal Wachowski product will have any future. Guess it doesn’t, and I hope the Netflix producers did it for the right reasons, namely because it was all style, no substance, all message, no plot, all politics, no drama, only some generic melodrama, daily soap style. There are tons of better shows around. Won’t miss Sense8 at all.