The New Trailer for Sense8 Season Two Turns Up The Empathy

The premise of Sense8, in which eight individuals hailing from different cultures become neurally interconnected, has, from the start, been a thinly veiled call for empathy, an exhortation to viewers to not literally perform the impossible task of entering the mind of someone different from themselves, but to nonetheless try to get as close as possible. Despite the eventfulness of season one, the show’s underlying metaphor remains intact, and it is this metaphor that the new trailer for season two references.

Little by way of plot is given away in the teaser. We see glimpses of faceless threats in hazmat suits, some kicking and punching, and shots of our central octad of heroes in a state of blissful unity, holding hands and leaning against one another as sunlight streams down on their faces and through their fingers. This third category of footage aligns best with the tone of the trailer as a whole, which is largely set to the sound of a character talking about a Rembrandt painting as the anthemic soundtrack cues our emotional uplift.

“Rembrandt. His name is synonymous with ‘masterpiece,’ and this, arguably, one of his greatest paintings,” the guy says. “An iconic work of individuals setting aside their differences for a common good. But what we see is not what people saw hundreds of years ago. How we see changes, because our senses are evolving.”

Progress, enlightenment and unity. Although these are all unquestionably ideals that one should strive for, their presentation in the teaser flirts with mawkishness, especially in segments where the marriage of footage and music takes on the feel of a prettified corporate ad. That said, there is also something refreshing about the trailer’s bald sentimentality and shameless allegorizing. Too often, we beat around the bush instead of just saying what needs to be said.

Check out the full teaser above, and catch Sense8 on Netflix when it returns on May 5.