Netflix's sci-fi drama SENSE8 gets a Christmas special and season two release date

Netflix’s Sense8 – from the minds that brought you The Matrix (Lana and Lilly Wachowski) and Babylon 5 (J. Michael Straczynski) – might be billed as a sci-fi mystery drama, but for me it was more a character study with sci-fi trappings.

The show spent far more time exploring the connections between its incredibly diverse and multinational cast, and focusing on how these disparate characters helped each other overcome their own personal issues through their psychic bond, than it did on the overarching conspiracy against people with their ability. It’s a decidedly slow paced and emotionally taxing show, and as such is one people will either love or hate, with very little room for middle ground – and as you might be able to tell I’m one of the former.

And finally the show’s second season has a release date: the 10-episode-long second season will go live on the streaming service on 5 May 2017, nearly two years after the show premiered on 5 June 2015.

That’s two episodes shorter than the first season but they’re making it up to us with some rather surprising news – we’re also getting a two-hour Christmas special that’ll be premiering on 23 December in which:

The journey continues as these eight singular hearts and minds weave in and out of each other’s lives finding deeper connections, learning darker, more desperate secrets about one another and struggling to identify with more than just oneself.

To paraphrase one of the worst Bond puns ever, Christmas is coming twice this year.

What do you think, are you looking forward to seeing more?

Sense8 stars Aml Ameen, Doona Bae, Jamie Clayton, Tina Desai, Tuppence Middleton, Max Riemelt, Miguel Ángel Silvestre and Brian J. Smith. 

Last Updated: December 5, 2016