Sense8: a new model for transnational TV series

In recent years, the popular multimedia platform Netflix has gone from distributing series and movies to producing its own series. Some of these series have become immensely popular. The list includes names such as Narcos, House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. Another one of Netflix’s series that has become widely popular in a short period of time is Sense8. It is a series from J. Michael Straczynski, and Anna and Andy Wachowski, creators of The Matrix. Wired describes it as the following: “It’s the story of eight strangers from around the world who develop a psychic link that allows them to pool their knowledge and abilities”. It got an 8.4 rating on IMBD which quickly resulted in requests for a second season on Netflix. The series’ structure is quite different from most other series when it comes to the matter of cultural representation and diversity, whereas their narrative style - Science Fiction - is typically American. In this blogpost we will separate content from form. Although Sense8 is an American production which affirms their hegemony on the global market, its content challenges that same domination by giving each culture the same amount of screen time and trying to be as authentic as possible by casting natives to the different cities.

In this week’s blogpost we would like to use three articles that deal with the media industries in translocal contexts. Daniela Berghahn and Claudia Sternberg look at migrant and diasporic cinema and analyze its frameworks, emphases, approaches and aesthetic choices (12). Daya Kishan Thussu tries to study how Bollywood challenges the American cultural hegemony and thereby questions the term ‘media globalization’ in a transnational context (119). Chua Beng Huat acknowledges the domination of the United States in global consumption, and uses that in order to analyze the regional ‘East Asian Pop Culture’ industry.

For many years now, people have spoken of globalization of culture. Whether you are born in South-America, Europe, or Asia, you are able to wear the same clothes, listen to the same music, and watch the same movies. Yet, the fact that you can eat at a McDonald’s restaurant in Tokyo, wear Levi Strauss & Co. jeans in Mexico-City, or go to a cinema in Nijmegen and see the same film that is currently shown in New York City, is not necessarily globalization of culture, but rather “Americanization”. The origins of most of these cultural products are in the United States. For a long time, series that gained worldwide popularity were often series that were based on American culture. One of the exceptions content-wise is Sense8.

In Sense8, the plot links eight strangers from around the world through a psychic connection. The series goes deep into the lives and cultures of each of these characters. The video material was shot in nine cities around the world, namely Seoul, Nairobi, Chicago, San Francisco, Ice-Land, London, Mumbai, Berlin and Mexico City. All eight protagonists, who are called “Sensates”, are set in a particular city and are natives to that culture. The viewer quickly becomes acquainted with different struggles in different cultures that are connected to themes such as cultural taboos, political structures, religion, gender roles and sexuality.

Interestingly, the directors specifically cast actors who are actual natives from each of those cities, according to the behind-the-scenes documentary Sense 8: Creating the World.

Authenticity in terms of culture and representation seems to be quite important in the creation of this series. That becomes evident when, for instance, the viewer finds out that actress Jamie Clayton - who plays the transgender hacktivist Nomi Marks in Sense 8 - is an actual transgender in real life. There is also not one dominant culture in the series when looking at screen time or aesthetic choices, apart from the fact that English is the spoken language throughout the entire series. Moreover, many American produced series or (comedy) movies, such as Eurotrip, You don’t mess with the Zohan and The Big Bang Theory's character Rajesh Koothrappali, have a tendency to bring forth (unrealistic) racial or cultural stereotypes of the peoples or countries they are trying to depict. This habit only reaffirms the dominance of American culture as the main perspective through which other countries or peoples are viewed.

Sense8 marks the beginning of a new kind of “transnational cinema”. It seeks to do research on transnationalism and uses indigenous people to represent a specific culture as accurate as possible (Berghahn & Stenberg 21). According to scholars J.E. Braziel and A. Mannur, “transnationalism may be defined as the flow of people, ideas, goods and capital across national territories in a way that undermines nationality and nationalism as discrete categories of identification, economic organization, and political constitution” (Berghahn & Stenberg 21).

As a new Netflix series, Sense8 has the potential to reach a broader international audience for a number of reasons. First of all, since it is a Netflix original series, it should be available everywhere in the world where Netflix is accessible, as opposed to locally produced series that are only available in a select number of countries or regions. Secondly, the interest in diversity and cultural backgrounds in Sense 8’s international cast shows “the recognition of the decline of national sovereignty as a regulatory force in global coexistence” (Ezra and Rowden in Berghahn and Sternberg 21). In this case, ‘true globalization’ in movies and series will begin to replace Americanization. Thirdly, Sense8 is inclusive in the sense that it gives audiences from all over the world a better way to easily connect to an array of other cultures, cultures which they would otherwise not easily connect or come in contact with.

Scholar Chua Beng Huat also argues in his article, through the experience of media sociologist Yoshitaka Mori, that exposure to different cultures in series and television can actually have the potential to change a viewer’s perspective on cultures, as opposed to holding onto pre-existing stereotypes (Huat 234). Transnational cinema and the rise thereof in this sense “assumes a new perspective, placing emphasis on ‘the global networks of production, distribution and exhibition with which national cinemas function’” (Berghahn & Stenberg 21).

In conclusion, we have used Sense8 as a case study to demonstrate how this Netflix original series challenges the American hegemony on the global television market and incorporates eight different cultures into one narrative, actually using actors native to those various cities, but at the same time affirms Americanization as it is a US production, uses a typical American narrative style, and uses English as their main language. It is at least a step in the direction of globalization and of defying US dominance.

Proposal: Although Sense8 is a US production, its content challenges the American hegemony on global cultural markets by showing eight different cultures as authentic as possible within that frame.

Works Cited

-  Chua Beng Huat (2011), ‘East Asian Pop Culture’, in: Felicia Chan, Angelina Karpovich & Xin Zhang (eds.), Genre in Asian Film and Television: New Approaches. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 222-245.

-  Daya Kishan Thussu (2012), ‘Cultural Practices and Media Production: The Case of Bollywood’, in: Isabelle Rigoni & Eugénie Saitta (eds.) Mediating Cultural Diversity in a Globalised Public Space. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp 119-134.

-  Daniela Berghahn & Claudia Sternberg (2010), ‘Locating Migrant and Diasporic Cinema in Contemporary Europe’, in: Daniela Berghahn & Claudia Sternberg (eds.), European Cinema in Motion: Migrant and Diasporic Film in Contemporary Europe. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 12-49.

Initials: GK, RO, AL