We have the chance to make a difference until our dying day: Save Sense8! Typically, I don’t watch television or movies, or even the news for that matter. This was true even before I became a PhD student- social work, yoga, and now my pets simply take up too much of my time for anything else. Recently, I was blessed with a severe sinus infection that kept me bed-ridden for over a week. There was nothing for me to do, but watch Netflix, too sick to read or move from my bed. As I laid ill, I found and watched my favorite television show of all time…Sense8.
Now there are so many reasons that I absolutely love this show. For example, it’s as if each emotion is choreographed, like a dance, between the main characters. Their intense display of emotion is moving. Additionally, this show is filmed all over the world on location. I got to see for my own eyes the majestic landscape of Iceland, Kenya’s beauty especially in its slums, London Bridge without attacks, Seoul’s sleek architecture and more. I was even transported back to Germany, the country of some of my dearest friends and a place that makes me feel alive with our laughter, openness, and a red moon. However, the most pivotal and pertinent aspect of this show is its message. This message acknowledges the danger created by fear of the unknown, while also proclaiming the need to eliminate othering in society. The psychic cluster of main characters are attacked for a variety of reasons- their sexual orientation and or identity, sexism, and misconceptions associated with poverty. However, it is their psychic abilities more so that place their lives in constant and peril danger. It reminded me of when I was a child and read books from Scholastic that spoke about the hazards of having extrasensory perception (ESP), a phenomenon that is largely debated, but is quite entertaining in books and TV. In those books, like in Sense8, those with ESP are viewed as threats and often killed for being different. Sense8 then encourages its viewers to re-examine their views of the “other”, not as threats, but as co-inhabitants of this earth. It promotes not simply tolerance, but sincere love for those that are considered “different”. However, as displayed in this show, we are all different in one way or another. More important than the differences is how we are the same. We each breathe the same air. We walk. We communicate. We think. Our bodies are composed of the same exact organs, simple matter that is livened by the blood that runs through our veins. We feel, and the most profound of these emotions, is love. We love. To be honest, as a practicing and prudent Catholic, it was difficult for me to watch scenes that manifested as love turned physical. However, I watched and learned that love in all its forms, is the formula for hope and change. Moreover that the embodiment of love, not self-love, but love for all kind is what motivates goodness in society. “It’s not the things we work for, but the things we live for that define our lives”. What we live for is love and that defines us in a beautiful way. What then became shocking to me, was Netflix’s decision to cancel a show with such a deeply moving and necessary message, given the sociopolitical climate of our times. A show that preaches not simply acceptance, but active expressions of kindness to society’s outcasts was cancelled. This show normalizes same-sex love, humanizes and empowers those living in poverty, and shows a women’s capacity to challenge societal norms through her intelligence and physical abilities. However, this show was just this week cancelled. This cancellation made me question, “How far have we actually come as a society?” Whose decision was it to cancel a popular show that spreads love? A recent petition to save the show elicited over 400,000 signatures in a few days, suggesting to me that society at large is not afraid to be different, but that those who hold power want to quiet a message that promotes equality. Quite ironic is that this cancellation came the same week as a massive terrorist attack on London Bridge. More than ever, we need a show that respects differences. A show that guides us on how to love people from all over the world. We need a solution to the lines that divide us. That solution is love, along with a show that disseminates that message. In closing, I send my sympathies to those who experience terror and discrimination across the world. I send my light and love to those families who have lost loved ones in recent attacks across the globe. I want to remind us all that “we have the chance to make a difference until our dying days”.
0 Comments
|
Archives
January 2020
Categories |