Series review: 'Sense8' is sensational couch-potato fodder

People are fond of talking about how connected the world has become. Like flies caught in a digital spider web, strands of our lives slacken, strain and multiply as the internet age rolls on.

But what if you were connected to another by more than just data? What if you could physically feel the ecstasy, heartbreak and ennui of someone else?

That's the question posed by the Netflix series Sense8.

Created by some of the same minds that gave us The Matrix , Sense8 follows the lives of eight people across the globe who discover they're connected in profound ways.

After the mysterious suicide of a heroin addict named Angelica, eight disparate people begin to feel some very odd sensations.

A Kenyan taxi driver finds himself feeling the frustrations of a South Korean businesswoman cum cage fighter whose gender is an impediment to her taking over the family empire.

A Chicago-based cop discovers he can tap into the ability of a master safe-cracker from Berlin. And everyone in the cluster - that's what the group is called - finds themselves having out-of- body experiences with people they have never met.

The remaining members of the cluster include a Delhi-based pharmacist on the verge of a loveless marriage, a macho Mexican movie star hiding his sexuality from the world, an Icelandic DJ who has fallen in with the wrong crowd, and a transgender activist with a flair for hacking.

Add creepy bad guy Mr Whispers, intent on lobotomising the whole lot of them, and you have the recipe for a show that's as intriguing as it is ambitious,

A product of the Wachowski siblings, Sense8 features a fair amount of pseudo-philosophical mumbo jumbo but it does raise a lot of interesting questions about the human experience.

It also features some of the best sex scenes on television. Being connected in the way that the cluster is, lovemaking often, not always, turns into a beautifully shot, viscous eight-person flesh pit - what God had in mind when he invented orgies.

The narrative can be a little hard to follow if you're watching with only one eye on the telly. But your attention will be rewarded with hours of entertaining television. Sense8 plays out a bit like a superhero movie without all the clumsy masculinity.

WATCH the trailer for Sense8

Things get dire after each character taps into the talents of another member of the cluster.

Mr Whispers, however, is full of tricks with a shadowy multinational on his side.

To be honest, his motivations for wanting to rid the world of sensates (what these people call themselves) are a little confounding, but his creepy evil serves as an entertaining counterpoint to the cluster's learning-on-the-fly goodness.

If you have no plans for the weekend then Sense8 is an exciting way to hone your couch-potato skills.

• This article was originally published in The Times.